Chrome/Billet material

by Daniel Buck
http://www.danielbuck.net/

Chrome material is quite easy. Start off with a raytrace material and change the diffuse color to black, specular level to about 100, glossiness to about 70.

put a fallof material in the reflection spot, change the Falloff Type to Fresnel, and change the top black color to a light grey.

render out, and you'll have something like this:

Notice that the reflections seem a bit grainy looking. This can be corrected by using using SuperSampling. It's in the main raytrace menu, with the heading "SuperSampling". There are several different types of supersamplers. Hammersely is very good quality, but takes along time to render. Max 2.5 Star is a good for quality/speed. Just check the box, and render again.

Billet Aluminum is used alot for hotrod steering wheels, handles, wheels, grills, and all kinds of accesories. Billet has a white 'tint' to it, which gives it a brighter look than chrome.

Take the chrome material you just made, and change the diffuse color to solid white, and change the fallof type (in the reflection spot) from Fresnel to Perpenducular/Parallel. Now back to the main material, and click the raytrace button and choose Shellac. Click "Keep old material as sub-material" when the prompt appears.

Change the Shellac Color Blend to 50.0

Click "none" where the Shellac material will go, and choose "standard" from the list. Change the Diffuse to Black, the specular level to 100, and glossiness to 20.

Render out, and you should have it!

Reflective materials such as chrome, billet, and paint, will only look as good as the environment they reflect. Either make a scene for the object, or use a background image.

Chrome on the left, and billet on the right. Notice how billet has a much brighter highlight, it almost seems to glare at you.

There you have it! Have fun with the materials, and as always, experiment with the settings, you never know what you'll find out :-)