Dull reflection in C4D V6

[gidgit]

I have a feeling that Jens is working with version 7 something, and thus, as Jens has demonstrated, this blur fx is pretty straight forward as the relection options are available in said version...

but, said same options do not appear to be in V6 as shown by this pic of V6 reflection options. In fact the blur and/or mix strength options are not available unless you choose a texture image... this is not the case with the later versions

[gidgit]

These options found in v7 are also in v8.5, as shown in this pic... and...

it would appear that the smoothness or roughness of the edge of the reflections blur is determined by the factoring of the min and max samples... if you dialed in but say 5 min samples as Jens has demonstrated in his fine example, the edges would be rougher than shown in my example whereby the min samples are up at 56... while dispersion would seem to control the overall bluriness of said reflection, and....

... I havn't checked out the accuracy option, as it would also seem that the more samples dialed in, the longer the renders take, and thus if this was amplified by accuracy this would perhaps spell mucho render time on my pidly machine... haha, I am doing an accuracy render right now, and it does indeed appear to go much slower through the render and, now that it has been like four or five minutes since last seing the render without any accuracy, I really don't see too much difference... memory loss perhaps on my side of the equation

Anyways, unless you have the latest versions, I would suggest that you are pretty much stuck with applying and image to your reflection in V6, and then fooling around with the settings as much as possible to get what you are after...

I have been fooling around with said settings for about an hour or so, and though I can get the reflection image to blur, it is totaly not near the same fx as is so easily done in the later version...

Sure wish I could further help you with regards to version6, but it would seem that upon reaching a certain factor when dialing in settings, the renders show black areas where the fx should show, larger or smaller to no existant, depending, and thus you can only get to a certain point before such anomolies begin to occur... and when you dial out to whereby these black areas cease to be you are right back to where you were before wishing to gain just a bit more... haha...

I think that Mike is on track with a mixture of both the blur settings we are discussing here, as well as a slight bump with a smoother material which will still give some sort of depth to the blur due to said bump... I tried it with the material/shaders found in v6 CE and not much luck in finding one smooth enough to gain what we are looking for here...

like I suggested much earlier in this thread, it's gotta be something so simple I am just plumb missing it.... or, the early version just plumb missed it, and thus the new options are available in the later versions just for this fx and ease of application...

Sorry I could not be of more assistance to you Turan, but hey, if you find the right combo's, settings, and materials to use in order to gain this fx, please, by all means, post the results


as suggested... this is a pic in version 8.5... so easy to gain said fx... to get it more blurry, just dial up the dispersion, and to get rougher edges dial down the number of samples

[Turan]

Many thanks t oboth of you for your input - looks like I am stuck. It's hard to justify to myself upgrading (at the C4D prices) when apart from this feature the v6 does so well.

The alternative is to move to another tool, but I'm at the stage now where I'd be an old dog tying to learn a new tool.

Next best thing is to post process it in a bitmap program PhotoPaint or PS - I just hate to alter things once rendered.

Thanks for the help - if I do find a solution I'll post.

I've already tryed 101 differed diffusion bitmasks eg. grids or dots etc. but no joy.

Turan

[gidgit]

Hey, your welcome Turan, though I must suggest that this was all Jens here... he came up with the method, that was so easy to set up with these later versions...

I still think that Mike is bang on with his examples, and instead of red ball example, if this reflection map method was used as seen in your metal on the circut board example, that perhaps things just might work for you

and yea, v6 is pretty decent all in all eh... I mean perhaps it lacks some of the modeling tools that v8 and up have on board, but for final smoothes via hypernurbs, and rendering it is one very handy app to have around for sure

yea, maybe do a straight reflection render with out any blur, put this into you fav 2d editing app, grab that area, put a bit of blur, feather etc to it, save as image file, and then assign this as reflection image for that final render...

... keep us posted

[Mike Bailey]

Maybe your trying to hard.
Just do the best you can with the models, materials, texture maps, lighting and the environment.

The purist attitude can't compete with the arsenal of tools available to an open minded artist. Work with photoshop or Xara or Painter or whatever applications you choose, its the final image that counts.

Rendering is easy, sometimes I render a bunch of images with different settings, then I will build my final image by combining what I need from each one, Don't limit yourself.

[gidgit]

Good advice Mike really good...

I sure do like the couple click approach found in the later C4D versions though... sure does save quite a few steps along the way

[Turan]

You might be right on the trying to hard bit.

Here is one of the cards I created.


Turan

[gidgit]

hey hey, looks great Turan

and it looks like you got the reflection happening

What were the settings, and did you stick with v6?

[Turan]

Reflection droped to 19%

Specular width 60% Height 80%

The colour was 80% Brightness white with a matalic gray/white repeating fill done in XaraX.

I still think it is too sharp and I think a lot had to do with the lighting!

But as Mike pointed out it is about being and open minded artist and just playing with the tools.

Thanks again to all that helped me in this thread.

Turan

[Mike Bailey]

Hello Turan, I did a quick edit to your attachment with XaraX1, it took about 10 minutes.