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Greetings: I'm new to Blender. I've done my due diligence by reviewing about 100 posts on similar rendering questions but, within the limitations of my understanding, I've not found a response that appears to answer my question.

In attempting to render an animation using eevee, I am unable to get the rendered images to show the glossy finish that I get in the Modeling editor when I select the Render Preview button. Instead, I get the grey appearance shown in the eevee image.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for your time.

Image rendered in eevee.

Image previewed in camera view in Modeling workspace.

enter image description here

enter image description here

Rocket Surgeon
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  • A shiny material needs something to be reflected on it. In the lookdev preview window you have an HDR image, but it is not used in the final render. https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/134736/background-reflected-in-glossy-glass-but-i-didnt-set-it/134759#134759 – Pullup Jun 04 '20 at 23:18
  • Read also: https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/48659/why-does-an-object-with-a-glossy-shader-render-in-black – Pullup Jun 04 '20 at 23:22

1 Answers1

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You need an HDRI texture for the proper reflections you are looking for. Go into the shading tab and switch from object shading to world shading (highlighted below). Add an environment texture, and assign an HDRI texture

(If you need HDRI images, one place that has a good selection of free ones is here - https://hdrihaven.com/hdris/).

Alternatively, if you want the same ones that come with blender (used in lookdev), they are in the folder ../2.82/datafiles/studiolights/world. I think the one you used in the preview is forest.exr

Connect it up as shown below and enjoy.

enter image description here

For the other problem you are having, your (base) material node setup should look like this. Either add the nodes if they're not there, or if you want to just start again, hit the minus button next to the material, and add a new one.

NODE SETUP

EDIT: A SAMPLE PROJECT FOR YOU

Ok, I made a .blend project that SHOULD be pretty much the same as what you're working with. It works fine for me. Download it, and have a look, and see if it

a) it works for you, and

b) has any differences between it's settings and yours.

File is here -

Christopher Bennett
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  • Christopher: I followed your instructions above, after downloading a HDRI and installing it. The node arrangement looks exactly like yours with World selected in the drop down menu in the node editor while in Shader. The background now shows the HDRI image, however the objects in the scene are purple, and the rendered image has not changed from the image I posted above. It shows no background, and the text is still grey instead of shiny. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 01:30
  • They are purple. I have a screen shot, but cannot figure out how to post it in response to your posts. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 01:36
  • Ahh, ok. I edited my original post, and added the new image. Hope that's ok. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 01:40
  • I probably have something incorrectly set in my material or texture. Sucks being a wanker newbie. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 01:41
  • I'm new to nodes, and Blender in general. However, when in the Shading editor, and selecting Object from the drop down menu, with the text selected and highlighted, I have no node elements showing. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 01:43
  • None at all? First, jsut make sure you have the material selected in the material section (in the right side panel) You should at least see a Principled BSDF node and a Material Output. If not, you can add them by clicking the add button (add>shader>principledBSDF, and add>output>MaterialOutput) – Christopher Bennett Jun 05 '20 at 01:48
  • Think I'm getting yelled at for posting in the wrong place. Got message to piss off to Chat, but then told I don't have enough points to Chat. Not familiar with this interface. Sorry. Old guy, can't see to well. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 01:50
  • Don't worry, that happens. Hang on. I'll delete some of my previous comments to make it stop yelling, and i'll give you some points to help you post more. I'll also add a second pick to my answer to show what your node setup SHOULD look like. – Christopher Bennett Jun 05 '20 at 01:51
  • Added screen shot of material nodes above. Note, using Glossy BSDF instead of your Principled BSDF, so my node is different. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 02:02
  • That is strange. I noticed in your most recent picture, that the text looks silver, not purple, is this correct? I am scraping at straws here, I've done my best to recreate your entire scene (same object material, same HDRI), and I really can't see any reason why things are going wrong. – Christopher Bennett Jun 05 '20 at 02:13
  • Correct, after adding the material nodes the text went back to the original grey color. I expect it to be glossy. Material preview shows mirrored ball with purple background. Rendered image shows black background, not the HDR image. – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 02:15
  • I added another edit to my question with a file you can look at. – Christopher Bennett Jun 05 '20 at 02:26
  • Deleted original material and recreated it. Nodes are the same. Behavior didn't is the same. Dunno. I'll keep pushing the rope from this end. Many thanks for your assistance :) – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 02:27
  • No problem, Best of luck. Blender has a strange learning curve - many hours of frustration up front, that, at some point, forms into a solid understanding almost overnight. Sooner than you think it should - hang in there. – Christopher Bennett Jun 05 '20 at 02:30
  • Sorry, didn't see your message about the test model. Downloaded it and...SHAZZZAM...it works perfectly. I'll have time later to look at the settings. I can probably find the problem. MANY thanks for your help! – Rocket Surgeon Jun 05 '20 at 02:33
  • I wanted to close this issue by expressing my gratitude to Christopher Bennett for his generous assistance while helping with this issue. While I was not able to find the problem with my model, I eventually discovered this excellent tutorial on HDRI which may be of use to others. The video shows how to load the Node Wrangler add-in, included with Blender, which allowed my model to function correctly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbAWTNCJVEs – Rocket Surgeon Jun 06 '20 at 03:47