Trying to make object look like metal doesn't work

Question

I followed a tutorial on how to make something look like metal, it worked in the video and seems to have worked for everyone in the comments. For me it looks like this even tho I have checked that everything is the same as in the video. What did I do wrong? Also I'm wondering what the little piece of white is in the eye. Tutorial I used: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtVYCMNvykg

It appears you are using an old version of blender why don't you do it in 2.79 or higher. Also try subdividing the Suzanne and smooth shade it. I am not familiar with color ramp of older blender version so I think the color ramp is the problem in your node setup (probably)... — Nxdhin, Jul 10 '20 at 16:11
I wanted to use a newer versio, but they immediately crash for me after launching them! I needed to find this version on an old laptop because all the new versions online didn't work for me. — Exarpo, Jul 10 '20 at 16:29
I will try 2.79, everything above that didn't work but this may work. — Exarpo, Jul 10 '20 at 16:30
Okay so i managed to make 2.79 work and recreated this and it still doens't look right — Exarpo, Jul 10 '20 at 16:32

Christopher Bennett · Answer 1 · 2020-07-10T18:09:39.067

3

To get the effect like in the video, you have to do a few things. Firstly, arrange your nodes like I have them in the image below. You can play with the values to tweak it if you want. Secondly, the metal look in the image is the result of smooth shading and the reflection of an area light. You can see in the image, I added a square area light above the monkey, and smoothed the monkey itself by using a subdivision surface set on 2 subdivisions (ctrl+2 with monkey selected), and applying smooth shading from the right click menu. To get a basic metal look, see the settings below:

However, I see from the video that the look you're aiming to achieve is chrome, which would be better suited by this setup. Play with the ColorRamp values (even switch their positions) to change the tint - you can make it either light or dark.

You can change the color of the glossy to change the color of the object including the metallic tint. Note I accidentally connected the fresnel output of the layer weight instead of the facing output, however, you can try both and see what gives you results you like better.

edited Jul 10 '20 at 18:09

answered Jul 10 '20 at 16:50

Christopher Bennett

25,875
2
25
56

Hello :). Just to add, Principled BSDF could also be used for this, since it has a dedicated metalness input. – jachym michal Jul 10 '20 at 17:00
1

Yes, but he said he wanted it to be able to work with older versions of blender (pre-2.79), which don't include the Principled BSDF. – Christopher Bennett Jul 10 '20 at 17:07
Oh, you're right, I missed that :). – jachym michal Jul 10 '20 at 17:08
On the note of older versions of blender, when I say "right click menu" in my answer, that may mean "left click menu" for you. Many apologies. – Christopher Bennett Jul 10 '20 at 17:08
It works when I follow your instructions! Many thanks :D – Exarpo Jul 10 '20 at 21:40

Trying to make object look like metal doesn't work

1 Answers1