Attached Link: Freebase's shiney car method

Make that 'FreeBass'. The link also leads to a bunch of other freebie cars!

Thank you :) Lots to work through at that link... it seems to branch off to a few other threads, but I'll read them all and see what I can pick up.

You betcha! The other threads combined should head you in the right direction. Another possiblity I just thought of is playing around with reflection maps on the 'painted' areas. Good luck with this!

hehe, I'm really new to the material room. I've been able to add material to items, and even change colours of hair and clothing, but I don't know anything about nodes yet. I've tried to play around with them and managed to get a sorta kinda reflection in a floor, but it wasn't very good. I still need to see examples and then duplicate what has been done in order to get the hang of things in that room. I am learning though. 3 months ago I couldn't even change the colour of anything :)

Well, you can try starting off with attaching an anisotropic node to the Alternate Specular channel. If that doesn't do it, try a glossy node. Hope that helps!

Gah! Part of my problem is that I have no clue what those words mean, LOL I'll give that a try too and see what happens :) To me they should stick to simple terms like "shiney", "reflection" etc. This "Anisotropic" sounds like something out of an anthropology book ;)

Templargfx has a set of car color materials in the freestuff here that look pretty good.

Thanks :) He must have removed them because there is a 404 error now when you click "download".

Click on the little button on the Alternate Specular channel. This should bring up the add node popup. Go to Specular, then to Anisotropic. Don't worry about changing any of the values right now, just simply add the node. You won't immediately see any results in the Preview mode. You have to actually render to see the effect of the node. When you do, make sure you render with Raytracing enabled. I would suggest for the initial test renders, use the Manual Settings, and uncheck the Shadows, Smooth Polygons, Displacement Maps, & Texture FIltering. I would turn on the Remove Backfacing Polys. 2 Raytrace Bounces should be fine for your testing. And turn the Post Filter down to 1. I think the Anisotropic should give you what you want, but if not, do the same thing with a Glossy node, available in the same place as the Anisotropic. Hope that helps!

hehe. I'm one step ahead... It's already rendering. Not sure how it looks yet though. I'll post a pic once it's done. I used that Anisotorpic node for the car, and the glossy for the wheel well and rims. Gah... I didn't do all those render settings. I just did the normal ones that I use for when I render a figure. I'll have to go back and render again and try those other settings. Funny... I contemplated about that raytracing, but the few times I tried it before it didn't look any different than having it turned off. So I never bother with it. I'll try it with the car though.

Well you need the Raytracing on for a number of effects. The settings I gave you were for the initial testing, you would want to do the opposite of each for final renders. The settings I gave you were for speed, as opposed to quality.

Hmmm. I just noticed that it looks like there isn't any glass in the window areas.

Message edited on: 10/19/2005 06:56

Wow, that turned out nice. Definite bookmark so I can go get that link when I get home.

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=28168

I use Magic Mirror on lots of things but I wanted to add that it has textures for auto glass, amber glass, etc. as well as the car paint colors.

Have a link to the car? Is it still a freebie?

It is if you have any freebie credits left, otherwise it's $30.00 at Poser Pros.

Cars -- My second favorite render subject!! I got the same car from PoserPros "Buy One Gey One Free Sale." Have you tried TemplarGFX's "158 Car Materials" in FreeStuff? They work well in P6. Plus you get other (including interior) materials as well.

I searched for it and found the download, but I get a 404 error when I click the download link. It seems the file has been removed. I did find the parent directory where the file was hosted, but while the .jpg file is still there, the actual materials file isn't.

Maybe you should contact TemplarGFX via instant message or e-mail. The address in the .zip file is: Templargfx@netspace.net.au If you can't contact Templar, I think I can send you a copy. There's nothing in the .zip that restricts re-distribution.

Thanks, I'll email and ask. If he no longer has the file, I ask about permission to get a copy of it from you. He may have removed it for a reason. So I'll wait and see what he says. Thank you :)

I don't recall where I saw it*; but what they do is position a large, white rectangle above the car so ray-tracing gives a nice highlight that flows over the upper surfaces. *possibly no longer available at www.cardesignnews.com/studio/tutorials/index.php. But some Photoshop techniques there now may be of interest.

I heard from James (Templargfx). He was away for awhile and the file was accidently deleted by a family member. He's reuploaded the file so it's once again available for download in free stuff. I'm not sure if it's listed in the readme, but he asked that if his textures are used in gallery images here that his name be listed in the credits so that he can search and see all the great things people are making with them.

I'm glad they're back. I'll gladly credit James on my next car render. I've learned a lot from using his materials.

This was an easier method to a shiney car.. at least for me. I'm still loving Templargfx's car materials. I use them for other things too besides cars.

.