*.p2m material libraries out there?

Hi,
I'm looking for p2m file libraries in the subject of different precious gem
stone materials, diamond material, and precious metal materials.

I'm trying to learn photworks and find it difficult to get along with the
supplied materials (actually I never managed to get a long with any of those
rendering packages, so you can guess I'm pretty frustrated from this). my
task is a little difficult (at least to me): I need to render an jewellery
assembly of a ring which is made of two parts: one made of polished gold the
other one is made out of titanium. the gold one has a bezel in which there
is a part made of a square diamond. the rendering should look like the ring
is floating in the air (no background, and no shadows from the ring on its
surroundings). the rendering should convey the reflections of the polished
gold and the diamond together with the refraction and translucency which is
appropriate to a diamond.

I would love to hear any advice from any of you guys including the
photoworks gurus.

Thanks,
Gil

 

I've never had to render jewelry before. I've never even thought to give it
shot.
Unfortunately you won't find any .p2m libraries anywhere. They just don't
exist.

The gold and titanium materials can be found as stock PhotoWorks materials.
They may need some adjustments but you should be able to achieve good
results.

As for the diamond material. This will be tough. You'd have to modify a
stock PhotoWorks material (maybe glass?) and try to achieve the diamond
look. I assume your model has all the facets cut on the diamond geometry
already.

Having the ring appear floating with no shadows should be easy to set up.

I'm not sure any of this is of any help. I'd have to play with this one to
give some really good advice.

Rob

 

some tips:

1. In the scene tab make sure the background colour is set to white (or
whatever plain colour you want)
2. Use the spherical environment thing and find a good 'spherical' jpg to
give you reflections in your materials, this is a good place to start:
http://www.photopano.net/panos/
3. Use indirect illumination (set to minimum at first) and turn off all
lights to start with (you can do this in the photoworks tab so you can still
see your model to work on it!)
4. Un-tick the visible and reflective boxes for the scene top, bottom and
floor materials.
5. Set the number of reflections to 6 or so in the photoworks options box -
this will mean your mirror surfaces will reflect.
6. Check Rob Rodriguez's blog on Photoworks here
http://mountain-wave.blogspot.com/
7. When setting up lights is you tick the 'lock to model' box then it seems
a bit easier to position and get required results.
8. Split the screen to a few views (a bit like working in Studio Max) and
set up a camera. With a small window your test renders will be much faster,
and the camera can add depth of field and stuff which looks more realistic.
9. A large flat object high in the sky can be used to create a good
reflection in shiny stuff, you can even make it emit light by setting the
material type to 'constant'.
10.good luck

 

Lee, thanks for your detailed advice. and Rob - I will surely try one of
your tutorials in order to get over this hurdle. thanks guys!

Gil

 

Lee,
Those are great instructions which you gave me! now the result is much
better. Also, I want to add that I inserted a "point light" light object
inside the diamond, so it will look shinny and sparkling.
the titanium material which comes with solidworks doesn't look like the
turned titanium rings we use (too dark and with not enough reflections), so
I replaced it with the Nickel material which is much more similar in visual
properties to what we use.

Thanks, for pulling me out of this rendering chaos, in which I was in.

Cheers,
Gil