THEPRAYINGMANTIS

I recently purchased the VM ARCHITECTURAL MATERIALS VOLUME and so far I've been getting unsatisfactory results especially with the metal shaders. Attached is an image with all the default shaders mapped on cylinders and as you can see, there seems to be a lot of noise and they just don't look metallic. I'm using very high VRAY settings (1500 LIGHT CACHE, HIGH IRR., noise thesh. 0.002 etc.) and globally lit with a large HDR image. I'm feeling buyers remorse because I'm not getting my moneys worth. What am I doing wrong?

Attached Images

METAL TEST.jpg (133.4 KB, 47 views)

Brian Smith

well i don't mean to be blunt, but you can't expect materials to magically look right if you don't have all the other things correct. the lighting needs to be conducive to showing off the materials correctly, the materials need objects to reflect, the render settings have to be proper, and even within the VM materials you have to use proper settings.

the VM materials are great, but if you don't know the fundamentals of at least those things I mentioned, it won't do you much good. this is why somebody giving somebody else "good settings" will never be much of a help. knowing vray (or any other program really) means knowing how to troubleshoot when you dont get what you want.

just some quick and basic advice...use the following:

• use a direct light (vray sun or standard direct light)
• create a basic scene with differently shaped objects (both for the materials and for objects to be reflected)
• use the IRmap/LC combo with low settings to allow for very fast test renders
• use exponential color mapping (with affect background off and clamp output & subp. mapping enabled)
• enable the environment override and use the default light blue color
• make the background color be the same light blue color
• leave everything else at default value unless you know exactly what it does

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Brian Smith
www.3dats.com
3D Architectural Training Solutions