Material Settings - Reflection

This Editing Material Settings - Reflection article will explain some material settings.

Reflection Overview

The reflections help to add realism to this model.
This is boring and flat without reflections.

One of the best things that you can do to improve a rendering is to focus on the details. It’s the details that can increase realism of a rendering and one detail that many users over look is adding reflection to all the materials in a model that need it. Not only that, but you must also apply the correct kind and the correct intensity of a reflection to a material.

Users normally apply reflections to the noticeable objects in a rendered scene such as a mirror but often forget about the small objects like a table top, or a door knob or other accessories. Spending time on these details can make the difference between a boring, flat image and an engaging, realistic one.


Material Settings

The ability to precisely control the material settings is a very powerful and unique feature to IRender nXt. Below, are some images that explain many of the differences between some of the customizable material settings.

‘Edit Material’ Box

Inside the ‘Edit Material’ Box, under ‘Defaults’ and ‘Reflecations and Highlights’, is where the changes to the material settings are made.

Edit material box.png


Default Settings

The Material Wizard makes it easy to create and edit materials. The Wizard contains many predefined settings for a variety for materials.

Matte Default Setting

Only used 'Matte' default settings

Plastic Default Setting

Only used 'Plastic' default setting - Can see slight highlights on the egdes of the tea pot.
Reflective Default Setting
Only used 'Reflective' default setting - Can start to see the reflections of the boxes in the tea pot - Highlights are starting to appear
 Metal Default Setting
Only used 'Metal' default setting - The relfections on the tea pot are very clear and sharp now - The highlights are very strong now.

Metallic

'Metallic' changes the color of a reflected object based on the color of the reflective object and the objects being reflected.

Metal - Metallic - Yellow Tea Pot
Used 'Metal' default setting - In the reflections on the tea pot, the blue checker pattern is shown as black. That is because the color yellow has no blue in it therefore blue is reflected as black.
 Metal - Metallic - Blue Tea Pot
Used 'Metal' default setting - In this example the blue tea pot is reflecting the color red from the checker pattern as black. That is because the color blue has no red in it therefore red is reflected as black.

Another Example

Here is another example. Both large spheres are a light blue metal (the same color). The sphere on the left is marked metallic and reflects lights and other objects in the color of the sphere itself. The sphere on the right is not marked metallic, so the underlying color of the sphere does not effect the reflection at all. (Both spheres are 100% reflective. If they were less reflective, then underlying color would effect the final appearance.)

Non-Metallic Reflection

Metal - NON Metallic - Yellow Tea Pot
Used 'Metal' default setting - With the 'metallic' setting off, all colors are accurately relfected.
 Metal - NON Metallic - Blue Tea Pot
Used 'Metal' default setting - With the 'metallic' setting off, all colors are accurately relfected.

Sharpness

'Sharpness' controls how clearly objects can be seen reflecting off of an object.

Metal - Sharpness 1.0
Used 'Metal' default setting - With a Sharpness of 1.0, reflections are maximally clear.
 Metal - Sharpness 0.2
Used 'Metal' default setting - With a Sharpness of 0.2, reflections are very unclear.

Glossy

'Glossy' turns off the mirror like relfections and only leaves the highlights.

Glossy - Metallic
Used 'Metal' default setting - With glossy turned on, you can see that there are now no reflections on the tea pot, only highlights.
 Glossy - NON Metallic
Used 'Metal' default setting - This time glossy is turned on, but metallic turned off, the highlights are now white.

See also