[HELP] Minor issues with POVray renderings

[VintageCharlie]

Hi folks,

i'm working on this model and i did a first proper rendering with LDD to POVray and POVray 3.7

Here's the result:

Generally i am satisfied with these first results quite a bit, but there are a couple issues that i do not know how to solve:

- parts with "silver drum lacq" color - like the tubes on the bumper and the step bar, as well as the wheels don't have the smooth shiny finish, instead they have that abrasive/grainy look typical to the old sloped bricks - how do i change this back to normal?

- "silver" color is constantly converted to what appears like light grey - hard to tell, as there are many grey variations.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you and best regards,

VintageCharlie

[hrontos]

- parts with "silver drum lacq" color - like the tubes on the bumper and the step bar, as well as the wheels don't have the smooth shiny finish, instead they have that abrasive/grainy look typical to the old sloped bricks - how do i change this back to normal?

- "silver" color is constantly converted to what appears like light grey - hard to tell, as there are many grey variations.

Chrome or any "polished" looking parts need something to reflect. This means, that if you render it only with standard lights, it will appear as gray. Since your lights have only let say 40% intensity, they are not pure white but gray.

It is just like when put small mirror in front of big white paper and look at the paper being reflected by the mirror. Since it is white, whole mirror will be just white. If you will photograph it by camera and crop all surrounding environment in picture editor, leaving only paper in the mirror, nobody will know, that it was mirror, since on the picture it looks exactly like the paper.

[VintageCharlie]

Thanks, hrontos, i initially thought the same before i included a HDR skysphere in the scene. Now everything is reflecting something, even all the plastic parts clearly have reflections of the surroundings and of other parts. The tubes that are in silver drum lacq are reflecting too, but they have this grainy surface, same goes for the wheels, here's a close-up:

The silver drum lacq material parts are certainly reflecting - these are the mirrors body and the tubes - you can even see yellowish sun light particles on the step bar, but the reflective surface is also grainy/abrasive, like sloped bricks, so something is wrong with some materials i suppose and i would like to know, how to fix this - these parts should be chrome like, like they are in real world. Also, there is plenty of stuff to reflect on the bricks that now appear grey (angle elements on the bumper, bumper fastener, grille, mirror holder) - they even have reflections on them, but they are grey, not silver. This is consistent and also in the interior, where there is even more to be reflected. It's just two wrong materials and i suppose the fix is easy, but i don't know how to do this.

Would be great if anyone could point me into the right direction. I remember seeing posts about the abrasive surface appearing on parts where it should not, but i can't find that post anymore, nor the solution.

Thanks in advance!

[JM1971]

Add this the top of your pov file.

#declare ldd_normal_dullMetallic_255 = normal { bumps .005 scale 1 turbulence 0 }

This is what is causing the abrasive effect in ldd_finishes.inc I think.

#declare ldd_normal_dullMetallic_255 = normal { facets coords 0.38 scale 0.038 } //normal { bumps .2 scale .01 turbulence 0.3 }

[VintageCharlie]

JM, thank you very much - i will try this out later on.

What should i look for in regard to the silver turning into standard (light) grey?

[VintageCharlie]

I just noticed that both of these colors that are off, are legacy colors - silver (# 131) and cool silver, drum lacq (# 298). 131 silver is also called Pearl Light Gray according to color charts, so it might have been mixed up, or due to the fact that it is a legacy color. I might try to define it identical to the cool silver drum lacq, so they would be identical in the rendering, but it would not be accurate. So i'd need to find a pearl finish that looks right for this.

[Leewan]

You could try to use 315 - Silver Metallic instead silver and/or drum lacq silver. If you want a good chrome effect, you could also check here, I had a similar issue, and alkonavt96's file gave intersting results :

(note : I've also used a sky sphere for this image)

Edited May 17, 2014 by Leewan

[VintageCharlie]

Thanks for the link, Leewan. Together with the suggestion that JM1971 made, the materials are almost all there now. cool silver drum lacq has now a smooth appearance, silver and metallic silver have a chrome-like appearance. Though this is also a bit of an issue, as i'd still need silver to have the proper appearance, if it is possible - it is slightly reflective, but has also a matt finish - like can be seen on the bumpers of the 41999 set:

I'd need this kind of finish for the grille and for the interior - in the aluminum panel. How could i use this sort of material? What code would be right for that?

[JM1971]

I've tried a few times but cant get the right look, I have a 41999 and looked closely at the silver matt bricks but cant work out how its done, the closest I came was upping the amount of tiny bumps that are already part of this texture in LDD2POV.

I'll try looking for a sand blasting type of finish done in povray, so maybe instead of bumps I'll try tiny indents.

Edited May 20, 2014 by JM1971