Quote - I found some time to finish my newest car paint shader. You can get it here:

http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/car-paint

BB, awesome shader, but I have a question.  Where would I plug in a reflection map?  I usually would use your environment sphere, but there a times when I want to render over a background image and use an hdri map for reflections only, but I'm not sure where to put it in the shader.

Normally this would be a simple thing, but since this is a gamma-correcting shader with automatic disabling with render GC, it's a little tricky. So I did it for you.

I uploaded a new version.

http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/car-paint

The documentation on that page has been updated to explain how to use the new Environment Map part of the shader.

That's great, thanks!  I'm just checking it out now.  I'm assuming I should be setting the PM:EnvMap Value to 1 to enable the environment map reflections, correct?

Yes. All the parameters were explained on the car paint page. Do I need to improve the explanation, or did you simply not read it?

I read, but in my haste to try it out, just didn't go down far enough - my apologies.  The explanation is more than adequate, and the shader mods work great.  It is greatly appreciated.

Excellent. Show a render!

Well the paint looks good. grin

Somehow the leather and rubber seem wrong. Hopefully TGX will publish his kit soon - he has some nice stuff for all that. I've never bothered doing a tailored-for-cars set of materials like he's doing.

I think the biggest thing that jumps out at me is that the lighting is odd. The sunset (I think) is in front of me, but the shadows indicate the sun is high in the sky, behind the camera.

And the ambient light isn't right. Do you have Poser 8 or Pro 2010 here? Use IDL.

I actually used TGX's older leather set for the seats and the top, but I agree that they seem wrong.  And you're right about the light.  I had the "sun" light more in line with where the sunset appears but it cast the left side of the car and the tires too dark so I moved it - obviously the wrong thing to do.

And I am using Pro 2010 with IDL enabled and render GC set to 2.20.

I am working on splitting the Interior material section into types (leather, plastic, nylon, carpet, wood, metal finishes)

my old interior materials are pretty crap, they worked under the right circumstances, but otherwise had serious issues!

That's outstanding. I like the seatbelt, too.

Simple_Color_2 : Leather Colour
User_Defined : Leather Scale (change B)
Clouds-Sky Color : darker = Dirtier
Alternate Diffuse : Increase for "shine"

I'm looking forward to your new materials.  I definitely wouldn't say your old ones were crap at all - in my render it was more a combination of the model and my poor rendering & lighting skills.  The new leather looks great, though it looks like it could be used for cloth seats as well.  Is it supposed to be more of a suede leather?

The problem is that if the headlight is not UV Mapped staright on (flat), then there is no way I can do this sort of effect. Is something like this possible to make that is UV independant?

Quote - Normally, for headlights I do something like this. It is a photograph of a real headlight, with a bump and transparency map, all mixed with a glass type material.

The problem is that if the headlight is not UV Mapped staright on (flat), then there is no way I can do this sort of effect. Is something like this possible to make that is UV independant?

Helgard, your headlight are looking very nice.

I wish someone would come up it a good shader or something for realistic looking headlights and tail lights....somee3 that wouldn't put a strain on the system when rendering.

Quote - hows this material?

Now, that looks really good. How'd you do that?

Quote - and a brakelight.  I cheated here and added a hemi-sphere prop to give smooth reflection/specular

It's looking good.

COOL!!!!

I think the headlight material just looks a little sharp, car headlights are a little "softer", but that is an awesome effect.

I can't wait for this set to see how all these things are done. And to use it, off course.

Will that tail light "shader" work with none round tail lights? And, how about the headlight one?

Those shaders look awesome!  Maybe I'll be able to do renders without having to avoid closeups of the front or back of the car.

When you say wheels, do you mean the metal or the tire part?

If you mean the metal part, if those are alloy wheels, you need something that looks a bit like aluminium, so a silver with lowered reflections, and a bit lighter shade of grey on the colour. That's what I normally use.

I do mean the metal part - thanks, I'll give that a try.

Another option for various metals - the paint shader I supplied will go metallic if you increase the IOR parameter. Experiment with 5, 10, 15, 20, etc., and try different colors for the Diffuse Color. For an alloy wheel, try a dark gray Diffuse Color and IOR=8.

Alloy wheels are a little less shiny/reflective, not sure of the exact expression, but they are a bit "duller". Something like this attached image.

Stupid me. I had a brain fart. I meant to say mag wheel. Of course alloy looks like that. Sorry. Thanks for the correction.

Wheels like that are hard to get realistic in Poser because there's no good way to do good blurred reflections. There is a way to do blurred reflections, but they're not good. Well, I suppose you can increase render settings until the earth orbits the sun before your render is finished, but I'm not up for that.

But we can approximate something decent just by using a lot of broad specular, I suppose.

TGX will come up with it if he hasn't already. I'm building leather right now.

for the headlights, the surface behind the headlight is a pale yellow/white material

Great stuff! The lamps are excellent.

I did something similar and posted it a few years ago at RDNA.

I checked on it earlier, but I used Tile, not Cellular, and that meant it would only work if the object had a good UV mapping.

Cellular should be workable.

The one difference between what I did and what you're doing is this:

You are using the pattern to modulate the bump. I used the pattern to modulate the Refract IOR.

They have similar effect on the refraction, but the big difference is on the front side - the reflection and the specular. The front lens is curved on the inside, not the outside. By modulating bump, you don't get a clean straight reflection from it. Modulating the Refract IOR gives distortion as we see through, but not on the reflection.

I tried that originally BB, but most of the car models are low detail, and theres nothing to refract, so the bump map option gives heaps of detail. I will include both versions I think

Templar,  I'm reallly looking forward to the new set.  I've been using the old ones for years and not just on cars.  The chameleon paints are really fun for jewelry--especially hoop earrings.  Thank you for generously sharing with those of us who are material room challenged.

it looks REALLY good there, what color did you use for the material behind the glass?

bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump

my pittery pattery is awaiting.

Quote - heres the headlights, brake/indicator and alloy material in a "real world" setting

for the headlights, the surface behind the headlight is a pale yellow/white material

That's a cracking model.  What it?  Where it at?

Attached Link: DMI Car Models Page 28 (Car #11)

See the link for DMI Car Models, the best free car website on the internet, bar none!

import directly into poser, most of the cars should be set to a smoothing rate of anywhere between 35 to 60 depending on the shape of the vehicle