Any tips to obtain nice reflections on flat surfaces?

Hi, I’m looking for a simple way to obtain nice reflections on a surface that is flat. I’d like to learn everything about Blender but it’s such a huge system, and currently I need to render a lot of objects created from SVG files, for a large project that needs LOTS of work in many areas, so I don’t have all the time I’d like to focus on Blender.

I’ve been reading and watching tutorials for a few weeks now, and found how to import and extrude SVG curves, how to setup a simple light scene, how to import Cycles materials and render with transparency, and that using HDR environment maps enhances the lighting. This is the result I can quickly achieve:


But it still looks flat. I’d like to give it some nice reflections without having to paint and map textures, or re-modelling the object since that would take a lot of time, and I have a large batch of items to render. Any ideas on how to improve it?

Use a glossy shader for the areas that you want reflective. Set the roughness to 0.0 for pure mirror effect. To blur the reflections increase roughness. 1.0 is same as diffuse node.

But I’m already using some metallic materials, that should have a glossy shader, aren’t they? So I’d need to curve the surface to have reflections, like the one in the grip of the sword, that is a cylinder. But I’m having trouble to curve the flat surfaces. That’s the reason I’m looking for a way to produce the reflections independently of the shape of the object, maybe with a light setup or faking them… no idea.