Gonzalo's Hot Pencil

Based on Gonzalo Firpo’s concept:


I produced this model and image:


Now I would like to give the pencil a more wet aspect and I am not being able.

Somehow as what I achieved in the point:


What I am not being able is to control the specular point of the glossy. I tried adding a toon shader but wasn’t possible either.

Thanks a lot in advance!!!

This is my actual node setup for the pencil’s body:


This is the closest I got by duplicating and enlarging the same mesh a bit and adding to it a transparent glass like material:


Here’s the material of the surrounding “glass”:


Yet another advance in the wetness, playing with the material of the glass that surrounds the pencil:



The new glass shader:


I would love to achieve a more liquid-like surface over de hot dog-pencil surface…

Any suggestion or comment, very welcomed!

Thanks!

Another one, adding a fresnel also to the meat of the tip… but my main problem is in the body, as I said.


no. just on so many levels, no :wink:

what do you mean?

Probably everything you hoped for. I am simultaneously imagining eating a pencil, while writing with a hot dog. Both are repulsive to me. It’s an experience that reminds me of Oppenheim’s Object but is far more unpleasant and much more visceral.

It’s “wrong” for all the right reasons. That is, unless you’re selling hot dogs with it - or pencils.

Ok, hehe. Thanks for the conceptual feedback. But I am more looking for feedback about the technical question I have. Thanks!

Oh! I didn’t actually read your post. Sorry.

I think one problem you’re experiencing is that the displacement is applied globally, and this in turn is applied to your “glassy” shader.

Instead, I would use a Bump node to apply the roughness only to the Diffuse shader’s normal input over the “unsharpened” portion. I think the sharpened point looks right, so you may either apply the sharpened portion’s “glassy” shader the same bump map, or exclude the displacement from the all but the tip.

You MAY want to add a less detailed bump texture back in for variation. But, I think the displacement on the specular highlight is detracting from the smooth, slimy quality of the hot dog.

Also, I am not totally following your greater than Math node. The output would be 1 or 0, yet, it is followed by a ColorRamp? Should this be a Maximum function?

Thanks Shawn!

I got what you said about the bump node. It’s a good one. Also I added a mapping node to the texture to make it bigger and less detailed.

About the greater than node, is to filter (i guess) some of the glossy “signal” and make the specularity spot smaller.

Because I think my problem is that for some reason my lighting generates a too big specularity spot.

I noticed this as I am not happy with the place the specularity spopt is placed on. So I moved/rotated my only light (lighting is sun + background) and noticed that the spot doesn’t move. So I guess my problem is that one: too big spot. Any ideas?

Perhaps I may cancel the specularity of my sun with “light path” and generate another light just for the spec…

Well, I finally tuned the glossy shader and also added some meshes simulating drips and drops of water. I am pretty happy so I consider it finished. What I want to add is some smoke or more precisely, vapour. I am rendering a first try of that, but in the meanwhile here is the hotpencil without smoke:


I am having difficulties in making the smoke sim behave as vapor over a hot dog would behave, but let’s see. Any tutorial about this is well appreciated.

Here it is the smoke version. I think the piece is finished. Any comment appreciated!

Attachments




Here the whole image:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]394693[/ATTACH]

Attachments


however I think the smoke looks better in the viewport:


this are the nodes I used for it:


Those drops of liquid on the left makes it look slimy.

This looks neat. I would not eat that, but it looks neat.
Why didn’t you separate the material of the lead and the body?
I don’t know if the sauce is mustard, but actual mustard leans more toward orange then green. But that could be a style preference because the greenish color contrasts better with the bun i guess.

I did separated both materials… I mean, each part has a different material. That’s what you mean?

The sauce is supposed to be mayonnaise, but yes, the sss with the green background turned it a little bit green…

Thanks @Nacconotnacho!

I think it’s because the drops are connected to the rest of the liquid, which makes it look thick like slime, instead of watery “hotdog sweat”