I have a character whose surface texture is to be similar to coal. I figured I would look around for some coal textures to get some inspiration from, but I can’t seem to find any. I realise after some thought that perhaps coal is just really hard to do, it has this difficult mix of opaque and shiny surfaces. See image below. Perhaps I should start from scratch and experiment but the whole lack of coal textures being seems odd. i just cant find anything even half realistic using goolge, the ones I have found are more focused on making a glow effect from fire.
Does anyone have any good examples of coal? I was planning on using Cycles.
yup, tho bluish is most likely something reflecting… search: graphite coal
use almost black albedo, IOR of carbon/graphite/diamond (~2.4), some diversity in roughnes/reflection and some magic displacement
here’s a quickie lit by Sun & IBL / the most tedious part is getting the believable structure right
That is a fantastic start. I have done some experimenting with the Veroni texture, adding multiples with different scales in an attempt to replicate the effect coal has of heing shattered crystals. I’ve backed off the musgrave too. I think this is actually a close enough approcimation that it will do for my purpose for now. I will keep an eye here though since its an interesting discussion.
I should mention I have barely used Cycles. I don’t really know what I’m doing… yet.