Materials and Shading Q&A and Scene Help

Jonathan Lampel

Hey CGC! My next course, the Fundamentals of Materials and Shading, is coming out next week. To go along with that, I'll do a stream on the topic. If you have any questions about materials or would like help with a scene you are having trouble shading, post below! 

  • hashtag02 replied

    Hi Jonathan! I made this scene a couple months ago. I was going for a minimalist desk setup that looked photo-real. Though I am not disappointed with the outcome, it didn't exactly come out how I had imagined. Do you believe the materials are to blame for the "non-photo-realistic" nature of the image, and if so, how could I go about improving it?

    Thank you!

  • spikeyxxx replied

    One thing that makes this look wrong is the fact that the shadows are not consistent....where is the light coming from?

    Also, I might be mistaken, but it looks to me as if there is a 'flat' image behind the window, instead of a HDRI...

  • Karen Trevino(ketre) replied

    In nature when the sun shines through the window, I see different rays of the sun filter through as well as dust particles. I'd love to learn that.

  • Jonathan Lampel replied

    Hey hhashtag02 , that looks like a great scene to experiment with on the stream! There are a lot of good things to say about it and I agree that it is just short of photo real. May I poke around the file? You can pack the textures and post it to pasteall.org , Dropbox, or something and link it here.

  • hashtag02 replied

    spikeyxxx There are two light sources in the scene: the HDRi (it's not a flat image) set to a strength of 1, and a sun lamp shining into the window.

  • hashtag02 replied

    @jlampel Sure! You can download it from the Google Drive link below. 

    https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hYoKaVwR0DSiVrWsy0S6YRJHvdS5-_rW/view?usp=sharing

    Looking forward to the stream!

  • Kat Loveland(chaoslillith) replied

    Hey @jlampel if you want to use my lovely little Bearded Dragon I made to show some shading, I can send you the blend. I will be learning all the texture painting stuff this week, I am doing an animation challenge so want it all to look good. Looking forward to your course! Rather timely :) RSVP'd for the livestream too.

  • Jonathan Lampel replied

    cchaoslillith I think that could make for a great example! 

  • Kat Loveland(chaoslillith) replied

    Okay, I will send it to you tomorrow :)

  • Kat Loveland(chaoslillith) replied

    Here's the link

  • Karen Trevino(ketre) replied

    I'd love to know how to shade something so it looks like the back culling and cavity. It really looks good on low poly models.

  • Jonathan Lampel replied

    Thanks Kat, and sure I can cover that ketre !

  • Kat Loveland(chaoslillith) replied

    You're welcome. Please overlook the hideous fingers lol and disorganized mesh, reptile hands are hard and it was my first sculpt :)

  • Shawn Blanch(blanchsb) replied

    I have not gotten around to this course but I really wish I had time to do it before the live stream. Sooooo much I want to learn on this aspect. Sadly I don't have anything ready for review. I am sure I will learn from other's posts though.

    Don't take my lack of submission for lack of interest haha.

  • Shawn Blanch(blanchsb) replied

    cchaoslillith it looks like your images did not get packed into the blend file. Also you left your "lock camera to view" button on. Pretty cool scene though. I'm interested in seeing this one covered!

  • Kat Loveland(chaoslillith) replied

    blanchsb I am not sure what you mean by images did not get packed. Does it not open right in Blender? Thanks! Glad you like the scene. Or are you referring to the textures?

  • spikeyxxx replied

    It's Textures that are missing:

  • Kat Loveland(chaoslillith) replied

    Oh, yeah lol. I haven't had to pack textures yet :) Sorry. It  was just a wood and wall texture. If @jlampel wants them I can learn how to fix that, unless he wants to use his own, whatever works best.

  • spikeyxxx replied

    To pack textures is easy:

  • Kat Loveland(chaoslillith) replied

    Ahh cool! I will do that and add the new file, although it is a shading and materials course lol. Maybe he'll just make cool new ones ;)