Weeks 2 & 3: Look Development

For my next project, I was assigned to develop a Look Development Lighting Rig for rendering materials. The goal of this project was to create 20 distinct materials with significant differences, forming a quilt of shaders to be produced using VRay.

Here is my completed render of the entire shader quilt. I encourage you to look below to see the process I used to create some of my materials.

After establishing the base lighting, I started on the required list of materials to be created, categorized into three groups: metals, organics, and non-metals/others.

Metals

The metal category included four distinct materials:

• Copper: Known for its warm reddish-brown tone and distinct reflectivity.

• Gold: A highly reflective yellow metal that required tuning for specularity.

• Brushed Aluminum: Featured a subtle texture reflecting light differently than smooth surfaces.

• Scratched Aluminum: Required adjustments to achieve the look of wear and tear from usage.

  
  

These materials took the least amount of time to create; below is my most successful shader, Copper.

Organics

The organic materials were represented through eight variations, including:

• Soil: Focused on texture and color depth to create realism.

• Wooden Stick: Captured grain and light absorption for an authentic look.

• A Leaf and Stem: Required varying levels of translucency to mimic light filtering.

• Flower Petal: Needed delicate tuning to represent softness and slight shine.

• A Rock and Pebble: Focused on surface detail and color variations to enhance realism.

  
  

This section required the most time to develop, and the flower petal shown below is my most successful material from this part.

Non-Metal Materials

The final category included 8 varied materials, being:

• Matte Plastic: Exhibited a non-reflective surface, perfect for showcasing color.

• Shiny Plastic: Required fine-tuning of reflectivity to capture glossy finishes.

• Rubber: Focused on subtle surface imperfections to create realism.

• Glass: Needed to convey transparency while maintaining reflections.

• Water: Challenged me with issues of refraction and surface tension.

• Wood Floor: Challenged me with creating a natural texture that feels authentic.

• Charcoal and Fabric: Captured texture details to make them appear lifelike.

  
  

I enjoyed creating these materials the most. I believe all of these materials had a strong relation to my references, however, my favorite is Water, shown below.

Final Thoughts and Insights

This Look Development project offered insight into the challenge of developing photorealistic materials. Through extensive testing and troubleshooting, I successfully made materials that have a connection to both lighting and their material properties, which I can utilize in my future projects. Thank you for reading, and see you in a few weeks!