Now with a proper test render done, I could get into the meat of testing out the materials. Unfortunately, despite my research and initial grand plans to have self-designed stained glass windows, I simply did not have the time to do this – I had to make do with good ol’ regular glass. Disappointing, as I was really looking forward to trying that out, but I suppose with big projects it’s understandable that some elements won’t make the final cut.
Materials wise, I looked back at some of my visual research, and looked more into the Lotus Temple, which was one of the main inspirations on the original design:
It really is lovely isn’t it.
I was however, aiming to go for more of a futuristic look, so the clean off-white marble roof tiles wouldn’t make sense – however I did like the use of tiles to clad a curved form.
Before I got into such specific texturing details however, I made some tests with basic materials made without maps – made simply by editing the reflect, gloss, diffuse, and other material settings. After that, I fixed the camera to eye-level and adjusted the view, and got down to the nitty gritty of test rendering.
With this first stab, I liked how the metal looked as a roof and general material – the reflective qualities lend a suitably futuristic look whilst also being nice and clean and a realistic material choice for such forms. It also actually looks fairly convincing for such a quick material.
The bronze arch details, ehhhh not so much. In and of itself, it’s not horrendous I suppose, but I just don’t think it fits.
Go go Power Rangers!
…it is however markedly better than this monstrosity. Yikes. I was going for a gold appearance but bloody hell it’s hideous. And oddly, reminds me of Power Rangers.
Not to be deterred though until I’d exhausted its potential, I tried again:
I can safely say I’ve never seen metal in this precise shade before. And not in a good way.
Whilst better, it’s still pretty nasty and just does not fit. I came to the conclusion that whilst alternating the colours and materials for these frame details makes sense, bright colours is not the way to go.
gggggg
Believe it or not, I actually tried again, further dulling down the colours, to the extent that it now looked like the product of an unholy union between gold and ash. A kinda meh grey-yellow.
This stage is always the most experimental and often takes a bit of time before you find something that clicks – luckily the roofs, whilst they needed a good deal of refinement, were on the right track here.
Stuart McInnes 