I really appreciated the help with my last question, this one is stumping me…
The material in the middle and bottom with the arrows, is showing an odd radiating in the middle of the part. Is this an issue with my UV Map or the material. I have included screenshots of the material nodes. In the material preview it shows the radiating circle
Looks like you have the anisotropic options turned on
Use a tangent node and try adjusting the x,y,z parameters, or tangent node in UV mode, or plug in pure colors into the tangent sockets (1,0,0 - 0,1,0 etc), if you’re going for a linearly brushed look.
@Jakebane I turned the Anistropic value to 0 on that material, and it solved the issue. Any reason why I need to leave it on, what does it do? In reading the Blender documentation it says “Amount of anisotropy in the reflection; 0.0 gives a round highlight. Higher values give elongated highlights orthogonal to the tangent direction; negative values give highlights shaped along the tangent direction.” So since I am dealing with flat objects, except for the handrail which is round, does this not really add anything for me?
Details like that tend to be stainless steel for durability and corrosion reasons, and a good appearance is best kept if brushed. Stains and bruises are less visible. Plus, it just looks bloody beautiful, but that’s me. Most metals will have some level of anisotropy from a machined state unless they have been deliberately polished to a mirror like finish. Not going into satins and matted metals for now.
If it’s a downloaded asset, most cases I’ve seen add anisotropy “because brushed”, with no attention to the tangents driving it. In this image you can clearly see the brush direction; along the flat profile direction, and radially for the rails (due to how abrasive machined finishing is done).
Also, you should be careful to make the direction match what should be a natural direction for the piece. I.e. this frame shows clearly how the brushing is oriented, and how the stretching is perpendicular to that.
