Belt Clip W.I.P. (first model)

# 1 16-04-2009 , 07:29 PM

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Working on a belt clip for a local guy who builds lightsabers.

I'm trying to achieve a very realistic look... and so far I can't seem to get a true reflective look..

crits, and pointers welcomed!
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thanks, Eyeball

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# 2 17-04-2009 , 12:56 PM

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at the moment everything just looks too sharp - try using the bevel tool to soften some of those edges. as for reflectivity, you need a reflective shader - back click on your model and assign a blinn shader - then have a play with the reflectivity setting.

arran3D

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# 3 17-04-2009 , 05:12 PM

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I actually have a blinn set to this model..
got reflectivity set to 1.00...

I will mess around with the bevel tool and post an updated pic..

and here's a picture of the actual beltclip I'm modeling :

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# 4 17-04-2009 , 05:45 PM

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having it set to 1 is probably way to high - you probably want it more around 0.3 - 0.4. if you are trying to get it to look like the ref picture than you should have a play with spec and eccentricity settings - that's basic shading tho - if you want it to look good than you are going to have to lay out your UVs and paint specific maps.

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# 5 17-04-2009 , 06:15 PM

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And you also need an interesting environment to reflect. I'm guessing your environment is grey, and since your clip is grey I guess it's working user added image

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# 6 17-04-2009 , 06:27 PM

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Hrmm..
well i put the clip in a box with a checkered pattern, so it would have something to reflect..

but i guess i need to work on my lighting skill..
O.o

thanks for the help guys, will post an update soon.

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# 7 17-04-2009 , 06:31 PM

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It's doing everything I tell it to do..
It just doesn't look very "real"..
-_-

Will try some tweaking.. but I don't really know where to go from here to achieve the look I want.

Put an ambient light in the box.

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# 8 17-04-2009 , 07:26 PM

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Ok, after some tweaking.

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# 9 18-04-2009 , 11:24 PM

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As far as the modelling goes, I think you need to round out those sharp edges like arran said.

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Stay away from ambient lights, they're terrible, they flatten out your lighting. I'm assuming you're using the Maya software renderer, I'd say use Mental Ray instead (and you don't even have to concern yourself with caustics and Global Illumination and all that other good stuff right now) and plop down a mia_material_x metal preset on that sucker.

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# 10 20-04-2009 , 05:23 PM

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Ah, I see.
I will play around with that some then,
thanks.

For some reason, the bevel tool doesnt seem to give me the result i desire..
(could be that I don't know how to use it correctly..)

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