Hey all,
A pocketwatch, how hard can it be, right?
Built the face, the case, the crystal, the lid, 
no problem. Make it look like gold and not cheap plastic, 
problem.
Read over some tutorials and stuff, didn’t really understand (or else the tuts were from a really old version of Blender. Need some help here.
Thanks,
J
maybe you should download a material from the material library, you can probably find something on the resources page (http://www.blender.org/cms/Resources.181.0.html)
Hi j1adobe, what about the numbers?? 3 & 9 orientation?? and maybe 2, 4, 8 &10…I know it still a wip though…goodluck…
Liquidshield; I can’t get anything from that link. Have you tried it lately? Did it work for you? Also, I have a feeling my problem is in the lighting. I have reflections and some good highlights. The material library will only give me what is already there.
ecgilboy; Huh? I have no idea what your numbers mean.
Thanks
J
Sometimes the best way to make a fake reflective surface look more real is to use an HDR background. Maybe even HDR lighting. BUT DON’T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT. I am by no means an expert. Wait for someone to second me.
Well, you’re kind of right. You definitely need something to reflect for a reflective surface to look good. But a better way is to take a black and white photograph and map it in the reflection channel. After that lower the color value so the reflection is semi transparent. It also renders faster- no raytracing requires.
Hi j1adobe, what i mean is, isn’t. that those mentioned nos. should be upright?? I supposed… or my mistake…
Alden; I’ll have to give that a try.
Eagle Orion; Not familiar with HDR stuff. What is it and where do I find out how to use it? I’m always open to learning new techniques.
ecgilboy; I checked some pics of watches and the numbers do run like they are hanging from a line from 9 over to 3 and like they are sitting on the line from 8 to 4. There are lots of different stylesand layouts for watch faces… Maybe we are both right : )
J
heres a page ive used before: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro/Every_Material_Known_to_Man/Gold
Hope that helps 
bjzaba; thanks a bunch. I’ll give it a try.
J
Resources on HDRI:
http://gl.ict.usc.edu/HDRShop/main-pages/intro.html
I good HDR editor, there’s a free version there:
HDR probes here:
http://www.debevec.org/Probes/
How to use HDR with Yafray:
http://biorust.com/index.php?page=tutorial_detail&tutid=73
Blender 2.42 internal renderer now supports HDR images, but Yafray produces better results.
HDRI is really good for creating realistic raymirror qualities. I’m not sure how much it will count towards a gold look though.
More interesting stuff about a different kind of HDRI:
http://edusworld.org/ew/ficheros/2006/paginasWeb/making_of_sotc.html
http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=63631&highlight=HDR
It’s not important for your project, but it’s still interesting.
Eagle Orion; thanks for the list. Maybe some of it is not important for THIS project but the whole point of posting stuff is to learn. I’ve got a lot here to read through and try out.
J
