Hardsurface / machined parts studying with some post-processing fx.
Calling this one finished despite some details I know I’m missing–subtle textures and dirtying/imperfections that would really push this render. Welcome to hear anyone’s feedback for go-to techniques for getting the subtle grip texture that should be on the sides of the track/input fx knobs (large ones at left/right at the top). I’m still pretty new to modeling/texturing workflows and materials in Blender.
I really like the trick for having different buttons light up using the object data random! It’s very clever.
I’d recommend using the principled shader for buttons like that though, because they typically have some subsurface scattering, but the diffuse works fine too if you need something fast!
As for the textures on the sides of the knobs, I would recommend selecting all the vertical edges of the knob that you want to texture and in the select menu use the “Checker Deselect” feature (this will de-select every other edge), then scaling them down ignoring the z-axis. I’ve used this technique for knobs like that before and its the easiest way I’ve found so far.
yeah I played with the princ. shader for SSS but I’m still trying to figure out what the different values/controls on it mean. Despite it being technically correct, for this model I found that just dealing with the emission shader was giving the look I liked at less costly rendering times and noise.
For the sides of the knobs, I was wondering if something like that combined with a normal map was the way to go? Also wondered if a grey scale bump map indicating the grip would be enough
You could use a normal or bump map for that, but displacement would probably work better, as that texture is pretty severe. I tend to use normal maps for things like knurling because they’re small enough that a texture will work cleanly. But feel free to experiment, maybe you’ll find a good method of doing it with displacement/normal/bump!
