Suggestion on material assignment

[shushens]

Hello everyone, I am an XSI newbie

Here is my first attempted scene ever. As you can see, though the model does not look too bad, due to bad material assignment and scene setup, things are looking quite unpresentable. Please suggest me how to make things better!

http://www.filefactory.com/file/8fee4c

[CiaranM]

Hi,
please post a screenshot. You'll get better advice that way!

[shushens]

Okay! here goes:

http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/259/renderuc7.jpg


http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/6690/render2gh0.jpg

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/963/render3ov1.jpg

I have used Strauss in here. I also tried with Architectural Material and I know it has the capability, but probably due to my lack of experience, I am not being able to make realistic metal. The third screenshot looks like cheaply painted aluminium, whereas I want stainless steel kind of look.

[csaez]

Do you have some environment to reflections in yours materials or in the scene? i think this can be you problem :)

[shushens]

It already had HDRI. I took a sphere, cut it in half, assign cylindrical projection, etc. etc. you already know the details. This time, I added some mosaic tiles. That seems to have improved the render overall.

http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/6286/95717679ir3.jpg
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/7360/88598558ku9.jpg

Any suggestions?

[cryptosporidium]

overally youre on a good way but there are some issues. Black parts are too black. you should see some details and shading. in reality you can never see solid black objects even if lighting is low. on the other side metal looks too bright. If you want to have good looking polished metal you have to give it a contrast. Give it some meaningful photographic environment (hdri will works best). Also it seems that your metal material reflects with the same intensity over all its surface. That way you can create something extremely reflective like chrome, but most real materials dont look like that. Facing angles are allways less reflective than perpendicular angles. Also it looks like you have bright color in diffuse. For highly reflective surfaces you should use quite dark color or even black. Generaly the more reflective surface is the darker diffuse you should use.

[shushens]

Much appreciated! I will keep that in mind! Thank you!