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How to get stronger highlights on light grey objects?

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 11:40 am
by Prowler
Hi,

I have a lot of light grey objects (Plastic Reflectance: 192/197/199, U/V roughness 0,2). If I set the specular color to 55/55/55 to be under 255 in each channel there are no realy nice highlights. With higher specular color values the highlights are getting better but the noise is increasing and the manual does also not recommend this. So how do I get better highlights on already bright surfaces?

Thanks in advance!

Prowler

P.S.: I'm using Cinemaxwell 0.6c with Maxwell 1.2.2a.

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 12:07 pm
by mverta
You know what... the whole "maximum level =255" thing really shouldn't be adhered to in its current form. I say this because for things like your plastic object, there's often a few layers of various materials, in reality. Like a base color/material and a shiny topcoat of some kind. To get this in Maxwell right now, you have to violate the 255 rule. A lot of the best renders you've seen here of things like ceramic and plastic totally violate that.

For the present moment, continue to think like a CG artist: make it look right. Turn up your specular values, and be a bit more patient in the render. Also, watch your UV roughness values...

_Mike

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 4:08 pm
by Mihai
When you say Plastic Reflectance, do you mean it's diffuse color?

The u/v roughness is a little high, that adds to the fading effect...

Posted: Thu Aug 04, 2005 5:30 pm
by Prowler
@mverta

Thanks for your answer - if there is no other solution I will "violate the 255 rule" ;-)

@Mihai

In the Cinema 4D plugin the color for maxwell plastics is called "Reflectance color". A lower U/V roughness unfortunately doesn't help a lot by light grey objects...