Originally posted by kbrown
And remember that lighting has a huge impact on the final result too...
Exactly!
Good lighting can make, or break a shot.
For the specs on one type of basic metal setting, try this:
1. Create a Blinn Shading material
2. Color at default, or a little lower.
3. Diffuse at 0.3
4. Eccentricity at 0.1
5. Specular rolloff at 0.9
6. Reflectivity at default
7. For the Specular color, use a basic 2D Fractal with a Frequency ratio of 2.0
Now, light it using a basic 3 point lighting stup for a test render, and play with it from there.
Basic metal most always begins with a Blinn with a low diffuse value, and a medium-high specular value.
The fractal map is there to create/help break-up the highlights.
Good luck, and ALWAYS check-out, and investigate other metal shaders to learn why they work for certain situations.
No metal, even chrome, is EVER super clean.
There is ALWAYS some sort of grime that breaks up the highlights.
Hope this has helped!
Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com