Subject: Shiny Metal Reflections
From: [email-masked] (Christopher Stewart)
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 19:07:50 -0700

This was submitted to my web page (in the tagline below). If anybody
has any other (on topic ;-) pearls of wisdom they'd like to share, please
do. Instant fame and all the <insert your sexual preference here> you
can handle, guarenteed!

In a message dated Thu, 11 Apr 96 13:15 [email-masked] writes:

C> NAME: Chris Rakoczy
C> I had to do an animation of a soda can for a Coca-Cola video and
C> was having trouble getting the reflection on the bare aluminum to
C> to look "right."  Then I thought about and tried this; it'll
C> work for aluminum, chrome, brass, gold - anything very shiny and
C> reflective:

C> 1) Go to the local software store and buy one of those the $12 CD-ROM's
C> that have about 1000-2000 clip PHOTOS on it.  Find the directory or
C> location of the pictures of mountain scenes, large rolling hills, 
C> lakes with trees, anything with a good proportion of sky and ground
C> and some hilights of water, snow, stone, clouds, etc.  Why? Things we
C> see around us that are reflective don't reflect fuzzy grey blobs, they
C> reflect REAL objects in the environment they're in.

C> 2) Copy this image onto your drive and bring it into Lightwave Layout.
C> Apply this image as a REFLECTION MAP to the surface in question.  Set
C> the REFLECTIVITY level medium to high (experiment for perfection). Set
C> the DIFFUSE very low and make the COLOR saturated yellow for gold, black
C> for chrome, dark grey for moderately polished steel or aluminum.  Set
C> SHININESS medium.  Why? This makes the object reflect a 'real' environ-
C> ment.  The color will tint the reflection, but if it is too pale your
C> object will not look right.  Think about a mirror: perfectly reflective.
C> Nice and bright, right.  But in a dark room its black.  When designing
C> surfaces, think about their properties in an ABCENSE of light as well as
C> in the light of your scene.

C> Hope this helps someone out there.  'Til next time, happy rendering.
C> Chris Rakoczy

     Good one. I own VistaPro and am considering KPT Bryce or The World
Construction Set. All these can be used to generate the desired pics
for reflection. Keep 'em coming.

     This tip will make it into the next page update, about two weeks.

Christopher

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