Metal Mania

[Ed]

I modeled this scene in MoI and rendered with a stock HDR only (no emitters, no pins or HDR Light Studio).  In Photoshop I just adjusted the white balance because the HDR has colored lights which gave the metal an undesired color cast.

My goal was to create small, simple everyday objects with as much detail as I could make.  All edges have fillets to avoid that sharp cornered CAD look.

When I was shopping for a render program in 2007 I came across a render made in Hypershot of a simple audio plug.  No splashy post effects, just a raw render.  But because it was a simple (but detailed) everyday object, and I knew how it should look, I was sold.  Of course I switched to KeyShot the moment it was offered. 

Ed

[PhilippeV8]

Awesome.

This would be a VERY nice illustration for a KS manual if you could re-render the same scene, same material, same lighting, but with no fillets.  That does indeed make a BIG difference.

[DriesV]

Very nice!
Great contrast in lighting, lovely floor texture.

[BorislavKostov]

Great shot! I would like to see the rendering without fillets too. Actually how did you used the floor texture? Is it mapped on a surface or is it in the HDR and how does it blend to the background?

[DriesV]

Great shot! I would like to see the rendering without fillets too. Actually how did you used the floor texture? Is it mapped on a surface or is it in the HDR and how does it blend to the background?

I think the ground plane has a radial gradient opacity map.

[guest84672]

Well done, Ed. I remember the audio plugs. That was indeed a great image.

[Speedster]

Fillets are really critical to a realistic rendering, but they can usually be really small, like .001 - .002. The E rings are a perfect expamle.  All they are doing is capturing catch lights.  In this render, however, the star and lock washers should have sharp edges.  Beautiful work!
Bill G

[Ed]

... the star and lock washers should have sharp edges.

Actually I had these objects and my digital calipers and magnifier in hand as I modeled them.  The star and lock washers appear to have been tumbled before they were plated.  On close examination the edges were not sharp at all.

Ed

[Ed]

Thanks everyone for your comments.  The floor is a flat plane with a plastic material (roughness 0.08) and a carbon fiber normal map: Carbon Normal.tif  scale 0.01, bump height 0.16.

I wanted a fine texture to contrast with the smooth metal objects and it also gives an interesting broken reflection pattern.  I also found that if I used a smooth, untextured floor, I would get some color banding in the render, especially with strong light.  The fine texture minimizes that effect.

Ed

[feher]

Nice work Ed. Would love to see you push this one more. Use some color maps to really fine tune the metals. A little scratch here and there...etc.
I hope you continue with this one.
Thanks for sharing.
Tim

[Ed]

Good point Tim.  I did experiment with the only scratch artwork I have, and wasn't happy with the result.  It was made for heavy battlefield use

I'd really like to find (or make) a scratch label that duplicates the fine random direction patina (not overt scratches) found on hardware that is still new, but has micro-scratches from handling and rubbing against adjacent parts.

Ed

[BorislavKostov]

Thanks for the info

[swashbuckler]

what a great image, that looks fantastic!

[Ed]

I took Tim's advice and made some scratch bump maps.  Applied scratches to all objects except the KS logo.  Compare to my original render at the bottom of this thread.

Ed

[PhilippeV8]

Personaly, I would tone the scratches down to 50% of what you got now.  (I did a quick test in Photoshop by overlaying your new image with the old one and play with transparency of the new one.)  Except for the big silver nut that it in the center.  On that one it looks OK.  Only there try something to get ridd of the "pattern" you now get on the thread of it.