Very nice work. Love the movement and metallic feel. Mind sharing any insights on how you get such good reflection in many of pieces? I've tried to work reflections in several times but they look horrible. I assume I'm missing something.
Thanks Josh! Basically, getting reflections to look 'right' - in my case anyway - involves lots of tweaking and test renders at 'preview' size, until I'm happy with the outcome. As a general rule though, I reduce both Ambient and Diffuse settings to well below their defaults, as reflects drastically increase the apprarent lighting levels, which results in an overexposed looking image with 'blown' highlights. Bear in mind also that 'Spec' and 'Depth' settings will affect light levels also. A Spec setting of 1 gives a 100 percent mirrored surface, with lower settings giving various surface finishes. I usually set the Depth to 2 or 3, as this gives 'reflections within reflections' which I find looks more natural. Again, higher Depth means more reflects, which means a brighter image - reduce lighting, ambient and diffuse levels again! Hope this helps mate - think I may have to write a mini-tut on this at some point!
involves lots of tweaking and test renders at 'preview' size, until I'm happy with the outcome.
As a general rule though, I reduce both Ambient and Diffuse settings to well
below their defaults, as reflects drastically increase the apprarent lighting levels,
which results in an overexposed looking image with 'blown' highlights.
Bear in mind also that 'Spec' and 'Depth' settings will affect light levels also.
A Spec setting of 1 gives a 100 percent mirrored surface, with lower settings giving
various surface finishes. I usually set the Depth to 2 or 3, as this gives 'reflections
within reflections' which I find looks more natural. Again, higher Depth means more
reflects, which means a brighter image - reduce lighting, ambient and diffuse levels again!
Hope this helps mate - think I may have to write a mini-tut on this at some point!
most welcome my friend