Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
At the top, the cloudy sky image is perfectly self-illuminated and visible, but it's neither
affecting the Spheres or the Suzannes nor the floor Plane (nevertheless slightly visible
because of a low intensity World).
This is the reason a shadeless material is perfect for backdrop elements mapped on Planes
(or more often on unwrapped half-spheres called domes) to simulate skies, clouds, and even
distant trees. It can also simulate forests and mountains in the background of a scene.
In Blender Internal, obtaining a shadeless material is very simple. Enabling the appropriate
item in the material panel is enough. In Cycles, there are two methods to obtain this effect:
one based on the material and the other based on the Ray Visibility subpanel in the Object
window, under the main Properties panel.
Getting ready
Start Blender and open the
9931OS_09_start.blend
file. Then follow these steps:
1.
Go to the Render window, and under the Sampling subpanel, set the Samples to
50
for Preview and
100
for Render.
2.
Set the Camera view to the Rendered shading mode by pressing
Shift
+
Z
with the
mouse arrow in the viewport.
3.
Go to the World window and set the Background strength to
0.200
.
4.
Go to Outliner and select the Emitter object. In the Node Editor window, set the
Strength of the Emission shader node to
0.100
.
5.
Select the Plane object, and in the Material window under the main Properties
panel to the right, replace the Diffuse BSDF shader with a Glossy BSDF shader
node. Switch the Distribution of this node from GGX to Beckmann and set the
Roughness value to
0.200
.
6.
Select the Suzanne_unwrapped object and click on the New button in the Node
Editor window toolbar, or in the Material window under the main Properties panel
to the right.
7.
With the mouse arrow in the bottom-left corner of the 3D window, press the
7
key
in the numeric keypad to switch to the Top Ortho view. Press
Shift
+
D
to duplicate
the Suzanne mesh, and move it to the left of the scene. Rotate it to accommodate
it close to the original mesh. Click on the 2 button to the side of the Material
datablock in the Node Editor window toolbar to make it single-user.
8.
In the Material window, switch the Diffuse BSDF node with a Mix Shader node. In
the first Shader slot, select a Diffuse BSDF node, and in the second Shader slot,
select a Glossy BSDF shader node. Set the Glossy distribution to Beckmann, the
Roughness value to
0.100
, and the Fac value of the Mix Shader node to
0.900
.
Rename the material as
mirror
.
