Gray Textures

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hey Peeps!
Alright, so this is probably a very noobulescent question, but:
I have a steel gray texture I am using on a model, although when I render it, due to the background and such it just appears white, or - at best - almost the neutral model color. Also, when I apply light, it either shows up simply glaring white or reflects the colors of the light when I change those (also, I have altered specular and diffuse settings, and although it doesn’t really help much anyway, steel has that shine to it, so I don’t want to make it “flat,” I guess you could say).
I realize I could simply tweak the colors of the texture until it shows more clearly, but that would defeat the color scheme I am going for.
So I’m trying to figure out a way I can bring that out more, or, more appropriately, see it clearly while I model. Any suggestions?
Here, I’ll even post some images, for some reference:

stc=1

And the model (which the stairs have the texture applied already):

stc=1

2

Not enough info

We don’t know sufficient about material settings, lighting in your scene or world settings.
What texture mapping are you using ? If UVs, is the object UV unwrapped

Supply link to your .blend file and all relevant textures

3

Another possible approach to a task like this is to make heavy use of material-and-texture nodes.

Basically, “what’s most important, in selling your ‘steel’ texture as authentic, is the scratchy pattern of lines … not (particularly) the color.” So, maybe you could manipulate that image to a very high-contrast, black-and-white “pattern of lines,” and use this as a mapping input, say, to a bump-map. Maybe you also use the map, this time as an alpha-input, to mix two colors … the base color of the steel and a second color that will be seen as reflected highlights. In this way you can apply “that scratchy pattern of lines,” in various ways and to various degrees of intensity, to almost anything, along with any other factors (specularity, etc.) that you think might heighten your intended visual effect.

Some of the effects will qualify as “materials” … “the base color(s) of the object” … while others will qualify as textures … “the effect upon reflected light.” You will likely use a combination of both, and use nodes in both cases.

The entire "nodes’ system encourages you to experiment, and to build up visual effects out of simpler components. It also encourages you to “see, critically,” your progress so-far and to then decide what new spice to add to the brew as it is cooking. :slight_smile:

If you simply look upon materials and/or textures as “digital shrink-wrap,” you’ll probably never be satisfied with what you get. This is a computer, and you need to feed it data and (by means of nodes) describe what it is to do with it. Let the computer truly compute what’s happening on the surfaces of these objects, and not simply “blindly take it from a PNG.” (Cuz that’s when you really “start cookin’ with gas!”)

I think that BlenderGuru’s Basics of Realistic Texturing tutorial is an exceptionally fine one.

Also note that Cycles, “by the intrinsic nature of the beast,” is quite different from BI in its handling of both materials and texture. Nevertheless: (a) you are not limited to using “only one renderer” in the construction of a scene, and (b) the node-based principles are still applicable, especially in the case of Cycles, which uses nodes for everyhing.

4

Okay, so here’s the blend file. I tend to work in Blender Render regularly, since I’m not proficient with Cycles yet. Also, the light settings are a standard sun, and, as I said before, when I change the color or brightness of the sun(s), it makes no difference and simply reflects off the surface, rather than showing a gray.

Bridge_and_Box.blend (1.09 MB)

5

Also, thank you for being so informative sundial. I realize how much more practice I need before I will be proficient with Blender, and thank you for the tips. I’m not just trying to churn out models; I would like to get pretty awesome with it, so I know before too much longer I will really have to delve into nodes, and, from the majority of tuts I’ve watched, use Cycles more often than not.

6

stc=1

that is the texture, it is a pretty simple .png file

7

Also Sundial, I have watched that vid on realistic textures (multiple times), but have yet to be able to produce suitable maps. I can follow directions, of course, I’m just not yet skilled enough to know the levels I need to hit to get them - bump maps, diffuse maps, etc. - “just right.”