Hey guys, I just published a tutorial I wrote about materials on my blog.
It’s focussed on specular maps, and how you use them to truly represent the nature of real-world materials in 3D.
It’s based on personal studies and it may not be accurate on many aspects. But it’s as precise as I could make it.
I hope you find it useful.
Disclosure: I am NOT a tech artist! I’m a character artist, so I am sure this tutorial is not targeted at the audience of this forum, but I have a profound respect for the technical aspect of our profession, and I would value you feedback.
I found this very informative. Materials are something I have just done without ever understanding. A question about implementation though, what actually inputs into the materials specular color? Is it just the inverse of the diffuse ( if we are talking about dielectrics ) or the linear dodge combination of the two layers or is it all of the layers including the black and white multiply group ( though I assume that is just for testing )?
Hey man, the Linear Dodge diffuse layer, plus the black flat layer and the other one with the white spots are just for a quick preview in photoshop, they are NOT your specular map. You should turn them off when you save the file for render.
As for the spec color, dielectric materials will tend to use the inverse hue of the diffuse, but that doesn’t mean that it’s just a matter of inverting your diffuse and it’s done. That’s just your starting point. So, lets say we are talking about a brand new shiny brown leather jacket, and an old, worn, matte brown leather jacket.
The first one will probably be bright blue, but the second one will probably be a very dark blue. The color of the diffuse is the same, brown, and also will be the same the HUE of the spec map, blueish. But the intensity, the value of these two different spec maps will be very different, and saturation may vary as well. One will be bright, because it’s shinny. The other will be dark, because it’s matte.
Many thanks!