[Player]

I am attempting to create a texture that has a raytrace
effect similar to this image.
What I want is the glossy black effect and no matter what I do I all I seem to
come up with is a material that is more fuzzy and blurred rather than reflective.

Does anyone have any suggestions or techniques to create this effect?
Does anyone have a mat that has this effect already (prefer 1024x1024)?


[This message has been edited by Player (edited December 20, 2000).]

[Frost]

Using Max, Maya, Lightwave or Softimage?

[Joachim]

-sorry, missed your question

[This message has been edited by Joachim (edited December 21, 2000).]

[Zaph0d]

post some of the stuff you have attempted
Zap

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im gonna need those TPS reports ASAP, did you get the memo ?

[black_fish]

A raytrace effect? Man, this is all painted! You can do it too...
Or if you can't just create a black material in some 3D programs with reflections and shininess, render it and use that for your texture.

But for what is that texture for?

[Frost]

Yeah, what blackfish said, as a single texture, but use it as an "environment-map", or have a black/very-dark-grey base texture with a highlight environment texture.

[Player]

Here is what I�m working on. Most of my talent is 3d modeling and I�ve just take up creating textures (skinning) I can create the raytrace effect in Max but what I want is to have the model skinned in a way that is not dependent on shaders or mapping files based on the/a 3d package used.. The idea of creating the texture, as a raytrace in Max is a good one that I�ll give a shot but does take some setting up My last resort would be to create the maps in Max using the model then project map them to the model



[This message has been edited by Player (edited December 22, 2000).]

[Ben Barker]

The best way to do this is with reflection mapping. Reflection mapping is implemented in almost all 3D software, and most real time games, so you won't have to worry about that if this is a game model.
But, to test out how it is going look you are going to have to bite the bullet and make a material in MAX. There is no way to do this so it is completely program independant. You're using MAX, so make it for MAX.

[Anthony]

You have to plan ahead, and think over how the model will be used. For instance, with the GeFork and above, you can do reflection mapping. So that way you could create a map with oblong white spheres and such, and they'd show up sort of like that. If you want to make it a static texture, I would create a high poly version of your character and render her in an environment with lights and such, with reflections, and then render various angles, and patch it together. In Lightwave I would use the new feature which lets me render all the textures for an object(called Bake Textures). That way it's all done for me(well, if I had a high poly stand in I'd have to line up the two UVs, but that's not hard).

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[waylon]

Assuming you can't do environment maps (reflection mapping), it's still possible to draw the highlights onto the texture. It's just a pain in the ass. I know, I've tried.

What you need to do, first and foremost, is invision a scene which the model is standing in. Picture three spotlights on either side of her, one low, one middle, and high (for instance.) The material will have bright reflections from each of these, which will appear as bright white spots on the texture. (there are a whole lot of these on your source pic.)

Additionall, these lights will be reflecting off of walls and the floor and stuff, creating a more evenly distributed, but less intense reflection. That's what the blue highlight is on the left half of your source pic.

It looks like you've got a good start on the catwoman model, as far as where the highlights actually fall. But look closer at the actual highlights on your source pic. It goes from pure black to pure white very quickly, with just a little bit of blurriness around the edges.

What I would suggest is to take the highlights you already have, erase them, and then draw some solid white blobs in their places, for the reflections from the actual light sources. Where the mesh tends to be more concave (her waist line), make the blobs bigger. Where it's more convex (her hips, or her oobies), make the blobs smaller. This is just due to the natural way light reflects off of objects. Once you have all the blobs placed, take the smudge tool and blur the edges just a bit.

Once you have the primary reflections in, you'll want to add some more subtle ones opposite them, to set off the form. (These are the diffuse reflections from the "walls".) The general concept should be the same as the highlights, but draw thicker bands instead of bright spots. And make the bands for the most part one solid color, with just a bit of blurriness along the edges.

All you need then is imagination in where to place the highlights and the diffuse reflections from the walls. You could even do as the others suggested and set up a reflection map in your 3D program for reference, but you'll be better off if you actually understand how the lighting works and how it falls on the form.

Good luck!

---

Also, I don't know if you were looking for crits on the model, but her lower half is disproportionately skinny. I don't know if this was intentional, but for the most part, comic-style women tend to have larger, more muscular legs and butts. It's all up to you, though. Looks good so far.

[Player]

Critiques are always welcome. I learn more from what is wrong than what is right. The model started out as an exercise in the use of �surface tools� and I was surprised just how simple it was to use. The model has about 10 hours of effort and the skin about 6. It came along so fast that I�ve yet to decide what direction I want to go with it. One mistake I�ve made in the past was to design the model for use as a player model so I concentrated more on the technical issues rather than form and design.

This time I really don�t have any plans to convert the model into a player model for a particular game engine and to concentrate on making the model stand on it�s own. As I feared I will have to set up a scene and use an environment map and once done project (via deep paint 3d) the texture onto the model. I could just leave it as an environment map but it makes it difficult to develop the mesh if I had to render the model to check its progress.

Waylon : Thanks for the comments. They have given me some ideas and answered a few questions on how the scene will have to be set up. Good catch on the legs. I�m sure that the scale is right but for some reason was not happy with how they turned out. They just don�t fit right and look sort of bolted on to me. It�s hard to tell from the rendering but I am pleased with how the butt turned out. It has a really nice rounded tear drop shape. Two other elements I�m happy with are the hands and bust. These three areas use to be problem areas for me and found that using surface tools made a difference in how they turned out.

As I�ve stated I�m not to sure where it�s going but I leaning towards letting the form display a soft feminine look bordering on helplessness and using the skin to reflect strength and power. I�ve made this model in the past and once completed was surprised that most of the positive comments came from women stating that it was refreshing to see a model that was not butch or a bimbo in design

Thanks again for the comments