Specular "effect" in Falcon Renderer

Specular "effect" in Falcon Renderer

Hello everyone,

I am wondering if anyone has come up with a pretty solid protocol for how to create straightforward specular effect in Falcon. I know the Specular node is disabled in Falcon. And I understand that a Specular effect is a type of Reflection. BUT, to simply place a Specular texture image into the reflection node does not create the same effect. Sometimes I have to alter a Specular texture manually and add global reflection blur to the texture. This does NOT create similar results AND now my render time goes up due to the reflection blur. I have not yet experimented with adding a modified Specular texture to the Reflection Blur node as well. Perhaps I should try that as well.

Any tips from any others playing around with an EASY specular effect (using old specular textures) in Falcon?

In Cheetah, the Specular appears to be a very fast calculation. In Falcon (with Reflection blur) the effect is not really what I expect and adds to the render time.

Lately, I've been using the Cheetah renderer when I want that specific specular effect. But, in animation this is a compromise because motion blur is currently only in Falcon.

I'm sure I can figure this out, but I felt a forum thread specifically on tips on how to easily use Specular textures in Falcon would be helpful. The "Specular Size" is something I use to help define the breadth of my specular effect. I actually have no idea how to translate "Specular Size" within the Reflection Node. Any insights?

I´m sure you can get away with "Reflection" + "Reflection blur".
Otherwise prove us.

Cheers
Frank

Hi guys,

I'm also experimenting with creating a plastic look (specular) with falcon (reflection+blur), but I wonder how "speculars" relate to metals?
how do I achieve "specular" reflections on metals?
(btw: love the loft creator!)

Thanks,
Filip c

edit: found this, but doest help much: http://www.manufato.com/?p=902

Just use reflection + reflection blur + visible lights / glowing objects. Same as in Cheetah with specular turned off, which is pretty much how I always worked anyway.

Thanks Pod!

Thanks guys, but I still don't quite get this Falcon.

I downloaded that Spec2.jas. There is a ball, with only "visible in reflections" on and everything else off. And a point light inside that ball. That works well.

However, I'd like to use distant lights mostly. Then I played a while, and learned that light sources ARE visible in refletions! But not on Metal shader type materials. Except some times they are, like the golden ball in the Spec2.jas. I'm lost a little bit.

I miss some tutorial about "from Cheetah renderer to Falcon". There isn't much in the manual. Even a short list would help, what works in Cheetah and what works in Falcon.

Hi pasi

Actually it's not that difficult with falcon. That with the light sources is only a problem with the metal and the dielectric shader. If you use the default material shader and create a metal there you will have the reflections as expected.

The problem with distant light is that they're non-physical, so they don't appear in reflections. The simplest option is to use a spherical area light far away (and turn on geometry). It will appear in reflections as you expect. You can either turn off attenuation or jack up the strength to some sufficiently huge value.

I learned that by using a non-zero Rougness value in Metal type material, you'll get speculars, even with distant light.

That works similar way as Reflection blur in normal materials. It expands the highlight so it becomes visible and larger.

The simplest option is to use a spherical area light far away (and turn on geometry)

Click to expand...

Depending on the setup you can get black streaks in the render with falcon (probably the shadow of the area light geometry).

If that happens you have to change the position of the area light or just make it bigger (which, of course, makes it brighter) ...

pasi said:

I learned that by using a non-zero Rougness value in Metal type material, you'll get speculars, even with distant light.

That works similar way as Reflection blur in normal materials. It expands the highlight so it becomes visible and larger.

Click to expand...

That’s very strange. It should not work at all but I verified that it does. (It does not work with the cheetah renderer!). And changing the softness of the light does not impact the “speculate” effect. I think it might be a bug.

Hi René,

with Cheetah3D 7.3beta1 Martin has introduced a new PBR shader that features specular and roughness inputs that work somewhat similar to the default material specular color and size.
Maybe you want to check that out!