Xara plus Blender questions

[ODdOnLifeItself]

One other very important setting with reflecting objects is the Gloss amount. It basically determines how soft/blurry the reflections are. If you use a high value (very close to 1 --- the default), then you get very metallic looking objects. As you use lower values, it becomes less metallic and more glass-like...as if the surface of the object is softening the reflections. It really makes a big difference in the perceived hardness of the surface of the reflecting object. [With lower Gloss values, increase the number of samples so that it looks smooth instead of overly-pixelated. Note: Increasing Samples value also increases rendering times...]

See the examples below (full-size) to really see what I mean...



(Gloss = 1.0)



(Gloss = 0.98)



(Gloss = 0.96)



(Gloss = 0.90)



(Gloss = 0.80)



(Gloss = 0.70)


Like many things in Blender, it might just be one setting, but it has a lot of effect!


Happy Reflecting!

James

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Plus Frank.... you need to see what all the hype is about.


Software Update of the Year
(Blender)

Peace

James

[Hwy101]

bit by bit

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Tom,

Not quite sure of the look you are going for...

...so here is a first draft. Let me know what needs changing.



Peace

James

[Hwy101]

Thanks James -Blender is still way deep for me presently, and 123D while I got the Mirrors facing, the angles are a bit wrong and importing a number is not the same as Blender (not that I got that far either) - while the Reflection in the Mirrors is at an angle, could the mirrors be moved a part more and angled a bit (like my primitive ones with the '11' between them -I have to cheat and take a screen shot & paste in to show what I am trying. And, then when I finally got the mirrors near each other, I lost Reflections <sigh> not to mention other problems (but, this is 123D so not relevant here so much)

But hey, exercising the Brain to learn this is a Good thing -I want to be able to do what is being done here. Way Pretty Stuff! I am so Jealous!

Thanks for showing me a start James - Much Appreciated! Tom

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Hello Tom,

Re: "Thanks for showing me a start, James"

You're welcome. I'm all for everyone getting their feet wet in Blender. It's a very, very cool, capable, free program. (and is a great complement to Xara software, by adding true 3D and mapping)

We can bring the mirrors closer to the 11 and angle them in, but they will a) have to be pretty close at that angle and b) will only show the sides of the 11.

I'll give it a try a bit later... (am on my home system, but am working on the 11 project on my laptop)

Is it supposed to basically be photo-representative of what you described or is their some stylistic element you're aiming for? Do you want the frame of the mirror a certain look or do you want them to also be chromish?

Take care

James

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Are we getting closer?





James

[Hwy101]

Are we getting closer? * * * James

Thanks James for the tries, I am going to try some more too - I may just have to 'fudge' it.

(sorry I have not been on too much -been some up & downs here -hoping for more time to pursue soon)

[ODdOnLifeItself]

Tom, be sure and share what you come up with...

I'm curious to just what look you are going for with this one.

Take care

James

[ODdOnLifeItself]

One of the really great strengths of Blender is the amazingly powerful Materials and Textures set-up. I really think that virtually any type of surface that you can imagine can pretty much be created in Blender.

This is an early frame from one of my other unfinished projects. I wanted it to have a very hard plastic-like, ceramic surface. I like the way the Material came out. Often, little experiments yield some cool looking things.



Because you can Append materials from old projects into new projects, it's not a bad idea to have a folder full of Materials, ready for instant import.

James