Gemstones & Ice: Introduction

Course

Shader Forge | Understanding Shaders in Cycles Render Engine

1. 3D Print Resin
Always on the look-out for a new way to present 3D models, in this lesson I explore a specific kind of 3D print resin that seems tailor-made to accentuate form and shape.
- 3D Print Resin
  Playing 23 min
2. Bodies of Water
This chapter involves light refraction and absorption as characteristics of water collections.
- Bodies of Water: Introduction
  Playing Free < 1 min
- Procedural Wave Displacement
  Playing 15 min
- Refractions & Reflections
  Playing 27 min
- Caustics & Pool Demo
  Playing 16 min
- Ocean & Lake Demo
  Playing 12 min
- Shader Forge - Water
  Playing 4 questions
3. Brushed Metal
A specific finish for metallic objects, brushed metal's key characteristic is the 'stretching' of reflections across a model's surface. It's common with kitchen appliances, jewelry, household accessories, and more.
- Brushed Metal
  Playing 31 min
4. Carbon Fiber
Carbon fiber is a great material that can be used anywhere from the trim on a fancy sports car to a scraped up sci-fi helmet. Since it can be molded into practically any shape and can be ten times stronger (and five times lighter!) than steel, carbon fiber goes well with anything high tech.
- Carbon Fiber
  Playing 12 min
5. Car Paint
Vehicle rendering is one of the most popular uses of computer graphics. Car paint has a specific look and feel that leans heavily on the concept of "fresnel".
- Car Paint
  Playing Free 18 min
6. Clip Art
Sure it's not 1995 anymore, but turning your 3D model into clip art is totally cool! Plus this shader exposes you to some unconventional usage of nodes.
- Clip Art
  Playing Free 8 min
7. Dispersion
This is the optical phenomenon that occurs when light passes through transparent material causing the separation of the color spectrum.
- Dispersion
  Playing Free 7 min
8. Gemstones & Ice
Dazzling gems and crystals are relevant to jewelry, pirate treasure, a monarch's crown, and anything else that needs bedazzling. The emphasis in this chapter is on manipulating complex refractions despite an object's simple surface.
- Gemstones & Ice: Introduction
  Playing Free < 1 min
- Analyzing Reference
  Playing Free 5 min
- Implementing Absorption
  Playing 4 min
- Using Bump for Refractions
  Playing 13 min
- Reflection & Color
  Playing 10 min
9. Gold
This precious metal focuses on reflection and bump texture as it's primary characteristics of surface quality. Additionally, the last lesson demonstrates the consolidation process of a node group.
- Base Shader & Bump Texture
  Playing Free 17 min
- Tweaking Reflections
  Playing 13 min
- Node Grouping
  Playing 16 min
10. Hologram
This effect is popular in the Sci-fi genre and it's a fun material to build.
- Hologram
  Playing 8 min
11. Lava
This molten material features highly-detailed geometric displacement, multi-layered procedural textures, and adaptive subdivision. It's a hot chapter.
- Lava: Introduction
  Playing Free < 1 min
- Lava Reference Analysis
  Playing 3 min
- Lava Main Mask Layer
  Playing 10 min
- Lava Secondary Level
  Playing 13 min
- Lava Wrinkle Layer
  Playing 8 min
- Dialing in the Displacement
  Playing 14 min
12. Leather
Leather makes a good procedural candidate because it’s used often for things like car interiors, furniture, and clothing among others. So an artist’s material library benefits from having a flexible material that’s not restricted by image textures and UVs.
- Bump Map
  Playing 10 min
- Color Variation
  Playing 7 min
- Leather Couch
  Playing 12 min
13. Marble
A natural stone that’s used often in architecture, countertops, tile, and statues/sculptures among other things.
- Marble
  Playing 31 min
14. PBR
Create a shader group node based on a modern standard.
- PBR: Introduction
  Playing Free 3 min
- Building a PBR Shader
  Playing 8 min
- Creating a PBR Group Node
  Playing 8 min
- Metalness & Specular Workflows
  Playing Free 5 min
- Using the Principled Shader
  Playing 11 min
15. Snow
This is the white stuff that falls from the sky during the winter time.
- Snow
  Playing 29 min
16. Speed Boost
A simple trick to speed up render times for materials using bump maps.
- Speed Boost
  Playing Free 9 min
17. Wood
Expert-level lesson about procedural wood grain. NOTE: This is from guest author Bartek Skorupa.
- Wood
  Playing 42 min

Gemstones & Ice: Introduction

A most precious material

Gemstones are unique in that they have dazzling refraction even with a simple surface - especially in the case of natural gemstones. So the real meat and potatoes of this Shader Forge lesson is about manipulating what's inside the material more than what's on the surface.

What You'll Learn

You will see how to use the Absorption node group - found in our Utility Node Groups resource. We'll be using this to create a gradient factor value from the middle of the material (or middle of the object with the material applied) to the outside surface, effectively giving us access to do fun things with the inside of the material.
Next, we'll use an over-powered procedural bump texture to create the illusion of refractive complexity.
Finally, we will add a reflective component to the outside surface and explore coloring the material to represent different kinds of gems.

Applications

Whether it's a crystal cluster or a glass of ice-cubes, this gemstone material has many uses:

CC Attribution

Materials

Gemstones & Ice: Introduction

A most precious material

What You'll Learn

Applications

Course Files

Downloadable files