Earbuds - foam

[zooropa]

Hi. I am kind of new using KS. Is there anyone experimenting in how to recreate these type of materials?

Please check attachment sample

[Will Gibbons]

I'd use a small cellular or noise procedural texture with a fairly aggressive bump height. As for the edges... you could try a custom opacity map, but that's going to be a challenge to explain if you're pretty new to KeyShot.

[zooropa]

Thanks Will I really appreciate your help. I will start with your advice (noise). Regarding the opacity map is there anyway I could get more information regarding what you mean?
Thanks so much

[Will Gibbons]

Yeah. It's a pretty limiting technique, but you could take this image, turn it into an image matte using Photoshop to make it pure white and black where the area outside of the foam is pure black and the foam is pure white. This would be applied as an opacity mask. It would make anything that's pure black (in your image texture) invisible to the camera, removing a tiny bit of material to make a jagged edge. It won't look perfect, but you could technically get it to work. Of course, it would only work for one view, so it's very limiting in that regard. Also, since we don't offer booleans, if it's a solid piece of geometry, it'll cut through and you won't see any thickness.

You can see where I tested this theory out below and the settings I used.

Hope that gives you an idea!

[zooropa]

Thanks Will. I think I am not worried that much about the jagged contour. I can even model it like that.
Maybe I am more worried about the actual pad material in the sense of how to make it foamy. Should I use SSS ?
Thanks a lot.

[Will Gibbons]

You could try a translucent material, but it may create some strange results. I just did this with a diffuse material. What's your 3D application? If you can model it... you might be better off using a displacement map before bringing that geometry into KS, then in KS, you could use some translucent material with a very low amount of translucency. Worth a try.

[designgestalt]

Hey Will,
that is an awesome trick   !!!!!!!
thanks for sharing !!
cheers
designgestalt

[zooropa]

Thanks a lot. I am bringing it from Solidworks. Maybe I can try to re model it in Modo.

Thanks a lot!!!!

[zooropa]

I have been experimenting with the 'velvet' material. As the help documents describe 'not an easy approach' .
I am quite pleased with the core of the sphere. If you look at the center the material gets the effect desired.
The noise+bump its nice and the brighter edges give a nice realism to the 'foamy' material. I understand the earpad I attached next to it as a sample its even more 'velvetish', but I am interested in something aiming towards the foam than fabric. The problem that I can not solve is why the material gets flattened on the perimeter of the sphere. I would like the material keep the effect located at the center of the sphere. It might seem that the material behave that way when the camera is facing it 0/90 degress (Camera normal to the sphere front view).
I am wondering if the 'problem' has to do with the shape more than to the material tweaking.

If anyone has experimented with the 'velvet' material I appreciate some advice.
Other doubt that I have is if this material could be ''beaten'' by  jumping to a 'advance' or metalic one.

Thanks a lot!!!

[mattjgerard]

just a quick hunch is that is some sort of fresnel effect that changes the appearance as the face of the object turns away from the camera.

[Speedster]

I'm facing a similar situation, but mine needs to be a very, very open cell foam, with large cells. You can almost see through it.  I'm not there yet, but my plan is to try to create (in SolidWorks) a series of "nested" offset surfaces, like the famous Russian nesting dolls.  Then treat each to a spattered (or something) opacity map on a base material.  I'm hoping it will look open and have depth, not just an exterior surface.  I'll keep you posted.
Bill G

[zooropa]

Regarding the velvet material mmm? Someone use it ? Do you know how to get the effect constant and not fading out towards the borders?

Thanks.

[DriesV]

Here is my attempt using Plastic (Cloudy) in KeyShot 7.
The idea is to use a Plastic (Cloudy) base material with a semi-transparent Plastic Label on top.
Plastic (Cloudy) with a Refractive Index of 1 will look like a perfectly uniform, nonspecular "foam". A Plastic Label can be used to add roughness, bump and specular details to the material.

I attached the scene and a sample rendering.

Let me know how this works for you.

Dries

[DriesV]

And the same material on a piece of corrugated foam.

Dries

[fario]

wow!!!!

Thank you Dries