China vessels...

[Ross Macintosh]

Mike - the link to the free Kerkythea is above in my opening post. Well worth checking out. Some folks are achiving quality similar to Vray or Maxwell.

[stratocast]

Bob -- Your bathroom is looking good. Have you tried a bump map for your tile?

Thanks. Using a bump map will subdue the reflections a bit, yes?

[Ross Macintosh]

Bob - I've made an example that I hope will clerify the impact of adding a bump image. The tile box was modelled and textured in SketchUp. In Kerkythea I modified the material by adding some specular to add some gloss. The first -no bump- one shows how the material looks rendered. Next I added a bump map (image) to the material definition - all other render settings were unchanged. Notice how the tile appears more 3d with the grout lines slightly recessed. Below I show the original texture image and the bump map image I custom created in Xara Xtreme. In the bump image whatever is black gets recessed. It was really easy to create the bump image using Xara Xtreme. I imported the original texture image and drew over it to get the tile sizes. You'll note (if you have eagle eyes) that I feathered the edges of each of the 'tiles' which has the effect of making the tile edges look more rounded in the render. I also used a fractal bleach overlay to give some toal variation that makes the tiles less flat when rendered -- in keeping with the rustic style of the tile. I did that to show you that your bump map can in itself be a little creative exercise. I could for instance have drawn a black line -- it would have rendered as a crack in the tiles. If you make a bump image to use note that it must be exactly the same size as the original texture (otherwise the two won't align properly & you'll get wierd results).

Regards, Ross

[stratocast]

I seeee... Oh, the light it's so bright! Thank you Ross for taking the time to post such a detailed explanation. Using a bump map is obviously the way to go - far more realistic. I'm going to play around with it for a while and see what I can come up with.

I find this 3D stuff exciting and intimidating at the same time. However, when I observe what has been achieved by others, I'm determined to try and see where it takes me.

[Ross Macintosh]

Here's another example. By changing your bump map image you can significantly alter the look of the rendered texture. Note how the 'bumps' even get highlights/shadows.

Regards, Ross

[mercy]

the vessels lokks great and real.
But i dont feel that much satisfied with the living room