Car Paint Model
Last updated
Last updated
This model represents a material that provides the visual qualities to a car's paint features. It allows for selecting and editing:
Environment Mapping
Normal Mapping
Base Coat Color and Roughness
Clear Coat Color and Roughness
Metallicness
and Shadow Sensitivity.
All these Attributes are described in greater detail below.
This Attribute provides the Name of the Material as well as the Shading model type. It also sets the Alpha value if it is toggled on.
The Alpha channel is additional to the RGB channels and adds a kind of transparency to the object by mixing the background and foreground colors. For example, if the Alpha value is set to 0.5, then this would result in a 50% mix of the object and its background, providing a semi-translucent quality.
This enables the user to set a Texture which reflects the environment around an Object, meaning that the Object reflects the surface surrounding it (whether that be the background, another Object, or both combined.).
Initially, there is only the Attribute Overwrite Env. which is toggled off by default. If it is toggled on, all of the other Attributes are revealed.
Environment Map is the desired Texture to be used (a equirectangular or cubemap Texture of type PNG, JPG, EXR, or HDR).
Tint provides the color of the tint. The Texture’s RGB channels (not alpha) are then multiplied by the chosen tint.
Exposure determines how bright the Texture should be with a value from 0 to infinity.
Rotation sets the beginning of the image of the provided Texture to be "delayed" in the x or direction, moving it from left to right. The resulting "cut off" piece wraps around to the start of the image. Its range is from 0 degrees to 360 degrees.
Tilt sets the beginning of the image of the provided Texture to be "delayed" in the y or direction, moving it from bottom to top. The resulting "cut off" piece wraps around to the start of the image. Its range is from -90 degrees to 90 degrees.
Projection Height is where the ‘point of visualization’ starts. If set to 50%, this would be halfway from the bottom of the image and it would display upwards from there. To see a visual example of this, please refer to the video linked here.
A normal is a line perpendicular to the surface of some object. Normal mapping distorts these normals and simulates a surface with light and shadow, even if the object surface itself is flat. This is only possible with a light source. The Normal Map sets this surface and Use Normal Map toggles it on and off.
Albedo is the base diffuse color of the car.
Specular is the point of reflection of the light source.
Roughness determines how rough an object is, limiting or strengthening reflectivity.
Metallic determines how much the surface simulates a metal-like quality, appearing shinier and harder or rougher and duller.
The Albedo here is the color of the glossy finish of a car, which sits at the top layer as a color that one can see through.
Specular is the point of reflection of the light source.
Roughness determines how rough an object is, limiting or strengthening reflectivity.
Metallic determines how much the surface simulates a metal-like quality, appearing shinier and harder or rougher and duller.
Fesnel encompasses the idea of the angle of incidence (the angle between the line of sight of the observer and the object being observed) influencing the perceived reflectivity of a surface. A wider angle creates less reflection and a smaller angle creates greater reflection.
Shadow sensitivity decides the percentage of the shadow's influence. So if set to 0, the surface will not be influenced by the shadow at all. At 100% the surface would be totally black and at 50%, even if the Object's surface stands in a shadow, it will still retain 50% of its own color.
It is possible to hover over each Attribute and access their property names to be used in code or Nodes. A complete list of these names is as follows:
Use Alpha: use_alpha
Alpha: alpha
Overwrite Env.: env_overwrite
Environment Map: environment_map
Tint: env_tint
Exposure: env_exposure
Rotation: env_rotate
Tilt: env_tilt
Projection Height: env_projection_height
Use Normal Map: use_normal_map
Normal Map: normal_map
Albedo (Base Coat): base_coat_albedo
Specular (Base Coat): base_coat_specular
Metallic (Base Coat): base_coat_metallic
Roughness (Base Coat): base_coat_roughness
Albedo (Clear Coat) clear_coat_albedo
Specular (Clear Coat): clear_coat_specular
Metallic (Clear Coat): clear_coat_metallic
Roughness (Clear Coat): clear_coat_roughness
Fesnel: clear_coat_fresnel
Shadow Senstivity: shadow_sensitivity
