Realistic Materials and making a rounded rectangle

Realistic Materials and making a rounded rectangle

Hey im new to Cheetah3d and im trying to create an iPod.
Ive made the basic shape and all that i just need some help creating a shiny metal looking material and a shiny reflective sort of material for the screen. How would i go about creating that?

Also as you can see by my image below my iPod is very square and dose not have rounded corners like the real thing, how do i make it look rounded?

Thaks

iPod.gif
 
Hey hey,

Probably the best way to get a rounded rectangle with Cheetah is to go into Edge Mode, select the top and bottom outside edge of the iPod, make them Creases, then Catmull-Clark subdivide. Remove the creases, fix up the shape if it looks a bit off, then subdivide again (assuming you're on a reasonably new machine). Play around with how it looks, but generally speaking, subdivide is probably the best way to do this.

Read through the documentation, too - it's really invaluable for working out how to do things that you don't understand.

For the metal, try grabbing a free metal texture from somewhere - preferably the cleanest you can find. If that doesn't work, create a new SuperMat, make a 64x64 dark grey JPEG and set it to the SuperMat's texture, set the reflectiveness to 0.7 or so and the Specular Type to "Metal". Try that, and see how it looks - should be fine.

For the screen, I personally would Photoshop something to look as much like an iPod screenshot - or better yet, try to find one on the net and get permission to use it. Then create an OpenGL Mat, and place it on that. However, it's not the crystal display itself that's reflective, it's the plastic on top: so create a 100% transparent SuperMat, with 0.5 or so reflectiveness, and apply it to a plane that sits just a little bit above the display. Should work nicely.


Sorry I can't provide screenshots, but I'm rendering and it would be like wading in tar =(
 
Hi,
one additional note. If you set up a reflective material you must also have a environment which could be reflected in the material. Otherwise the material wouldn't look to reflective. :cry:

An easy way to create an environment which could be reflected by the object are HDRI backgrounds (see the Paw.jas example which comes with Cheetah3D) or environment maps.

The iPod from Adrian Ward was made by using a HDRI texture.
http://homepage.mac.com/mwengenm/Cheetah3D/Images/gallery/iPod2.jpg

By,
Martin
 
Ahhh thanks ill try all those sugestions and then let you know how i get got on. I feel stupid, i knew i had to use the subdivision tool but i had meen using the Modifyer one instead of the Creator.:S

[edit] is there away to make is so the corners are not rounded off so much? but still look smooth.
Also anyone know a good site for realistic materials?

Thanks
 
Hey, it's starting to look good! =)

What you might also want to do to improve the quality of the image is to make the white plastic of the iPod reflective... just a little. The same goes for the metal base, only it should be darker and maybe 50% reflective (if you play around with it, you won't even need a texture for it).

Finally, if you want to see how it looks with some more realistic lighting, try adding a Radiosity tag to your camera, turning off Camera Lighting, and then adding a pointlight that you place wherever you want.

So far, though, it's looking very good. =)
 
hey, Thanks

To make it reflective do i need a sourounding image, like an image thats reflected? environment map i think its called.
 
You don't need an environment map - indeed, using one means you risk having the iPod reflect things that obviously aren't there, which probably isn't what you're looking for. For ultrarealistic lighting, try using one of the included HDRI Maps in the Cheetah/Examples/HDRI folder - the iPod will reflect that, and look quite nice too.

All you need to do to make a Material reflect is to make sure it's a SuperMat, and then adjust the Reflectivity.
 
Ok here are two more updated images.
The first one is just the same with a few little tweaks and lighed by an area light. This one is starting to look much better. The metal base is looking good now aswell. I just need to make the white part of the case more shiny.

ipod.jpg


The second is the same image with a HDRI and radiosity tag, lighted with a point light. The lighting seems really wrong on this one, ive tryed moving the light around but cannont get it looking good. Any tips? It just seems to bright in places. Ive tryed lowering the intensity to 0.3 and moving the light really high upwards without much luck

ipod-hrdi.jpg
[/img]
 
Is your camera light still on? Click on the camera icon and disable it. Or you can try and turn down the intensity of the hdri map. For the light, you can turn on shadows. It's looking better every time!! Keep up the good work!

regards,

Peer
 
wow, much better!! Maybe you could turn down the reflection a bit. Although when I look at my own iPod, it is quite shiny, but not as much as in your model (ok, my iPod is a little scratched after 2 years intensive use :p )
 
ok im re-rendering it as i type this with less reflection...
Now i have to figur out the best way to get the text onto the wheel.
Anyone have any ideas?
Would photoshopping it be the easiest?

Thanks for all the help guys
 
Geez... you outta see my iPod... after coming off my MTB going to work last year and landing squarely on top of my iPod when I hit the ground from 1.5 to 2 metres high... it is nicely dented up on the stainlees steel back.... and a grey spot on the screen... but for the moment still seems to work... altho the HD seems to whine quite a bit...

about the model... looking great... just turn down the reflectance a bit... may even need to go down to 0.3 or something like that...

cheers
Trevor
 
Another update: Less reflection....

ipod-hdri3.jpg


It looks a lil dirty to me, not really bright and white like a real ipod
 
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