Bruce Kieffer Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) I need some help figuring out why this fork model of mine renders so dark. It should be bright shiny metal. These screenshots show my settings: Edited January 11, 2018 by Bruce Kieffer Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 Bruce, What's the current background set to? Metallic objects need something to reflect or they will render dark. The default background is none which is basically a black void. It will also help to place your object on some sort of surface. In its most basic form with no background - Just adding a floor for the objects to sit on - Adding a Renderworks background (View>Set Renderworks Background). This is one of the sky HDRI ones - I often just use the HDRI White background - Hope this helps. Kevin 1 Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 Kevin is correct. Metals have no "diffuse" color. All their appearance comes from the reflecting environment. If there is no (suitable) environment and lighting, a HDRI environment will do best or it might be easier to fake by giving the material a diffuse color. Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Luis M Ruiz Posted January 11, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted January 11, 2018 The short and quick answer, add a background. If you don't need to see the background, create a Rendering Style an assign an environmental reflection to the scene. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted January 11, 2018 Author Share Posted January 11, 2018 Thanks for all the help. I found and corrected one problem with the shader I used. Now I'm tweaking things and learning how to maximize the reflections off the surface of the fork. Obviously, I don't do enough of this type of work to be proficient at it. I'll post my final results after I get there. Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 One of the things missing from the VW kit of backgrounds is a good studio interior background for just this task. In my examples above the one with the sky reflection says "shiny metal" but the fact that its the sky reflecting is more appropriate for an architectural building than a prop object. Kevin Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted January 11, 2018 Author Share Posted January 11, 2018 (edited) Ok, I have this rendered pretty good now. I do wish this process was easier, some way to preview RW settings super fast in real time like using OpenGL. I know about creating a "dumbed down" viewport to test render, but even so, that still takes a lot of time. Too much trial and error to get to the final results. Definitely a good learning experience. BTW, this is for our user group's 6th annual solid modeling challenge held next Wednesday. Here's a photo of the same... Edited January 11, 2018 by Bruce Kieffer 1 Quote Link to comment
Kevin McAllister Posted January 11, 2018 Share Posted January 11, 2018 Looks great Bruce! Kevin Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted January 11, 2018 Author Share Posted January 11, 2018 Thanks Kevin. I actually like the design of my model better than the real fork! Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Luis M Ruiz Posted January 11, 2018 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted January 11, 2018 Congrats. The second render looks very convincing. Don't forget to share the file later so we can all learn from your challenge. Quote Link to comment
Bruce Kieffer Posted January 11, 2018 Author Share Posted January 11, 2018 My file is attached. The sequence of layers shows the steps to make the model. I have no record of how I got to the final rendering. It was all trial and error. My_Fork.vwx Quote Link to comment
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