Expert: Andre Hickman - 6/25/2004

Question
hey!
do you  know any websotes where i can download matlibs to 3dsm? i'm specially looking for metal textures.

thanks ;)

Answer
No I don't know of any sites that offer that, but with a little extra effort (and time getting understanding of the process), you can design the materials that you want pretty easily.  If you want shiny polished metals, you need to start using .hdr bitmaps as your reflection map (usually with a metal-type material). This will give it more of a real appearance than regular bitmap images because .hdr images retain real lighting information along with the color (ex. a blue sky doen't just reflect color, but it also holds the lighting intensity of the blue sky) Check this tutorial:

http://www.3dkingdom.org/print.php?sid=431&POSTNUKESID=3d561aa7051cd2e3a4489d32c...

there are tons of tutorials and places to download .hdr images, and all 3d max versions have the capability of using HDR without any special plugins (even though some of the tutorials use special renderers)

If you are looking for other ways to make metal, check out 3D Cafe's tutorials 3dcafe.com

http://www.3dcafe.com/asp/tutorials/max/metallic/metallic.asp

or simply look up "rusted metal in 3d max" or "metal tutorial 3d max" or "raytrace material 3d max" in a search engine and I KNOW with out a shadow of a doubt that you will find what you are looking for.  Hope this helps.  I know it will. Write me back if you need more help.

Cheers,
Andre'