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render a mirror object


alfresco

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Once you've created the 3D object, select it and go to the Render tab of the OIP. In the texture dropdown there should(?) be a default texture that is something like "Glass-Mirror," though I'm not sure what VW2012 had.

 

You can also create your own texture. Below is a screencap of 2017's default mirror texture, with the various shader settings, which can of course be adjusted depending on how you want the mirror to look.

 

See below...

 

Edited by Andy Broomell
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  • 4 years later...

@Andy Broomell I'm a rendering novice. I'm placing a plain wall mirror in a bathroom + when I apply the Glass Mirror Finish RT to a thin flat extrude to represent the mirror it reflects well but I also see the tiled wall behind through it.

 

I then thought I remembered seeing somewhere that the Mirror-Attr RT texture is designed to be used as a backing for the mirror texture so I did this + this gets rid of the see-through quality of the object but the mirror now has a white haze to it.

 

This is the see-through first mirror:

1016394490_Screenshot2021-05-27at15_11_34.thumb.png.68006e0717ed6ec677100509b7659e98.png

 

This is the smoky two-part version:

1838313767_Screenshot2021-05-27at15_18_58.thumb.png.c749b7e03836fafd86a0f3d9f3e2674e.png

 

Any advice as to how I should be doing it would be great. Thanks!

 

On a separate note, I spent ages trying to get the lighting looking ok. There is the over-mirror light which has two point lights in it plus a pendant which is out of the frame which has a spot light in it. Both these light fittings are symbols from the VW libraries + the light objects are part of the symbols. So in order to edit the lights - to adjust the way the scene was lit - I had to edit the symbols each time, because I couldn't access the lights from the Visualization palette, presumably because they were within symbols - is this correct or have I missed something? If this is just what happens when you use lights-in-symbols should I then have taken them out of the symbols + placed them separately in the drawing, to allow me to override the settings in the VP (via the Visualization palette)? The lighting in the rest of the model was far more straightforward + I didn't really have to do anything to get it looking ok - perhaps it's the contrast between the dark tiles + white sanitary ware that made it more tricky here??? It's still a bit dark but at least the white sanitary ware isn't overexposed any more... Again, any tips - from anyone - would be great... Thank you.

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Have you extruded the Mirror from a side view ?

Would it be different if you extrude it from its XY bottom faces ?

(Just an idea)

 

Does it work if your Mirror has a small gap in front of the Wall

and does not touch it ?

 

I have not yet seen any problems with my mirrors. (pre VW 2021)

But I always use the Glass Reflection in any reflective Materials

reflection channel.

e.g. about 92-95 % white (slightly grey) color in both color slots

for a (silver) mirror.

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@Tom W.

 

I may have made an error in that old post.

 

Of the default textures, there's one called "Glass Mirror Finish RT" and on called "Mirror Finish RT" and clearly I got the two confused.

 

Set the transparency to None and try that. Seems to be the only difference.

 

Or just search "mirror" in the RM, filtered for textures.

 

 

301365149_ScreenShot2021-05-27at9_12_04AM.thumb.png.0015aa3f1210daac8c09f82ac8858840.png

 

1833406762_ScreenShot2021-05-27at9_15_08AM.thumb.png.f38fe3828de1fdf1ef8915f2b01a2edd.png

 

698977196_ScreenShot2021-05-27at9_15_12AM.thumb.png.4445adbc56bd128cfdfd30769ff6c132.png

 

Edited by Andy Broomell
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Yes, usually I start my Materials from scratch.

 

Color/Diffuse : Black

Transparency : None

Reflection : EDIT > Glass, 92-95 % white (slightly grey) color in both color slots

Bump : None 

 

 

Yes, for a simplified Mirror I omit the Transparency.

But you could build a nice real mirror.

From back to front

Slim Extrude for Laquer of choice (greenish ?),

to save the Silver from oxidizing,

very Slim Extrude for Silver,

just about 95-98 % Reflection, everything else black/off

a 5-10 mm Glass Pane,

with a typical Glass Material

and nice chamfers ...

🙂 

Edited by zoomer
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18 minutes ago, Andy Broomell said:

@Tom W.

 

I may have made an error in that old post.

 

Of the default textures, there's one called "Glass Mirror Finish RT" and on called "Mirror Finish RT" and clearly I got the two confused.

 

Set the transparency to None and try that. Seems to be the only difference.

 

Or just search "mirror" in the RM, filtered for textures.

 

 

301365149_ScreenShot2021-05-27at9_12_04AM.thumb.png.0015aa3f1210daac8c09f82ac8858840.png

 

1833406762_ScreenShot2021-05-27at9_15_08AM.thumb.png.f38fe3828de1fdf1ef8915f2b01a2edd.png

 

698977196_ScreenShot2021-05-27at9_15_12AM.thumb.png.4445adbc56bd128cfdfd30769ff6c132.png

 

Aha that would explain it! Obvious now.

Don't worry I was using that texture long before I saw your post. Thanks for getting me back on track.

And thank you @zoomer for your tips on creating homemade mirrors I will have a play around.

Oh + do either of you have any suggestions re editing lights-in-symbols in viewports?

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It does appear that Lights-within-symbols can't be "overriden" per viewport, except for turning them on and off. I guess moving the Light outside of the symbol container would solve that.

 

But I would've probably done the illumination with a glow texture anyways, no Light... assuming rendering is done with Indirect Lighting turned on.

 

884496080_ScreenShot2021-05-27at9_46_36AM.thumb.png.5c39b884028b79e040f1125e81b5e292.png

 

Adjust percentage as needed.

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I think the white plastic and ceramics materials look quite good.

 

It think it would look good if there came some blueish daylight through

the high window, vs a warmer tone from the artificial lights.

 

But if you go with Andy's glow materials, you could just add

another pane behind the window glass and use a cooler

glow texture.

 

Edit, some Apps like C4D offer a Kelvin option for ColorPalette,

like 6500 K for neutral skylight from north, or something like

2800 K for light Bulbs.

If you set these, you will get some quite saturated blue and orange.

Don't be afraid to throw in colors, it will get washed out by the

brightness of the glow.  Usually you set about a bit more than

100% intensity.

Edited by zoomer
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Thank you @zoomer  it's funny because I've spent the best part of a day playing around with different settings + assessing the results + the warmer tone you mention wasn't present until I reduced the indirect lighting from 16 bounces to 4 + I added distance falloff to the out-of-shot spot light. 

 

I did have environment lighting on earlier in the process but turned it off thinking that was causing the warm tone but I'll turn it back on now I know it wasn't. The background is HDRI White but I guess like you say could be a bluer tone to offset the orange...

 

You can see it was colder in an earlier version but too dark + the over-mirror light was casting light in an unwanted way:

836243319_Screenshot2021-05-27at13_43_22.thumb.png.958f34899aee892cc4cdbadfec22ebd5.png

 

The other issue is that the window has obscured glass + is north-facing so little direct light from heliodon...

 

ALSO because the tiled floor is a slab I can't use texture mapping to align the tiles with the walls which is a bit of a shame....

 

Anyway fascinating stuff thanks again for comments. Main thing though is to have found the correct mirror texture! Incidentally, 'Mirror Finish RT' wouldn't turn up when I searched for it in the Resource Selector, I only found it when I searched the RM: it's not in the default textures but is used in various vehicle entourage so found it there...

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Yep thank you that would definitely be an option. But other than the lack of texture mapping I think slabs are great + I wouldn't want to forgo using my tiled floor slab completely + lose all the functionality bound up in it. I guess if I wanted to I could create a floor object or extrude that I'd turn on in place of the slab in that particular viewport only but really the best thing would be if VW provided texture mapping for slabs because you can do it with just about every other object I can think of...!

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The modelling looks quite nice other than your tiling issues, which is a constant problem w/ vectorworks. I'd agree w/ @Markvl that maybe you use a floor object or something over the top that you can control better, perhaps just for rendering. 

It's a rather moody bathroom though, and while you are clearly trying to get the lighting effects from the actual sources there is perhaps not enough bouncing around to get you where you want to be.  In film (and in rendering) we often take out the wall that is out of frame so we can get a big soft area light in there, which of course is a fake but is very helpful to get more photons bouncing around for your GI calculation (also a fake). 

Other than that I always suggest finding some sharp corners (window?) and giving them an edge fillet.  Nothing in real life has razor sharp corners. 

  • Like 3
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Thank you @grant_PD that's really interesting. So to do a proper job on a scene such as this I should perhaps take the objects out of the main model of the building + deal with them on their own in a separate file, then I can freely replace the floor, remove walls, add lights, etc without compromising or over-complicating the BIM model?

 

I'm a great fan of adding fillets to things + often feel slightly guilty about it so glad to hear it professionally endorsed! I will fillet at will now...

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Depends on how you have your file set up, maybe the walls you are not seeing are classed separately and you can turn them off?  Maybe you have a set up layer for the rendering that you can turn on and off?  

There is a disconnect between what needs to be rendered for a "sell," and what needs to be drafted for a build.  But if you scroll through Insta or anything else where you see these renders and photos of interiors with the lighting just so and the prop books, shoes, and carefully draped blankets, that disconnect is pervasive.  

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A quick workaround for the slab texture is to leave the slab in place, use the Extract tool to duplicate the top surface. Fill, add texture to resulting NURBS surface. Texture can be oriented as desired.  Might need to move it up a couple mm, and/or remove the fill in the slab top component. At least the slab can remain with its components, sections, etc.

-B

 

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/31/2021 at 1:37 PM, grant_PD said:

I always suggest finding some sharp corners (window?) and giving them an edge fillet.  Nothing in real life has razor sharp corners. 

 

On 5/31/2021 at 2:38 PM, grant_PD said:

There is a disconnect between what needs to be rendered for a "sell," and what needs to be drafted for a build. 

Just been watching Jim Wilson's excellent 'Architectural Rendering Techniques' lecture on the University + realised when I downloaded the exercise file + looked at his model that EVERY edge has had a fillet applied to it.

43048927_Screenshot2021-07-04at21_25_52.thumb.png.453eddbc688d119176d0337a58610d09.png

Made me think of your comments @grant_PD. But to do this of course means modelling the architecture using 3D objects rather than the Wall, Roof, Slab, Door, Window, Hardscape, etc tools... I will be examining renders more carefully from now on to see if I can pick out these kinds of differences! Interesting stuff.

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