Getting an extremely reflective gloss finish

Adam Trachtenberg
December 3, 2011 at 11:56 pm

The main thing is to have something appropriate to reflect, or else use an image (preferably HDRI) in the environment channel. If you use reflection you should also use a dark color in the color channel so as not to dilute the relection too much.
Jay Mcdonald
December 4, 2011 at 1:44 am

Thanks for the reply. Is there any particular image to use that would give the desired look? I’ve tried a few and they’re just not working.
David Biederbeck
December 6, 2011 at 7:50 am

It’s all about motion. A reflection does not appear to be that reflective if it, or the object doesn’t move. Sometimes I rotate the sky object by a degree a frame, easily achieved with some espresso, or simple keyframes.

I also make sure I have a hard fillet cap (like 5 units with 1 subdivisions) to make light pop off the edges. If you are wondering about lighting, greyscale gorilla is obsessed with it. I use his hdri kit in just about every project I create.

All this is great, but it also helps to add planes with a luminance channel in your scene (or use greyscale gorilla’s light kit).

https://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2010/03/hdri-light-kit-pro-demo-tutorial/

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