Specularity. Specular vs. Diffuse Reflection. It was mentioned earlier in this lesson that light reflects off surfaces in a very predictable manner - in accordance with the law of reflection. Once a normal to the surface at the point of incidence is drawn, the angle of incidence can then be determined. The light ray will then reflect in such a manner that the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection. This predictability concerning the reflection of light is applicable to the reflection of light off of level (horizontal) surfaces, vertical surfaces, angled surfaces, and even curved surfaces.
As long as the normal (perpendicular line to the surface) can be drawn at the point of incidence, the angle of incidence can be measured and the direction of the reflected ray can be determined. A series of incident rays and their corresponding reflected rays are depicted in the diagram below. Each ray strikes a surface with a different orientation; yet each ray reflects in accordance with the law of reflection. 1. 2. Specular - Arnold for Maya User Guide - Arnold. Specular is direct and indirect reflections which can be made glossy (blurred). Color The color the specular reflection will be modulated with. Weight The specular weight. Specular 0-1 The BRDF model to use for specular reflections.
Cook Torrance is the recommended default setting. Ward Duer is an anisotropic BRDF suitable for brushed metal effects. Cook Torrance (recommended). Ward Duer The BRDF type determines the type of the highlights and glossy reflections. Ai Standard with BRDF set to Ward-Duer and a texture assigned to Specular Anisotropic Rotation More information on Specular BRDF can be found here. Roughness Controls the glossiness of the specular reflections. Specular Roughness 0-1 Available when the Specular BRDF is set to Ward duer. Anisotropy 0-1 You may notice faceting appear in specular highlights when using Ward Duer. Enable Subdivision and Smooth Subdivision Tangents to remove Ward-Duer specular faceting Rotation Specular Rotation 0-1 Reflectance at Normal Extended Controls.
Gloss maps and you! (GameBanana > Tutorials > Texturing) Over this past weekend, I found myself explaining gloss maps and how they relate to UDK/game art to a few people on twitter. I find this completely hilarious because, up until a couple months ago, I had no clue how to use them either. Regardless, I’ll try to clear up their function and uses to the best of my knowledge. So, if you’re reading this post, I’m going to assume you already have prior knowledge of specular maps. Would be freaking weird to start asking about gloss maps without knowing what spec maps are for. That’s just crazy. That’s simple enough, right? Ahem Gloss Maps, that’s how. Dramatization aside, gloss maps are grayscale representations of the specular widths of a material or grouping of materials.
Shown above, you can see that the brighter areas on the gloss map are where the glass panes are. In explaining gloss maps to the people on twitter, it seemed that the concept really clicked with them when I mentioned specular width. Gloss maps and you! (GameBanana > Tutorials > Texturing)