Reply To: BC1-1908 Homework – Jon Haile

Here we go!

Week 3 homework

So, I really like the shader and lighting step. Definitely need some more practice to get comfortable with the tools, but it’s a lot of fun to see it all come together.

I started out with Kent’s suggestion on the too-solid black texture on the rings.

 I figured, instead of going back to re-paint, why not try using some node magic? So I added some noise, stretched it…

 and mixed it in with the base color to start with some more variation.

Similarly, with the wood texture, I stumbled across the wave texture node, and really liked what it did both as an overlay on the texture as well as some basis for the various maps. I didn’t like the shinier water-logged look as much with this model, so the addition of the wave texture helps bring out some interest in the render that’s lost by things not being as reflective.

The floor is just a cylinder with a jungle of nodes based off voronoi and noise textures.

For the final lighting setup, I decided to try and not use the HDRI lighting. I have a background in studio work, so I wanted to see where I could start applying my skills of physically lugging lights around. It was fun to get back to throwing up one more small light just to pick up a specific detail.

So there we have it. After years of tinkering in blender, this is the first project I’ve actually seen through to a finished state. Here’s hoping I can keep the momentum going and start up something else!