View Full Version : Hard Surface Shaders
Does anyone have a good source for a tutorial on how to setup a decent shader for either rendering hard surface models or, even better, a shader that looks better than the standard shaders in the viewport on hard surface models? I'd be interested in either as I'm looking to present some model shots on my site soon.
I'd assume anything render-wise would utilize a surface shader with AO. Apart from that, any info would be helpful.
Fingus
11-05-2009, 07:24 PM
You want realtime results or rendered results? What sort of hard surface objects are you talking about, and can you show them to us? Which program are you using?
It's kinda hard to give good advice with such a brief description.
At this point, render shaders would be what I'm curious about. I'm using Maya/Mental Ray, tho I'm open to switching to a different render package. It's a military vehicle, you can see it here...
http://gamestepper.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3508&page=5
I'm mostly looking for any techniques that bring out the small details of hard surface... sorry it's so ambiguous, I'm mostly interested in any techniques that people are having success with for showing this kinda thing off.
SpiralFace
11-13-2009, 01:25 PM
In all honesty, any Standard shader with a little bit of specular or reflection and a subtle noise pass on its diffuse and bump value will do for model pimping for reels. Unless you are going for something VERY specific.
For highquality renders for models, sometimes it has more to do with the lights then it has to do with the Shaders.
If you have any glass canopy's or reflective things on your model, simply stick a basic shader with a reflection value in and put a self lit environment sphere in the scene (Make it renderable in reflections but not renderable to camera to have the reflections show up on your model, but keep you scene clean.
Pump out an AO, Velocity, and Depth pass with your render, and comp them all together. Stick a VERY subtle motion blur with the Velocity pass, and put some rack focus on your depth pass and it will make the high quality model look more natural without extensive work needed in the shaders.
Sure some custom shaders can do wonders, but only really if you have the good light set up to compliment them.
In the end, the light rig set up is much more important to properly showcase a model then the shader is for a pre-rendered "Grey" model.