Rendering a crystal clear glass object

[DMC]

I'm in need of rendering a crystal clear glass object (such as an ornament or wine glass), smooth and sparkle shine. The object is built with NURBS and rendered with the texture 'glass clear'. When shown in Final Quality Renderworks, the object is so clear that it's invisible. After some tweaking, I'm able to get a solid gray object. I'm looking for the settings to get a sparkle clear glass object. I'm sure the lighting and OpenGL settings also effect the results.

[Guest Wes Gardner]

Maybe like this? This is Clear Glass set to Reflectivity - Mirror - 100%, Transparency - Glass - 90%. You can tweek these as required...

[Tamsin Slatter]

We made a movie on working with glass - take a look at here:

http://www.vectorworks-training.co.uk/buy-vectorworks/training-for-design-vectorworks-training-gifts/

It's the fifth movie from the top on the page...

[DMC]

Thank you, I'm getting there. The other trick is with the lighting, background, and output resolution.

[ray isaacs]

dmc,

i use different methods depending on what effect i want. for crystal-like effects, such as wine glasses, i do something that is counter-intuitive: set the color to black, then push the transparency to 95%. that way you get a nearly perfectly clear object that you can also see.

bottom line, there are many ways to do it. i sure you will come up with some of your own.

cheers,

ray

[Tamsin Slatter]

Using absorption within the Glass transparency shader is nice. You need to set a thickness for the absorption, but it means that the glass looks different as it's thickness changes across the surface and the viewing angle.