How to make Aluminum?

[Adman]

Can anyone suggest a step by step method for creating an aluminum material/texture. This will be for a soft drink can without any labels. Please go easy as I'm still a newbie.

[MmAaXx]

for create the alluminium u can use an alluminium texture that you can find in internet... just apply that on your 3d model... or not? :ph34r:

[Adman]

Can you recommend a site that has such a texture? I'll look again...

[patrick.n]

You'll be better off taking a good look at the kind of can you want to make and working out what gives it its aluminiumness. Lighting, environment and diffuse reflectivity will give you more than an off the shelf texture.
Patrick

[Adrian Lazar]

Hey!
Try to combine a texture as Adman suggested (i'm using this (http://www.cgtextures.com/) grate website) and a more complex shader like t2s illumination (http://www.tek2shoot.com/knowledge-base/softimage-xsi/t2s-illumination.html) that have some nice presets to use as a starting point. Also lighting and reflections are very important as patrick.n said.
Find a good reference can help a lot also!

[Adman]

Thanks. I'll check those links out. I've been fooling with trying to create a realistic aluminum material/texture for my soda can model, but I'm not satisfied and I'll keep digging.

I was hoping that someone might offer a step by step procedure for creating such a thing. I'm very much in the learning stage.

[Adman]

Hey!
Try to combine a texture as Adman suggested (i'm using this (http://www.cgtextures.com/) grate website) and a more complex shader like t2s illumination (http://www.tek2shoot.com/knowledge-base/softimage-xsi/t2s-illumination.html) that have some nice presets to use as a starting point. Also lighting and reflections are very important as patrick.n said.
Find a good reference can help a lot also!

Those are great links, btw. Thanks!

[Adman]

Fwiw... I went back to square one and used the platinum preset and adjusted the color and ambient to .713 and .762http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com/media/alum3.jpg. It also has an hdri image applied.

I am experimenting with additional shaders... blinn, ambient occlusion, dielectric, etc.

Yesterday I tried to apply a dielectric shader but the options on the blinn were grayed out. Why?

[Reini]

Use an architectural material!

Reini

[Adman]

http://www.DavisAdvertisingInc.com/media/Alum4.jpg

[Adman]

On the above, I used an aluminum texture I found and adjusted the specular.

I don't really see evidence of the texture so I'll fool with it some more. This is how it stands for now.

I'll google "architectural texture" to see what you are referring to. ??? (I'm a newbie -- I'm not a full-time animator by any means).

[Zac-Donald]

architectural texture is more of a material and its included in xsi, nodes > illumination > architectural

[Adman]

architectural texture is more of a material and its included in xsi, nodes > illumination > architectural

Thanks, I hadn't come across that before... I applied it to the ambient and I'm experimenting with it... so far I don't see much difference (it slowed down the render region a good bit), but I'll keep trying.

I'll also try plugging in the aluminum texture image to the architectural material as well...

[Adman]

Hopefully, this is getting better... Any comments (good or bad) much appreciated!

http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com/media/Alum5.jpg

[Zac-Donald]

Looking better, but getting a good metal render is all about the HDRI :wink:
Could you show a zoomed out view of the can? right now it looks like it could be a bit lighter.

[Adman]

Thanks for commenting... I have tried two or three Hdri images, this is the one I went with for now, but I'll try some more. I was focusing mostly on trying to get the alum "feel" right. I was getting too wrapped up in complexity I believe and the renders were taking forever... so I went back to square one. Definitely a good learning process for me.

I'll be working on additional modeling and animation of this thing most of the day today, but if I have time, I'll post another render...

Btw... it is a new kind of soda can (patented) -- all aluminum, reclosable with a hidden ad message, you just turn the tab after popping it open to close it back up. It is getting good press/industry response so far. :)

[Adman]

Here is a current render...

http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com/media/Alum6sm.jpg

[Adman]

fwiw... I bumped up the ambient color (and the shadow color minimally) in the ambient occlusion aspect of the architectural material shader... brightening it up a tad.

http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com//media/Alum7.jpg

[Shine]

Your reflectance is too sharp. Try turning up glossy reflection to 3 and samples to 4 and see how it looks. Else the T2S shaders would probably be better for this.

http://www.labnol.org/wp/images/2007/06/346074327_ba645affdd_m.jpg

I found this nice image which shows it well. Also note the lighting helps a lot to sell the believability of the shader.

[Adman]

I definitely plan on fooling with the shaders more... for now, here is a render showing how it basically comes together, fwiw (there are some holes and other details missing or wrongly positioned which will be fixed.)

http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com/media/alum8.jpg

[Unaided]

Usually, products with aluminum, have linear anistropic specular. You can use anisotropic shader, or blinn if you don't want linear or radial anistropic specular. Diffuse is a few more of 50% of his reflection diffuse. If you choose a cool gray, you sure to increment + 0.5 luminosity value. And similar value for ambient, and you can try a warm gray to compensate the diffuse hue.

The reflection is another important property for aluminum. Between 15% - 50% reflectivity is effective for starting, and more important.. active soft reflection, or blurring a reflection pass for you aluminum parts. Also you use incidence with inverse value active, for reflectivity channel.

[Adman]

I have no idea of why the "color wheel" graphic is showing through as if the part is transparent... but here is a current render, fwiw. (lots of work left)

http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com/media/explode.jpg

[Unaided]

This is rendering with Softimage XSI??

Fillets are very important for shows specular running over surface, specially on close-up.

My advice is which you activate property by property for control independently. For example deactivate, specular, tranaparency, reflection, translucency and self-luminosity, and working with diffuse. When you are satisfied with diffuse, activate specular and adjust it, then activate reflection, etc.

When you have more experience with a same shader, you can manipulate a combination of properties at same time with precision.

[Adman]

Yes, render (region) with Softimage|xsi 6.02.

My immediate problem is getting rid of the apparent transparency of the objects. I have turned off transparency everywhere I can find a setting for it in the material manager render tree.

Maybe it has something to do with the texture projection?

[Adman]

H'mm the image is on both sides of the object. How do I get rid of it on the bottom of the disk? Back to the help files...

[Adman]

Got rid of the transparency by just dragging a platinum material preset to it.

Still don't understand how to get rid of the projection on the bottom of the disk.

http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com/media/explode2.jpg

[Adman]

Fwiw... and to provide an "audit trail"... I figured out why it was on both sides... I believe it was part of the material instead of projecting on the material via a texture map. Anyway, here is the fix...

http://www.davisadvertisinginc.com/media/explode3.jpg

[Adman]

Any suggestions or tips on adding condensation to the can to make it look more realistic?