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Help Rendering a Wooden Toy??

05sierrasle

New member
Just wanting some suggestions on some ways to render a wooden toy (bulldozer)?? I have rendered with Photolux a few times before so I feel somewhat comfortable with it.


I designed a toy for one of our University clubs, now I am wanting to render it so that they can frame it for future reference. So I am hoping to make this thing look awesome.


Are there any suggestions?? Such as wood bump maps, wood textures (would like to find one). Anything would be great.


What would be some good light colors to use??


Thanks


Brent
Edited by: 05sierrasle
 
In Cinema 4D (my preferred software), I would do the following.


Add a wood texture to the part(s).


Then add a greyscale bump map of the same wood texture and adjust the 'height' of the 'bump map'.


Adjust the scale of the map also, in the Piano above, IMHO the texture of the 'grain' is too wide spread, make sure what your doing is in an appropriate scale, tight or loose.


Also, control your reflection, make sure you've got a good feel for how much the wood will reflect, if urethaned, etc.


On that note, also make sure any specular reflection is as accurate as possible.


Another tip on the above Piano, would be to do soft shadows or area type shadows so that they fade as the shadow goes further from the part.


If your wanting something realistic consider using something to a radiosity setting to make the lighting more realistic.


Takes time to get a good looking image.


And whatever you do....POST YOUR IMAGE SO WE CAN SEE :) or the model so we can play around with texturing it. :)


Rusty
 
The big problem with wood is that you need different textures for the different sides. A common wooden board already has 3 different textures if you want to make it realistic.


Alex
 
Yes, typically a 3D shaderis what you would use in Cinema 4D.


This way it somehow calcuates the internal grains, etc.


I've attached an example, you might find useful. If you would note that dark radial lines (hardwood) extend down along the cut sides of the block...so that it reflects actual wood.


This might be a type of material you wanna try.


View attachment 1636
Edited by: coolntn1
 
The wood texture files I used were some .jpeg's that I downloaded and then some from the graphic library in Pro/E....is Cinema 4d hard to learn??


I would love to use it if I will get a better look out of it compared to Pro/E...but of course if I can't get my hands on it then I guess I will stick with Pro.


Thanks
 
A JPG will not accomplish and give you an accurate texture. Only way I know of doing it is through a 3D shader as I mentioned above.


Cinema 4D is much easier to learn than many of the other expensive packages such a Maya, 3D Studio, etc.


The website for it is www.maxoncomputer.com and I believe they have a free trial download.
 
i've had really good luck mapping simple JPEGs.


it is all in the quality of the maps and how you assign them.


here's a sample rendering of a bass design:


sadowsky_wood.jpg



f
Edited by: fhodshon
 
I would point out that the striations that run up and down on the edge of the guitars do not properly show the variation as in the example I provided above.


Although they still look good, if you are going for truly realistic look and the parts are not as "thin", the lack of variation in the vertical striations will show.


But for flat JPGs what you have looks good.
 
i agree, the side stretching is an area i'm still working on.


i've avoided 3D textures in the past - while accurate, they had a plastic look.


if i can somehow incorporate my own JPEGs into a 3D texture, i'd be happy as a quarter sawn plank of mesquite burl.


(searching web for 3D texture creation now)


thanks for the comments.


f
 

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