Something About Fresnel

posted to: Scratches & Bump

Hi, Kent:

     It is my third time to watch these shading tutorials of blender. Cause the use of different nodes is hard to understand for me. But after watching some videos on Youtube then come back here, I found this is still the best and most professional place. I began to use Substance last week and I noticed there is no something like Fresnel in Substance, like they just treat the whole material as metal or plastic or sth else, and won't use Fresnel to determine which part is rougher or not in the same material. I am really a newbie in shading and texturing. I don't know which workflow is closer to nature. And in this demo, from a preciser but maybe unnecessary point of view, should I use Fresnel to control the roughness of the Anisotropic BSDF node for metallic part?

Thanks!

  • Kent Trammell replied

    Hi ddiaoheyhey - Thanks for sharing about your experience and the fact that you came back here after trying out youtube tutorials. That makes us feel pretty good around here 😊

    I've never used substance but it makes me think fresnel is an assumed property and thus not an exposed option. I checked with @jlampel and he confirmed this. He says fresnel is automatically calculated by the roughness shader property.

    This makes sense honestly. It's arguably unnecessary to offer a non-fresnel glossy component, as Cycles does, since fresnel is entirely consistent in reality. So to answer your question, "Should I use fresnel to control the roughness of ___________" - the answer is always "Yes".