Looking for some help.  What is the best techinque for making pavement appear to be wet?  Is there a tutorial out there that talks about doing this?

IMO, the main ingredients are shiny highlights and a little bit of reflection. I don't know of any tutorial.

If it's a night scene, I often actually use a shiny metal!!!! I will often add some bump to it though- sometimes a touch of blurred reflection and for pudddles I'll make it a mixed material plus a distribution map. I usually change the color too, to a dark grey.

 It really depends on how wet you want it to be. Standing puddles are as reflective as mirrors. Damp pavement is only slightly reflective. You can try adding a 'puddles' layer to an existing material, then making it reflective and controlling the alpha and reflectance channel with a noise node. That should get you started.

Here are a few links to some renders I did using reflective ground treatments, maybe they can provide some inspiration:

[ http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1808082

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1808082)[http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1837070

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1837070)[http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1777015

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1777015)[http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1241905

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1241905)http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1037758

Thanks for the tips.  I like the idea of adding a puddles layer either through a distribution map or just by mixing materials.  I also will try the metal for relectivity.

Depending on the angle in which you are viewing, you want to add reflection and add highlights.  I have created several images with wet pavements and this method definately works well.  To get the best results, you want to have a low bump setting otherwise your reflection and highlight setting will get lose.  Remember: Low bump unless you want it to be slick like glass.

tutorial on this in 3D world a while back, I have it in my folder of saved pages for Vue ;)
used a layer, distribution function as folk say, with a rainbow colour for oil slicks too