Trying to render a flat object

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hi Everyone,

I have what is probably an unusual use for blender. I’ve built myself a toy called a cnc plasma cutter for profile cutting of sheet metal. I want to use Blender to render the cad drawings of metal art. Unlike the usual 3d items that get rendered, my items may only be 1/8 inch (3mm) thick and generally flat, so there’s not the usual variations in the surface shape to create a more real look. It seems relatively easing to get a decent look on something like a sphere, but with my flat items, all my render attempts look extremely plain.

Does anyone have any tutorials they could suggest for creating a paint texture. I’m guessing I need some sort of surface irregularities (is that called bump ?) to create a realistic look but my initial attempts at playing with nodes (Cycles) have been a disaster.

I am trying and reading and looking at Youtube videos but a lot of time is going by and I thought maybe I should ask for help.

Cheers,

Keith.

2

Well, maybe you could show us what you have (screenshots/blend file) and examples for the look you want to achieve? Otherwise this discussion might stay purely academic…

I have a feeling that lighting will be equally important as shading.

3

Thanks IkariShinji,

I was initially trying to render a file I imported / extruded but then I just made myself a plane and extruded it to 3mm thick for practise. Height and width could vary from 200mm square to 2400 x 1200mm (at 3mm thickness) so effectively I’m trying to figure out how to give a realistic look (gloss paint would do it) to an overall flat surface.

Maybe I need the “help” of an hdri image for reflections.

I’ll see if I can get some image examples. Maybe that will even help me figure out where to start.

Cheers,

Keith.