Im trying to make crystal glass plates with etchings on them! I have no problem making the actual etched plates. My problem arises when I apply the standard crystal preset to the item and render. The item picks up too much reflected color off the the surroundings (ie. ground / sky / objects / etc) If I change the reflectivity or specularity either one of 2 things happens: Either the object disappears or turns white QUESTION: How can I render crystal objects so they appear as crystal objects! Britt

Maybe try a different glass texture, i don't know what you're really talking about without seeing an example, but i don't know that there really is anything you can do, short of making a new texture.

lower refraction levels will pick up less color. leave reflection at zero for all glass objects all the time. specularity at 50, specular halo at rgb 248 248 248 give that a shot.

Thanks for the advice! RESULTS SO FAR: The one with the white design has the same texture (one I made (long ago) for stained glass window use) (REFRACT 150/REFLECT 0/SPEC 100/DIFFU 50) on both the design and the plate! (Do not know why the plate is clear ???) The one with the clear design uses the standard crystal material for the design and the previously mentioned self-made material for the plate! Britt

I can see the design in the second one it's just very faint...

If I use the standard crystal mat on the plate --- it comes out almost totally black because the mat reflects so badly! Britt

Sams3D has an etched glass coffee table, buzz 'em and ask how they did it.

Enable "total internal relfection" in the render options and set it to 10. Set the maximum ray depth to 15. Do a quick render and see how that turns out. What are your scene settings? Is it just the default scene with the bryce sun? The glass should have transparency 100 and diffusion zero, the design should have transparency 100 and diffusion 75 (also a very bright specular halo)

Aye, Madmax might be right, but lack of ray-septh would produce null-reflections which are black, not white... Is the etching geometry-based, or material based? Are you using booleans to actually carve the diamond? If so, try Madmax's advice... If it's a texture, try using the source image as a lattice and carving into the glass, it might produce better results. Thus, you could use the negative to "paint" the etch material into the glass....? Ideas...

The etching is a symmetrical lattice (positive)with a black and white picture applied! Maybe I should try the etching as a negative! Britt

Aye, I agree, in my limited experience with etchings, it would be a negative. This might help add to realism? Just an idea!