Simple material graph question

[dmorcos]

Hey guys,

so I have a piece of armor with a paint base material. Im wanting to add raindrops onto the material. I have a water alpha which Im assuming goes into the 'bump' slot in the material graph, but the alpha also needs to be a liquid material as well. When I try to connect them, it doesn't work. How should I set it up in the material graph? Hope to get an answer soon

[mattjgerard]

would really help to see what your water maps look like. sometimes you need to invert them to get them to work right. Can you post the project?

[dmorcos]

Hey Matt! It's just a test project. The water map is simple--background black and water is white. Do I need to invert them so that the water is black and the background is white?

[TGS808]

Using a normal map instead of a standard bump map will get you pretty good results with a fairly simple setup in the material graph. This is just black paint with the normal added in the bump. It looks good on pretty much any surface. I've used it on painted surfaces and on glass and it looks good on both. You can make your own normal map or search for one. I've attached the one I used in the example so you can try it out. When using it (or any normal map), make sure to check the "Normal Map" box seen at the bottom right of the material graph window. If it's not checked, it won't work properly.

[dmorcos]

Wow! Thank you for sharing this! I really appreciate that! Will definitely utilize this

[mattjgerard]

That is the one checkbox I usually check last Good catch and thanks for sharing the map. that's a good one.