I set myself a little task the other week. I realised I’ve not been very good at making materials that look like glass or transparent plastic, basically any material that is transparent.
I’m still not particularly strong in blender in fact I still really consider myself as a basic user, so I decided notch was the best place to start with this. and then I realised something really obvious to make something look like glass it isn’t about the materials that you put onto the object in 3D it’s more to do with the environment around it. now to some this might be painstakingly obvious and I guess it is obvious but it’s only when you come to make these things do you realise why it’s very difficult to make in software.
So I found myself the last few days looking at an empty milk bottle in the kitchen, I have there been studying thr champagne glass on the side of the dining table at dinner time, then I’ve been looking at vases full of flowers and realising that everything you see in these objects is actually the environment around it reflected on the outside object. It also made me realise that the reflections are in the front and back of the object and not just the front (the front is the surface that is closest to your eyes. But in 3D land this is the camera instead)
Luckily not have some amazing tutorials and sample projects that I’ve downloaded and understood very well. No to not cold environment map environment image glass materials RT glass and others are very powerful.
So far I have managed to recreate or at least basterise some of the projects that Notch provided. It has given me a really good insight into how to create these reflective and transparent materials. Below shows my work in progress.
Graham Thorne 