I am really fond of Schurby's excellent 1965 GTO Model. I did however build a TriPower Carb set up for it in Carrara 8 Pro and swap that.

My question (and I ask after reading the thread on "simple" Chrome in Poser and having my head explode) is this... In Carrara (or whatever) I have a Chrome Shader I can drag and drop and "poof"... chrome. In Daz Studio I have a "simple" chrome formula that really is simple and uses a/one of many chrome textures. 

I'll admit that as a new user of Poser Pro 2012 the material room beats me up and takes my lunch money every time I try to use it. The Engine in the image above is Shurby's... but I took it into Carrara to create a small block 389 with the Tripower set up in BB's Sphere. It imports back in with material zones.. but the colors are goofy. I have my own Pontiac Engine... maybe I should just use that.

I'm not even sure WHAT my question is I guess. Maybe it's "Is there an easier way to quickly color models without frying my brain"?

there are MATs you can download, place in your runtime, and just apply them to materials zones with one click.

if you do a search here, there were some car paint shaders posted that are really well done. be warned that you will take a bit of a rendertime hit. also, in order to do one of those showroom style car renders you need to create a white box above the vehicle to be reflected in the paint - but IIRC this was also covered in the car paint thread.

i would search for it for you but im really bandwidth challenged at the moment - my bandwidth cap rolls over tomorrow: i only had 2 gigs of mobile broadband to ration for a whole month :(

cheers

There is a whole section on car paint in this sticky thread at the top of the forum:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2722867&page=1

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=61016

Although I have to say that I'm not sure what thread made your head explode. Most times people would like to know how to fish, but if you just want me to throw you a fish to eat, I did.

Chrome is one of the easiest materials. Car paint is not - if it were, there would not be a reason why a good paint job costs $5000.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3260718&ebot_calc_page#message_3260718

You probably want to see my car paints, too.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3655870&ebot_calc_page#message_3655870

My car paint will also produce chome if you boost the IOR.

I suppose your head is exploding already, though.

Too much information?

I'm very close to selling these metal shaders - with over 800 presets.

Quote - I'm very close to selling these metal shaders - with over 800 presets.

I know just how versatile your shaders are.

I, sir, would like a sitemail when it's available  :o)

Same here.

Quote - Although I have to say that I'm not sure what thread made your head explode. Most times people would like to know how to fish, but if you just want me to throw you a fish to eat, I did.

This one:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/media/folder_10/file_474964.JPG

There is no way I would have come up with that on my own.

Admittedly, due to some health issues, it isn't that hard to make my head explode..... and apparently I may not have been that bright to begin with. I probably should have taken up Basket weaving. Sometimes after flailing about, forgetting my tackle box in the car, and dropping the bait down the front of my pants I do need/like a fish tossed in my direction just to get me casting again.

Things that are apparent to you are so far out of my World as to appear in the form of small glowing points light years away. When it comes to Poser... my World still looks flat most of the time.

I have so much to learn that it amuses me to read your posts if only because I haven't the slightest idea what you are talking about most/all of the time... Realism? Usually I'm lucky if I can light a scene so that you can see anything or make to Chrome look like something "kinda shiney". The Material Room is very powerfull (to me)... but I can't figure out what all the attachments do on my vacuum cleaner..... so I gots aways ta' go.

BTW BB, and I mean this as a compliment, you are much like the Sheldon Cooper of Poser... you know so much that it's a trip to read your responses to things that to you know so well. It's much like watching Einstein try to explain the internal combustion engine to Fred Flintstone.

 So off I go to try to absorb all/some of this info. So long, and thanks for all the fish everyone.

Ha - the Sheldon Cooper thing I get from friends and family all the time. You are totally right about that.

The one you linked to is just trying to be more realistic, where the amount of reflection varies with the viewing angle.

Very few people would have come up with that setup to calculate the reflection value - you're not at all alone in that.

But it didn't have much to do with a giant brain either. As I have explained before, anybody could do it, if only they would practice manipulating math formulas. I know that sounds impossible, but so is playing the piano at a higher level, which I can also do. Both abilities came from thousands upon thousands of hours of practice.

bill, did you try blinn with the new chrome shader(s)?

Why blinn ? Blur reflexion ;)

MN,

The Blinn node shows reflections of (point) lights (spot lights are "points" as well) and by adjusting the "eccentricity" you get blurred reflections of these point sources. But Blinn node does not do anything at all with objects. So if you are using a no-light setup, such as pure EnvSphere lighting via IDL, you get absolutely nothing from the Blinn.

On the other hand, the Reflect node shows reflections of 3D objects, and by adjusting the "softness" you get blurred reflections of each point of these 3D objects. But the Reflect node does not do anything at all with lights. So if you are using a no-environment setup, such as traditional non-IDL and many lights, you get absolutely nothing from the Reflect.

If you are doing a hybrid, with objects and lights, you need both. And that is what I do - both.

The tricky advanced thing I did in my shader is I have a dial for the blur, and it correctly modulates both the Blinn Eccentricity and Reflect Softness, in perfect agreement about the size of the smear from a given point source. That is what I think makes my shader worthwhile - that I connected the two so they agree.

What that means is if you have a point light and a distant glowing sphere, with the same luminance on both, what you see reflected on a sphere of these two objects (via the two different nodes) will look the same. This was very tricky.

If you look at your demo, you'll see you did not achieve that agreement.

o.k., got it.  some modulation of (reflection/softness  and specular/blur) function(s) to account for large diffuse and small specular emitters, respectively.  I don't hear the sound of exploding heads - surely a good sign I agree - they're gonna be lining up to buy this, once released at rdna.  this is one of the reasons why I didn't think it was necessary for you-know-who to add indirect specular yet.