UPDATED v1.6: Thin film interference / iridescence and metals (script)

1.6 update: added option to simulate interference in two layers plus substrate

original thread: https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?403299-Cycles-PBR-thin-film-interference-(with-blend-file

Example images (oil stain, soap bubbles, multichromic car paints)



Materials provided:


blend file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k2lehy470xceuws/interference.blend?dl=0

1.1 How to use the script:

In a new Blender file, make sure you have set Cycles as the rendering engine. Then, on the Render tab of the properties window (where you also set render size), check the box that says ‘Open Shading Language’. You might need to turn off GPU computing to see the box. When you have created your object and added a material, make sure to ‘use nodes’, and then add (Shift+A) a script node. Select the ‘external’ option and open the .osl file provided below. Or, Create a new text block within Blender, paste the code there and select the ‘internal’ option. Then select the text block you just created.

1.2 Options of the script:

Inputs:

  • Top layer*:
    [LIST]

  • thickness of layer 1, d_top (in micrometer)

  • Index of refraction IOR_top of layer 1. RGB datatype: a value for red ®, a value for green (G) and a value for blue (B). Default (1.6,1.6,1.6).

  • Extinction coefficient k_top of layer 1, related to the absorbance. RGB datatype: a value for R, a value for G and a value for B. Default (0,0,0) = nonabsorbing

  • Middle layer*:

  • layer 2 thickness d_middle (in micrometer)

  • IOR_middle of layer 2. RGB datatype: a value for R, a value for G and a value for B. Default (1.6,1.6,1.6).

  • k_middle of layer 2, related to the absorbance. RGB datatype: a value for R, a value for G and a value for B. Default (0,0,0) = nonabsorbing

  • Substrate:

  • IOR / n of the substrate (base layer). RGB datatype: a value for R, a value for G and a value for B. Default (1.45,1.45,1.45).

  • k of the substrate. RGB datatype: a value for R, a value for G and a value for B. Default (0,0,0) = nonabsorbing

  • Wavelength*: the wavelengths to use for the interference effect, for the R, G and B channels.

  • IOR_outside*: the index of refraction of the ‘outside world’. Typically 1, but under water would be 1.33, for example.
    [/LIST]

  • Whether these inputs are visible depends on the conditional compilation flags, discussed below.

1.3 Outputs:

  • F: reflected percentage of the light, per color (RGB), at the angle between the normal and the ray of light.
  • F0: reflected percentage of the light, per color (RGB), at normal incidence.
  • T: transmitted percentage of light, per color. Can be hooked up to a refractive shader.
  • T0: transmitted percentage of light at normal incidence.

By hooking these up to glossy and refractive shaders, metallic and glass-like materials can be made. Examples are present in the blend file. Negative values which don’t make sense are not prohibited, and may lead to funky results.

1.4 Conditional compilation:

The OSL script has statements that are used for conditional compilation to maximize speed. For example, say you only want to use it to calculate the interference due to a single layer on top of a base material. Then, there is no need for the code to calculate the second layer. You can simply set this layer thickness to 0, and it indeed will be as if it is not there. However, the code for the second layer does execute. To circumvent this, conditional compilation is used.

At the top of the code you can use #define statements to in- or exclude parts of the code. The provided example blend file has actually three identical copies of the OSL code, except for the amount of layers that it calculates. This is controlled by the flags for conditional compilation. The current flags that you can #define are these:

SINGLELAYER
DOUBLELAYER
NONVACUUM
EXPOSE_WAVELENGTH 

As you probably expect, SINGLELAYER includes just the code for a single layer on top of the base material. DOUBLELAYER includes code for two layers on top of the base material. If you don’t #define either, it will be just the base material (for example, for accurate metals). The NONVACUUM flag exposes the assumed index of refraction for the ambient medium. Typically that’s air, but maybe you have an underwater scene (n = 1.33) and you need to calculate what happens then. This allows you to change it. It has not been tested extensively by me!

EXPOSE_WAVELENGTH is a flag that allows the artist to set the wavelength for the R, G and B channels. At first, some values were hard-coded in the script, which of course can be easily changed by changing the code if you’re a programmer. However, I realize that often artists aren’t coders (or vice versa). Therefore, making the wavelength exposed in the shader node is an artist-friendly way to gain access to the internals. However, in many cases it’s just fine with the hard-coded values. Therefore, you can choose to expose the wavelengths to the outside, or to hide them altogether and maybe gain a little bit of speed.

2.1 Choosing values for n and k

The shader allows you to enter the values to use for the refractive index (n) and the extinction coefficient (k) for the red, green and blue channels. These values are often listed as a function of the wavelength of the light, for example at refractiveindex.info. Wavelengths that are perceived as red run from something like 625 nm to 670 nm, green is about 520 nm to 550 nm and blue is about 440 nm to 470 nm. Which wavelength you choose to use for red, green and blue depends on your own preference; there is no wrong choice, and the shader will behave physically correct regardless. Of course for different choices of n and k at slightly different wavelengths, the material is likely to change appearance slightly.

2.2 Optimized values of n and k for metals

So-called spectral renderers use the tabulated n and k values for each wavelength in the visible light spectrum to calculate what a material should look like. Cycles on the other hand only uses three color channels, one for red, one for green and one for blue. You might wonder what n and k values would best approximate the results of a spectral renderer. I have optimized the values of n and k for the metals that are included in the blend file to look as close as possible to the output from a spectral renderer, when the metal is illuminated with white light. These calibration curves can be found in this zip file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/uul8wbgso911svt/calibration_curves.zip?dl=0

Link to the script: http://www.pasteall.org/73796

thanks very much

1.5 update adds transmittance output and 3 new materials: titanium, germanium and tungsten.

prutser Congratulations and thanks you so much, a big code!

Cheers! Thanks for the feedback :slight_smile:

Version 1.6 adds interference in double layers, very suitable for color-changing car paints. I also added much more documentation, and the blend file now includes optimized n, k pairs for many metals. Documentation about the optimization is coming, but in the mean time see here https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?403299-Cycles-PBR-thin-film-interference-(with-blend-file) for some background.

Cheers!

I’ve been using this for a while. Amazing. Thank you. :slight_smile:

Thank you for the kind words :slight_smile:

I’d be happy to see what you did with the script! Btw, there are also many more materials in the current file, I forgot to update this post :wink:

A friendly user here pointed out that the links to the files were dead. I have updated them so they should work again.

THANK you!!

Metal Cadmium finish

would there be a way to show some different metal finish for Cadmium
not the pure metal which is grey but the metal finish which can have some colors at different location
many times mostly yellowish with other colors
in other occasion I’v seen surface with some grains in it
might be possible to add a noise bumps texture very small !

see this thread
like the Bolts finish which has some color
but not necessarily function of faces’s normal

thanks for any feedback

happy cl

Well done script. I am following you on the tracker and I look forward to see this implemented as well as new Metallic BSDF. I will play with your sample .blend file. Thank you for taking the time and efforts to write it.

Thank you for the nice feedback, I hope it suits you well :slight_smile:

JettG_G has ported the code to a noodle, which makes it GPU computing compatible :slight_smile:

See here: https://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?441723-Adapting-Pruster-s-Thin-Film-Code

Hi and thank you! This looks amazing! I have a question regarding the script tho, when loading in Blender 2.79 I can see the different shaders preview, but as soon as I apply it to my model, Blender changes it to a white pearl color (this happens with all the presets, tried with the different car paint ones). Do you know why this may happen? Again any help would be appreciated and thank you for sharing!

Hey! First thing that comes to mind is whether you have switched on the osl language button in your file? Without it, the script doesn’t get executed.