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Does anyone has any have any tips or tricks to offer when rendering metal objects? 

I usually use C4D's built in materials instead of pbr image setups.  For lighting, I try and use a mixture of HDRI's and point or area lights.   However, I find the renders to be a bit bland especially on the the flat surfaced squared machines I'm trying to make look more interesting.  They are supposed to be stainless steel but I wanted them to be a bit more reflective so I mixed it with one of the chromes settings.  (know these are a bit noisy but I kept the render settings low)

Thanks,

Screen Shot 2021-07-23 at 4.24.28 PM.png

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My biggest tip would be - always make sure your material / model acknowledges real world imperfection. So no metals have completely or consistently shiny surfaces, nearly all of them have some variation in that, and a level of micro-scratching or anisotropy, and even the colouration is usually not entirely uniform across the surface unless you are literally making a chrome mirror ball or similar...

 

CBR

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I would also recommend setting up the environment with more contrast. In the real world, taking good shots of chrome objects can be challenging. Photographers employ a lot of tricks to get those nice highlights and dark areas. If you haven’t already, try to find some good studio HDRIs. Or model a room or box with both light and dark areas, then add planes at strategic points to shape the reflections. 

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@Igor I'm using the physical render.  (still waiting for Maxon to add redshift into their standard package 😉)

@Cerbera I'll try adding some more imperfections and see how it goes 👍 I didn't think to use it on standard stainless steel.
Actually, I recently finished some engine internals and near the end the client gave me some great reference shots.   It was really interesting trying to mimic the machined hatching scratches along the surface. 

 

@clarenceOh I didn't think to do that, I just used a standard bland hospital room HDRI .
https://polyhaven.com/a/hospital_room

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Okay, I will give general advice, it does not apply to C4D itself, and they are all my personal opinion.

1. It is important to choose the right render engine. I have tested more than 10 different rendering engines purely with the idea of rendering metals. The best of all is Luxcore. After that come Aplesseed, Maxwell and Indigo. Behind them is Corona.
I like the metal in these renders the most. In the other renders the metal seems plastic to me. 

2. The whole flavor of metal is in its reflections. The reflections come from the light sources. You can have light sources with sharp edges and soft ones. 
Combinations of HDR and soft light sources look good on metal. It is important to use colorless lights.
Here's my favorite HDR for metals:

 


image.png.2c0da72e892c7f905bc8c954944d1fef.png

 

Normally, I use two HDRs in a scene. One gives general illumination, the other gives glare on the curves of objects.
Then, I add small soft but bright lights for extra glare

 

image.png.0eee2e5ddf6c9d66490319f677aebce9.png

Then I add classic light sources. Also soft.

 

image.png.11db67818354fbc59421d4243e54d801.png

 

Then I add lighting for some places that turn out to be too dark, or which in my opinion should be lighter than it was possible to do with all of the above lights.

 

image.png.2826854da146fe47afd645a042e538e3.png

 

Then, I put some black planes with a soft transparency gradient, this is for dimming or reflecting black.
 

image.png.5b8e4311b74cfcb001db0240b064cdef.png

 

 

I haven't found any other easier way to get lighting in a way that pleases me and the customers. I'm talking specifically about metals.
 

3. Every metal has a color. Some have it look bluish, but if you do color sampling on photos with that metal, it turns out to be yellow! The trick is that many metals have a very low amount of color in the reflection, 1, 2, 3%.
 

4. Clamp. A clamp of the brightness of the lights. Yes, I use it. 
Strongly dislike Filmic, and put it very little in exceptional cases. 

 

image.png.8b21d9f45ae2d64ca1ce6413b5c72401.png

5. One last thing - no scratches! Only a perfect, new, flawless presentation of metalwork. That it would feel like jewelry.

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  • 4 months later...

@Dez Hey, I know this is super late but in the heat the project, I totally forgot to respond. Thought I'd hop back on to say thank you for your tips. I wasn't able to get going with a new render engine in time but I took your advice on the lighting setups and have been utilizing them on the past few projects, medical and automotive.  Wish I could share a link but I think my hands are a little tied. 
Well Done Reaction GIF by Black Prez

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