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9/9/2019 TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 1: Diffuse - TurboSquid Blog
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TurboTips: V-Ray Material,

Part 1: Diffuse
 CALVIN BRYSON /  APRIL 8, 2014 /
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In this series of Turbo Tips, we’re giving you an in-depth guide to regular V-Ray
Material. We’ll cover the theory behind many of the features of the material
and give you speci c examples of settings and tricks to use. While the example
images are from 3ds Max, the same concepts and settings can be used in V-
Ray for Maya. The information covered here is generally useful in V-Ray for
C4D, but the speci c elds and values may be different.
The VRayMtl is the main workhorse for creating shaders in V-Ray. Eighty
percent of the time, it is all you’ll need to create realistic results that also
render quite fast. It is optimized to work with all other aspects of V-Ray (lights,
GI, sampling, etc.), so it should always be used instead of 3ds Max native
materials.
Main components
Generally, the main components of a CG shader are:
Diffuse
Re ection
https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/08/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-1-diffuse/ 1/19
Refraction
Bump
These are the names that V-Ray uses. They may have different names in
different renderers, but the functions are pretty much the same.
Diffuse gives the basic color to the shader; re ection controls how the the
shader re ects light; refraction controls how it lets the light through; and
bump simulates a distortion of the object’s surface.
With the exception of the refraction, the other 3 components should be

present in all materials.
This week, we’ll talk about the rst of the main components:
Diffuse
The easiest way to understand Diffuse is to think of it as the color of the
object. For example: what color is a tomato? Red! So, the Diffuse color of a
tomato is a red color.
Adding Realism with Variation

But wait! Most objects have a multitude of colors in them. Even a tomato has a
light green patch where the stem connects to the fruit. The red is not the
same in all spots, so it could be more pink on the bottom and slightly greenish
on the top. Most of the time, you should use an image (a Texture or a
Procedural Map) to de ne those colors. Even objects like a blue plastic ball are
not perfectly blue a couple of days or weeks after they leave the shop.
Everything gets a bit dirty or faded out there in the real world.
The obvious exception to this is if you are creating shaders for studio renders
of product design, where everything has to look like it just came out of the
packaging box – clean, shiny, perfect. In this case, you may use solid colors as
the Diffuse of your VrayMtl. Use your judgement and decide whether the
material needs to be super slick for a studio render, or a bit weathered to
make a believable real-world scene.
Setting Up the Diffuse (2.2

gamma Workflow)
Ok, so how do we actually set up the Diffuse?
You can either use a color, by clicking on the color swatch (green rectangle,
above), or you can set up a Map by clicking on the small square next to the
color swatch (orange rectangle, above). You can also scroll down to the Maps
tab and assign the texture there. Most maps in V-Raywork this way (below)…
If you are working by eye and accurate colors are not required, choosing the
color from the 3ds Max color picker is fast and easy. The problems start when
you want to match a color from an external application like Photoshop. If you
choose the same RGB value in both applications, the result will be different (if
you are using proper gamma 2.2 setup in 3ds Max).
This problem comes from the Gamma correction. Essentially, the RGB values
are brightened in 3ds max with the Gamma curve.
To x it, you must use a Vray Color map in the Diffuse slot.
Set the same RGB values in the color slot and change the Gamma correction
settings to “specify” and make sure it’s set at 2.2
Now, the color of the material matches perfectly with the color you took from
Photoshop.
This may seem a bit complicated for just getting a simple color in 3ds Max, but
currently, there is no automatic way to do this.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
For realistic results, the Diffuse must use colors

or textures in the range of 10~230 on the
lightness scale. Most things we think of as pure
white are actually ~75%-90% white (190-230).
The whitest snow has only 90% albedo
(re ectance rate). The same goes for blacks: only
black holes absorb everything and the rest of the
world re ects at least a small portion of the light.
Even the darkest coal has an albedo of ~4%.
Using overbright colors will not only look non-
realistic, but it will also increase the render times
as the light needs to be bounced around more.
The 10 to 230 range is for Photoshop textures

and Vray Color gamma-corected colors. If you
use the regular color picker, the range gets
converted to about 1~205.
If your Texture image has brighter or darker

areas, it’s easy to x using the Levels tool in
Photoshop: just move the Black point to 1 and
White point to 230 as in the example image
below.
Using Bitmaps and

Understanding Filtering
Now let’s try using our adjusted Bitmap in the Diffuse slot.
So, here is our next problem– notice the blurry areas on our model.
This blur is caused by Texture Filtering. It is used to avoid moire artifacts on

small, sharp patterns by blurring everything.
Obviously, this is not at all what we want. We want nice, crisp renders. There
are a couple of ways to solve this problem.
You can reduce the blur setting in the Bitmap Coordinates tab. Something like
0.01~0.6 is usually the most useable range. (See below.)
Another option is to disable the ltering altogether in the Bitmap Parameters

tab. This works just as well for making everything sharper, but is not as exible.
Most of the time we prefer reducing the Blur so we can keep at least some
control over the softness of the texture.
It is very important to reduce blur or turn off ltering for all the textures you
are using. Especially so with the Diffuse and Bump textures. If you do not do
this, there will be parts of your render that will look ‘blurry’, not to mention
loss of the ne details in textures. Keep in mind that sometimes, the results
might be too sharp. In that case, slowly increase the Blur value until the render
looks good.
Diffuse Roughness
The Diffuse tab has one more option: Roughness. It controls how ‘ at’ the
shading of your object looks.
There are not a lot of materials where it is useful, but some common examples
are chalk and dust. Higher values, atter look: use your eyes to make a
judgement on how much the materials need it.
Diffuse Color vs.

Refraction/Reflection Color
To wrap things up on Diffuse, let’s talk about one more important point.
Sometimes the Diffuse color is not obvious. This happens with materials that
are identi ed not by their Diffuse color, but by their Re ections or
Refractions.
The most common examples are metals and glass. For extremely
Re ective/Refractive materials, use near black as the Diffuse color [1;1;1;]. If
the material is ‘aged,’ you can increase the lightness a bit, but try to stay in dark
grey area of the lightness scale. This is just a general guideline– sometimes you
might need to give a bit of a color tint to a metal (or glass) to match your photo
reference– but still, be start with near black and adjust it only if necessary.
To illustrate this example, here’s a gold material (below). To the left, you have
an incorrect approach with yellow Diffuse and yellow Re ections, and to the
right, you have a physically correct look with near black Diffuse and yellow
Re ections.
Next week: V-Ray Material, Part 2: Re ection
This series of tutorials was made with our friends at Viscorbel

(http://viscorbel.com/).
If there are any topics you’d like to see in a future edition of TurboTips, let us
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Related
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/05/turbotips- (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/
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v-ray-material-part-5- v-ray-blend-material- v-ray-blend-material-
work ow/) part-3/) part-1/)
TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part TurboTips: V-Ray Blend
TurboTips: V-Ray Blend
5: Workflow Material, Part 1
Material, Part 3
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/05/turbotips- (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/06/09/turbo
v-ray-material-part-5- v-ray-blend-material-part-1/)
v-ray-blend-material-part-3/)
workflow/) June 9, 2014
June 24, 2014
May 5, 2014 In "3D Modeling"
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9/9/2019 TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 2: Reflection - TurboSquid Blog
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In this series of Turbo Tips, we’re giving you an in-depth guide to regular V-Ray Material. We’ll cover the
theory behind many of the features of the material and give you speci c examples of settings and tricks to
use. While the example images are from 3ds Max, the same concepts and settings can be used in V-Ray for
Maya. The information covered here is generally useful in V-Ray for C4D, but the speci c elds and values
may be different.
Last week, we talked about the Diffuse tab. This week, we’ll be moving on to:
Reflection
After Diffuse, Re ection is the second most important component of the VrayMtl. It also features a lot
more options than Diffuse.
Perhaps it can be easier to understand how the Re ection works if you imagine it as a layer on top of the
Diffuse. At 100% strength [255;255;255], it shows pure re ection of the environment, lights, etc. Use a
darker color and the Diffuse will start to show through. Drop it down to pure black and only the Diffuse is
visible. (It’s not entirely as simple as that, but that’s the general idea on how Diffuse and Re ection
interact.)
https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/14/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-2-reflection/ 1/20
Adding Realism with Texture

The Re ections (just like most other maps in V-Ray) can be de ned by using a color, a map, or a texture. The
same principle of Diffuse map applies– if it’s not a shiny, slick studio render, there are bound to be some
imperfections in the re ection amount. Also, it’s best to use a Map or a Texture instead of a simple color.
In general, it may be best to keep the Re ection value in the range from 1~230 for realistic results.
Always Turn on Fresnel

So, why does our material look so arti cial?
The problem is that the light re ects equally at all angles. Real world objects have different strengths of
re ections, depending on the viewing angle relative to your line of sight. In general, the lower the angle, the
stronger the re ection becomes. Even when some materials initially appear to be non-re ective, they will
re ect quite a bit when they nearly parallel to the direction you’re looking at.
Let’s look at some examples…
Notice how the re ection gets stronger as the oor goes further from the camera (or the closer it
approaches the edge of the bowling ball). The smaller the viewing angle, the stronger the re ection. If you
look directly at something (90°), the re ection is much weaker than if you look at it with a small angle.
To imitate this effect in Vray, you can use the Fresnel Re ections option.
In general, it is a good idea to use Fresnel for every material you create. The difference between chrome
and concrete lies in the Fresnel IOR value. This value determines exactly how this re ection falloff occurs.
To access it, turn off the L button. (Note: the default value of 1.6 is only good for glass and maybe some
plastics.)
Below is a general guide on which values to use for which

materials.
water: 1.33
plastic: 1.4-2.4
glass: 1.5-1.8
diamond: 2.4
compound materials (wood, stone, concrete, etc.): 3-6
metals: 18-100 (Though you should rarely exceed 40)
Reflection Glossiness

This parameter controls how glossy our material looks. The higher the value, the higher the glossiness. A
perfectly polished surface would have a glossiness of 1 (default value). Since nothing is ever perfect, we
wouldn’t go higher than 0.99
Decreasing glossiness makes the re ections blurrier. The effect is somewhat similar to taking a ne
sandpaper to our shader and roughing the surface up. This comes with a cost, though: the more blurry your
re ections get, the harder it is for V-Ray to calculate them; thus, the result is noisier and the render time
increases. For very rough surfaces, we wouldn’t go lower than 0.35
This gives us a useable range of 0.35-0.99.
Unlinking Specular & Reflection Glossiness

By default, Re ection glossiness and Highlight glossiness are locked together. However, there are times
that it can be useful to unlink these and use a slightly lower Highlight gloss. The effect is that you still have
sharp re ections with some slight glow around them. Many real world objects show this kind of behaviour:
This little cheat helps us simulate that look without increasing the render time. There are no rules on how
much to lower the Highlight gloss, so use your eyes to make the judgement– although, generally, a
difference of 1.0 to 1.5 works well.
Using Texture To Drive Glossiness

As soon as the object leaves its packaging and a person touches it, the re ections are no longer equally
glossy. The areas touched by hands or scuffed against something rough are slightly more blurry from oils,
scratches, or any other interaction with the world. Try to use a texture or a map instead of a simple color– it
can have very little variation in brightness, but it is important to pay attention to these little details.
Otherwise, the result will look arti cial.
Generally, it is a good idea to derive your glossiness map from the re ection map (you can overlay a
different texture to make it more interesting). The areas that are less re ective will probably be slightly
more blurry as well. This is not a hard rule. You can break it, as long as the result looks believable.
This example still needs some Bump to look realistic, but we’ll get to that a bit later.
The next parameter is Subdivs:
This setting determines how many samples V-Ray can use to clean up the noise in blurred re ections.
Basically: more samples = cleaner re ections.
Note: Most V-Ray users prefer to use the Adaptive DMC

sampler for rendering their images. This means that the
actual number of samples needed for a clean image changes,
depending on the DMC settings: 1/4 will need lower values
than 1/100. We recommend leaving this value at the
default, 8 subdivs, if the models or materials will be used by
other people. Everyone has their own work ow and will
adjust it accordingly. Otherwise, it can get frustrating
hunting down a material with a too-high subdiv count that
doesn’t work with a particular render setup.
Reflection Depth & Exit Color

9/9/2019 TurboTips:
This option sets how many times the re ectionV-Ray Material,before
is traced Part 2: Reflection - TurboSquid
it is converted into Blog
the exit color. This helps
to speed up the renders by reducing the amount of calculations V-Ray has to do for re ections. Here’s an
example with exit color set to blue:
The default settings work well most of the time. If you have a lot of mirrors or other re ective objects, you
might need to increase the max depth, though going higher than ~20 isn’t usually necessary.
If your material has blurry re ections, you can make it

render a bit faster without losing quality, by reducing the
Max Depth as follows…
Glossiness 0.9-0.99 = max depth 5
Since the re ections are blurred, there will be no negative effects on the image. The values we’ve provided
are more like a rough guide, so you can adjust them if needed.
Lesser-Known Parameters
9/9/2019 That about covers it for the basic ReTurboTips:
ection V-Ray Material, Part 2: Reflection
tab– Interpolation - TurboSquid
is no longer needed,Blog
since it’s much faster
and easier to use light cache for glossy rays in GI settings. Dim distance and Affect channels are only used in
some very speci c cases (more related to scene optimization, not material creation).
BRDF
There are a few other options hidden a bit lower, in the BRDF tab and the Options tab.
BRDF is basically a mathematical model that is used to calculate the re ections and specularity for your
material. There are three types available for you to choose from – Blinn, Phong and Ward. Each one has their
own speci c uses.
As you can see, the main difference is in the way they treat highlights. Phong is the sharpest, Blinn is a bit
more blurred, and Ward is much softer.
There really is no hard and fast rule for which of these to use, but our general recommendation would be to
use Ward for metals and anisotropic materials, and Blinn or Phong (whichever you prefer) for the rest. The
only exception is that it is not recommended to switch to Ward for metals, if the metal is highly polished or
has very sharp re ections (like chrome, gold jewelry, etc.).
Anisotropy

Anisotropy is used to simulate stretched out highlights. In the real world, these are caused by elongated
micro-scratches that go in the same direction. Below are a couple of example photos; this effect is seen
mostly on brushed metal:
Anisotropy should be set in an interval between -0.99 and 0.99. With values of -1; 0 and 1, it will not do
anything.
The effect becomes stronger as the value approaches 1 (or -1). The difference between negative and
positive values is the direction of the stretching. Positive values stretch re ections horizontally (simulates
vertical scratch pattern). Negative values stretch the re ection vertically (simulates horizontal scratch
pattern).
You can also rotate the the stretching effect to any angle you want by using the Rotation parameter.
For even more control, you can choose the axis that is used for calculations.
For it to work correctly, Anisotropy needs blurred re ections. If your Re ection glossiness is set very high,
the effect will not work.
Just as with other aspects of V-ray, we can use Maps or Textures to drive the Anisotropy parameters as
well.
You can use an Anisotropy texture with reduced strength to ne tune the exact amount of imperfection it
introduces. Keep in mind that texture maps only work as positive values, so it’s best to combine them with
positive Anisotropy strength. For example (below), we’re using Anisotropy 0.6 + 20% of a texture. The
result looks a bit more natural than just pure Anisotropy.
9/9/2019 TurboTips:
Rotation maps can be used to change V-Ray Material,
the direction of the Part 2: Reflection
simulated - TurboSquid
scratches. ThisBlog
is good for creating
things like circular patterns or metallic akes that re ect light in random directions. Smooth gradients make
the rotation gradual, while patches of different colors make the transitions sharp, with each shade of gray
having a different rotation value.
The Options Tab (Reflections)

Before we nish with Re ections, here are a couple more options to consider. Scroll down to the Options
tab and take a look at the settings there:
The outlined options (above) are all affecting the Re ections.

9/9/2019 First of all, you should never turn offTurboTips:
the TraceV-Ray
Re Material,
ectionsPart 2: Reflection
option, since it- TurboSquid Blog
is essential for a realistic result. If
you turn it off and use only the fake specular highlights, re ections are just that: round, fake highlights,
regardless of the shape of the lights or the environment.
Next is Re ect on back side. By default, it is turned off and that’s ne for most materials, since it helps to cut
down on the render time. However, if you are creating glass or other transparent materials, you have to
turn this option ON, otherwise, the result will not look realistic.
And nally, let’s look at the Energy Preservation mode. The default setting of RGB is physically correct,
however, there might be some cases where the result is hard to predict. For example, a white material with
blue re ections (below).
The Re ection amount is subtracted from the Diffuse color. For example, lets take white Diffuse
[230;230;230] and blue Re ections [0;0;230]. So, what do we get when we subtract? We get Yellow
[230;230;0], and that is exactly what we see when rendering this particular example:
Switch the EPM to Mono and you get a much more predictable result – white Diffuse and blue Re ections.
These types of materials are not common. Change this option only on the rare occasion that you have to
create colored Re ections on top of a bright Diffuse color.
Next week: V-Ray Material, Part 3: Refraction
This series of tutorials was made with our friends at Viscorbel (http://viscorbel.com/).
If there are any topics you’d like to see in a future edition of TurboTips, let us know in the comments below,
or Tweet your question to @TurboSquid (https://twitter.com/Turbosquid) with hashtag #TurboTips.
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TurboTips: V-Ray FastSSS2 Material, Part 2
May 19, 2014
In "3D Modeling"
v-ray-material-part-1-diffuse/) v-ray-fast-sss2-material-part-3/)
TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 1: Diffuse TurboTips: V-Ray Fast SSS2 Material, Part 3
April 8, 2014 May 27, 2014
In "3D Modeling" In "3D Modeling"
3DS MAX (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/3DS-MAX/) MATERIALS (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/MATERIALS/)
REFLECTION (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/REFLECTION/) TURBOTIPS (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/TURBOTIPS/)
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Comments 1
Joel Eckert (http://www.biglittlepictures.com)

SEPTEMBER 8, 2019 AT 10:41 PM (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/2014/04/14/TURBOTIPS-V-RAY-MATERIAL-PART-2-REFLECTION/#COMMENT-95150)
Great article, thanks for posting. The tip about using less samples by blur amount is gold!
Reply 
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 3D Best Practices (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/3d-best-practices/)
 Optimizing Render Speed (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/01/07/turbotips-optimizing-render-speed/)
 Scene Optimizations – Part 1 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/01/21/turbotips-scene-optimizations-best-

practices-part-1/)

practices-part-2/)

practices-part-3/)

practices-part-4/)
 V-Ray Materials (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-tips/vray-material/)
 Part 1: Diffuse (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/08/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-1-diffuse/)
 Part 2: Re ection (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/14/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-2-reflection/)
 Part 3: Refraction (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/21/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-3-refraction/)
 Part 4: Translucency & Bump (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/29/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-4-

translucency-bump/)
 Part 5: Work ow (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/05/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-5-workflow/)
 V-Ray Blend Material (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-tips/vray-blend-material/)

 Blend Material – Part 1 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/06/09/turbotips-v-ray-blend-material-part-1/)
 V-Ray FastSSS2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-tips/vray-fastsss2/)
 FastSSS2 Material – Part 1 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/13/turbotips-v-ray-fastsss2-material-part-1/)
 FastSSS2 Material – Part 2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/19/turbotips-v-ray-fastsss2-material-part-2/)
 Fast SSS2 Material – Part 3 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/27/turbotips-v-ray-fast-sss2-material-part-

3/)
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9/9/2019 TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 3: Refraction - TurboSquid Blog

Part 3: Refraction
 V-RAY MATERIAL (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/CATEGORY/ARTISTS/TURBOTIPS/VRAY-T
 V-RAY TIPS (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/CATEGORY/ARTISTS/TURBOTIPS/VRAY-TIPS/) /
 LEAVE A COMMENT (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/2014/04/21/TURBOTIPS-V-RAY-MATE
In this series (https://blog.turbosquid.com/tag/materials/) of Turbo Tips, we’re

giving you an in-depth guide to regular V-Ray Material. We’ll cover the theory
behind many of the features of the material and give you speci c examples of
settings and tricks to use. While the example images are from 3ds Max, the
same concepts and settings can be used in V-Ray for Maya. The information
covered here is generally useful in V-Ray for C4D, but the speci c elds and
values may be different.
Last week, we talked about the Re ection

re ection/) tab. This week, we’ll be moving on to:
Refraction
Refraction controls how an object lets light through. For example, if you were
to shine a light on an object, how much light would you see coming through
the other side? Unlike Re ection, not all objects are refractive. Some typical
https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/21/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-3-refraction/ 1/20
examples that use this V-Ray material component are: glass, water,
transparent plastic, crystal, oil, etc.
The amount of Refraction can be controlled by a number, Map, or Texture. It

can be grayscale or colored, but it is recommended to stick to grayscale for
more realistic results.
If you are not using Caustics in your scene (most likely you aren’t), turn on the
“Affect Shadows” option to get realistic, transparent shadows. Otherwise, the
shadows will be too dark.
Adding Color To Refraction

So, how do we actually get colored refractions, if it’s not recommended to use
colors in the Refraction amount? We should use the Fog color option, in this
case. It works realistically, since thicker parts of the model will be more
colored/darker than the thin parts.
Depending on your object’s physical size, you might need to adjust the Fog
Multiplier Value. Larger objects will look darker than smaller ones when using
the same material.
Use Fog Bias to control the color transitions. Lower values make the color
more intense and the transitions sharper, while higher values make the tinting
more weak but even. If you adjust both of these parameters (Fog Multiplier
and Fog Bias), you should be able to achieve any effect you might need.
Refraction Glossiness
Refraction Glossiness simulates a rougher surface, by diffusing the light rays

in different directions. Lower values create a rougher look (frosted or sand-
blasted glass, or textured rough plastic), and higher values are for smooth
surfaces. Since glossy Refractions are one of the biggest increases for render
times, they are usually used in a smaller range. You probably don’t need to go
lower than 0.7 to achieve the desired look.
You can use a Texture to create a rougher, more realistic look. If the material is
still pretty clean, don’t overdo it and use a map that is mostly pure white with
some darker spots/patches. It’s usually a good idea to keep the Refraction
Glossiness map similar to the re ection glossiness. Any rougher areas would
affect the Re ections and Refractions in a similar way.
Note: As with Re ections

v-ray-material-part-2-re ection/), we think it’s
best to leave the Subdivs at 8, for the end user
(your customer) to adjust for themselves.
Refraction Depth and Exit Color

The Refraction Depth and Exit Color function exactly the same as their
Re ection counterparts: bump up the max depth if there are lots of
refractive/re ective objects and bring it down if using blurry Refractions.
Refraction IOR

IOR is a very important parameter to set correctly, in order for your material
to look believable. Fortunately, these values have been calculated for all sorts
of materials, so there’s no need to guess here.
With the Value of 1 (same as air), the rays of light are going straight through
the object without any distortion. As you raise the number higher, the rays get
distorted more and more.
Acetone 1.36
Agate 1.544
Air 1.0002926
Alcohol 1.329
Amber 1.546
Amethyst 1.544
Crystal 2.00
Diamond 2.417
Emerald 1.576
Ethanol 1.36
Glass 1.51714
Glass, Albite 1.4890
Glass, Crown 1.520
Glass, Crown, Zinc 1.517
Glass, Flint, Dense 1.66
Glass, Flint, Heaviest 1.89
Glass, Flint, Heavy 1.65548
Glass, Flint, Lanthanum 1.80
Glass, Flint, Light 1.58038
Glass, Flint, Medium 1.62725
Ice 1.309
Jade, Nephrite 1.610
Jadeite 1.665
Methanol 1.329
Moonstone, Albite 1.535

Nylon 1.53
Onyx 1.486
Opal 1.450
Plastic 1.460
Plexiglas 1.50
Polystyrene 1.55
Quartz 1.544
Quartz, Fused 1.45843
Rock Salt 1.544
Ruby 1.760
Sapphire 1.760
Tiger eye 1.544
Topaz 1.620
Tourmaline 1.624
Turpentine 1.472
Turquoise 1.610
Water 35’C (Room temp) 1.33
Zirconia, Cubic 2.170
Breaking the Rules

Technically, both the Re ection and Refraction IOR should be the same, but
sometimes, you might want to unlock them for artistic reasons. This trick is
used when glass or transparent plastic material just seems to lack re ections.
In this case, bumping up the Re ection IOR can help in bringing out those
re ections. It’s also useful when you want to create a more even distribution
of the re ections, without increasing their intensity.
Dispersion

Dispersion controls how the light is split up into different colors when passing
through an object. A classic example of this would be a ray of light going
through a prism, creating a rainbow effect. Most glass and other refractive
materials show at least a little bit of dispersion. The exact amount is controlled
by the Abbe number (https://www.google.com/search?
q=diamon+abbe+number&oq=diamon+abbe+number&aqs=chrome..69i57j0.4214j0j4&
8#q=diamond+abbe+number). The basic idea is, as the Abbe number goes
lower, the dispersion effect increases. It’s easy to overdo it, but it should
actually be pretty subtle.
Since it is quite slow to render, most of the time you can get by without
dispersion. We only suggest using it for close-up studio renders of things like
jewellery, glass, or crystals.
Refraction & Alpha Channels

Finally, a quick tip to remember: for Refractive objects, it is generally a good

idea to set the “Affect Channels” to “All Channels.” This way, your alpha
channel will not be solid white, but will be adjusted, depending on the
transparency of the object. This is very useful in post-production.
Next week: V-Ray Material, Part 4: Bump

Related
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/13/turbotips-(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/
v-ray-fastsss2- v-ray-material-part-4-
material-part-1/) translucency-bump/)
TurboTips: V-Ray FastSSS2 TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part
Material, Part 1 4: Translucency & Bump
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/13/turbotips- (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/29/turbo
v-ray-material-part-4-
May 13, 2014 v-ray-material-part-1- translucency-bump/)
In "3D Modeling" April 29, 2014
diffuse/)
In "3D Modeling"
TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part
1: Diffuse
v-ray-material-part-1-diffuse/)
April 8, 2014
In "3D Modeling"
3DS MAX (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/3DS-MAX/)
REFRACTION (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/REFRACTION/)
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tips/vray-material/)
 Part 1: Diffuse (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/08/turbotips-v-ray-

material-part-1-diffuse/)


 Part 4: Translucency & Bump

translucency-bump/)




 V-Ray FastSSS2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-

tips/vray-fastsss2/)


 Fast SSS2 Material – Part 3 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/27/turbotips-

v-ray-fast-sss2-material-part-3/)
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9/9/2019 TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 4: Translucency & Bump - TurboSquid Blog

Part 4: Translucency & Bump
 V-RAY MATERIAL (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/CATEGORY/ARTISTS/TURBOTIPS/VRAY-TIPS/
 LEAVE A COMMENT (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/2014/04/29/TURBOTIPS-V-RAY-MATERIA

settings and tricks to use. While the example images are from 3ds Max, the same
concepts and settings can be used in V-Ray for Maya. The information covered
here is generally useful in V-Ray for C4D, but the speci c elds and values may be
different.
Last week, we talked about the Refraction

refraction/) tab. This week, we’ll be moving on to Bump, but rst: a quick tip
about…
Translucency
It is possible to add Translucency to your V-ray Material, but we highly
recommend using VrayFastSSS2 material if you need this effect. Why? It’s a
newer, faster interpretation of Subsurface Scattering that is also more
adjustable.
https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/29/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-4-translucency-bump/ 1/15
If you do decide to use the Translucency in the regular V-Ray Material, here are a
couple of things to remember:
The material needs to be refractive for translucency to work
Set the IOR to 1
Make sure that ‘Double Sided’ is turned Off in the Options tab
Reduce the Refraction Glossiness to something like 0.15~0.5
To de ne the outer color of the object, use the Diffuse color:
To de ne the inner color, go ahead and Fog Color, just like you would for
refractive materials.
You can also tint the inside of the material by using the Backface color:
Stick to the Hard Wax or Hybrid type (Soft Water is just for legacy V-Ray version
compatibility):
You can reduce the depth of the scattered rays by using the Thickness parameter:
Scatter Coef cient changes so the light rays travel within the object. Zero (0)
means that the rays get scattered in all directions; one (1) means the rays will
continue to move in the same direction before entering the object.
Light multiplier allows you to change the strength of the light as it moves inside
the object.
Bump

Bump is another very important component of a V-Ray Material. All objects

should have some sort of Bump, even if it’s just a very weak one. The thing is,
nothing is ever completely at, round, or in any other perfect shape. Even the
smoothest, nicest surface has a bit of imperfection to it.
The way this works is very simple: you just add a Map or a Texture to the Bump
slot and adjust the strength.
Medium gray [128;128;128] does nothing, while lighter values go up and darker
values go down (relative to the surface normals).
For very strong Bump effect, or for situations where correct shape in the pro le
of the object is needed, it’s better to use Displacement (either in a material slot or
as a V-ray Displacement Modi er). Bump is a fake effect, while Displacement
produces actual geometry at render time.
Just keep in mind that displacement works only in a positive direction. Black is in
the original shape of the object and everything lighter than that gets displaced
upwards.
Being Mindful of Gamma

If you want your Bump or Displacement to be accurate, you need to load your
grayscale image with Gamma 1.0. Otherwise, the Gamma-corrected tones do not
produce the expected result. For example, in the image below, the Gamma 2.2-
corrected texture bumps the white color more than the black, while the Gamma
1.0 image behaves as expected.
Normal Maps
If you are using Normal maps in your work ow, you have to set up a Normal
Bump map in the Bump slot. This will allow you to use the Normal map plus an
additional Bump map. You can adjust the strength of each one individually.
Normal maps also require their Gamma to be set up at 1.0 for correct results.
Boosting Realism
One last, but important, note: we do recommend adding a Bump map to all the
materials you create. It doesn’t always have to be strong or detailed. Sometimes a
simple Noise map can go a long way in avoiding that “fake” or “CG” look.
Next week: V-Ray Material, Part 5: Basic Work ow

Related
v-ray-fastsss2-material-
part-1/)
TurboTips: V-Ray FastSSS2
Material, Part 1
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/13/turbotips- (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/0
v-ray-fastsss2-material-part-1/) v-ray-material-part-5-
May 13, 2014 v-ray-blend-material-
In "3D Modeling" part-3/) work ow/)
9/9/2019 TurboTips:
TurboTips: V-Ray
V-Ray Material, Blend
Part Material, & Bump
4: Translucency TurboTips: V-Ray
- TurboSquid Material, Part
Blog
Part 3 5: Workflow
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/05/turboti
v-ray-blend-material-part-3/) v-ray-material-part-5-workflow/)
June 24, 2014 May 5, 2014
3DS MAX (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/3DS-MAX/) BUMP (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/BUMP/)
TRANSLUCENCY (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/TRANSLUCENCY/)
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practices/)

 Scene Optimizations – Part 1 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/01/21/turbotips-

scene-optimizations-best-practices-part-1/)



 V-Ray Materials (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-tips/vray-

material/)
 Part 1: Diffuse (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/08/turbotips-v-ray-material-

part-1-diffuse/)

 Part 4: Translucency & Bump (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/29/turbotips-v-

ray-material-part-4-translucency-bump/)


 Blend Material – Part 1 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/06/09/turbotips-v-ray-

blend-material-part-1/)


 V-Ray FastSSS2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-tips/vray-

fastsss2/)
 FastSSS2 Material – Part 1 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/13/turbotips-v-

ray-fastsss2-material-part-1/)

 Fast SSS2 Material – Part 3 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/27/turbotips-v-

ray-fast-sss2-material-part-3/)
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9/9/2019 TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 5: Workflow - TurboSquid Blog

Part 5: Workflow
 CALVIN BRYSON /  MAY 5, 2014 /
 V-RAY MATERIAL (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/CATEGORY/ARTISTS/TURBOTIPS/VRAY-TIPS/
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settings and tricks to use. While the example images are from 3ds Max, the same
concepts and settings can be used in V-Ray for Maya. The information covered
here is generally useful in V-Ray for C4D, but the speci c elds and values may be
different.
To wrap up this series, we’ll show you an example work ow for creating a
material from scratch. It’s not set in stone and you can change the order around,
as long as you’re paying attention to the general principles.
It’s always a good idea to have a reference photo (or multiple photos) so you can
see what the goal is. Don’t focus on using your references to make an exact
replica, but use them as a guide to creating a similar look.
https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/05/turbotips-v-ray-material-part-5-workflow/ 1/20
Diffuse
First, decide on the Diffuse (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/08/turbotips-
v-ray-material-part-1-diffuse/) color. All materials can be split into roughly three
groups: Re ective (Metals), Refractive
refraction/) (Glass, Water, etc), and Other (almost everything else). For Re ective
and Refractive materials, you can just choose a dark grey color like [1;1;1]. Since
our reference photo seems to be some sort of plastic (Other), we need to visually
choose a color for its Diffuse- something like this blue/black will do.
Reflections
Next, add a few Re ections (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/14/turbotips-
v-ray-material-part-2-re ection/). Don’t worry about adding all the little details
just yet. So far, the Re ections will only help to evaluate the shader better. Let’s
start with a simple color [180;180;180] and set the Fresnel IOR to 1.45 (plastic).
Try to estimate the general Glossiness at this point. The goal is to roughly match
the size and shape of the highlights on the reference photo. It looks like 0.85 will
do the trick:

Adding a BumpMap
Try to imitate the way this ball has been used and abused- it has all sorts of
scratches and rough spots. Pick a similar texture and use Levels in Photoshop to
make it so that all the bumps and scratches are black/dark grey, while the base
color is [128;128;128].
Use this map in the Bump slot; reduce the Blur to about 0.5 to make everything a
bit sharper; and reduce or increase the Bump strength until it looks right.
Adding a ReflectMap
Now we need to think about how this sort of damage would affect our
Re ections. It would likely make them a little bit weaker and blurrier, since the
scratches are not smoothly polished, but more rough (at least the deeper ones).
So, let’s take the bump map, adjust the levels so that the white point is at 180, and
move up the black point to about 150. Since there are probably some areas that
are also a bit dirty or oily, add another layer with some patchy areas on top of this
map and set it to Overlay mode.
Adding a GlossMap
For the Glossiness map, calculate the value that’s needed to match the test
render. Here, we’ve set it at 0.85, so we need 255*0.85=216 as the main color
for the texture. We’ll also move the black point to 128, so the lowest glossiness
level is about 0.5 (255*0.5=128). Now that it’s done, perhaps add another
overlay layer on top to add some slightly different details.
Make sure to set the Gamma to 1 for these b&w maps to get correct values in
3ds max. We also reduced the blur to about 0.4:
Starting to look better.
Adding Complexity To The BumpMap

Now all that’s left is adding another layer to our Bump texture (some sort of noise
for a more realistic surface). Just add another layer in Photoshop, or you can set
up a Composite map in 3ds max and overlay procedural noise there.
Adding Even More Texture
Almost there! As a nal touch, we’ve swapped the Diffuse color for a Texture. A
few gray/brown patches on top of dark blue will be a good t.
Looks about right. Perhaps the scratch pattern is a bit rougher than the reference
image, but otherwise, this looks good.
Remember:
Always try to analyze your reference image and break it down into components –
Diffuse (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/08/turbotips-v-ray-material-
part-1-diffuse/); Re ection (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/14/turbotips-
v-ray-material-part-2-re ection/); Refraction
refraction/); Bump (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/29/turbotips-v-ray-
material-part-4-translucency-bump/). If something is not clear right away (for
example, bump) add some re ections and it will be much easier to evaluate the
other aspects. Everything goes hand-in-hand, so don’t forget to analyze how each
element affects the others.

(http://viscorbel.com/). This is the nal part in our series on V-Ray Material, but
be sure to stay tuned to our social channels
(https://www.facebook.com/TurboSquid3DModels) for our next series!
Related
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/0
translucency-bump/)
TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part
4: Translucency & Bump
(https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/29/turboti
v-ray-material-part-1- v-ray-fast-sss2-material- translucency-bump/)
April 29, 2014
diffuse/) part-3/) In "3D Modeling"
TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part TurboTips: V-Ray Fast SSS2
1: Diffuse Material, Part 3
April 8, 2014 May 27, 2014
3DS MAX (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/3DS-MAX/) BUMP (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/BUMP/)
DIFFUSE (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/DIFFUSE/)
REFLECTION (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/REFLECTION/)
REFRACTION (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/REFRACTION/)
WORKFLOW (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/WORKFLOW/)
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part-1-diffuse/)

 Part 4: Translucency & Bump (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/29/turbotips-v-

ray-material-part-4-translucency-bump/)





 V-Ray FastSSS2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-tips/vray-

fastsss2/)


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ray-fast-sss2-material-part-3/)
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9/9/2019 TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 1: Diffuse - TurboSquid Blog

TurboTips: V-Ray Material,

With the exception of the refraction, the other 3 components should be

Adding Realism with Variation

Setting Up the Diffuse (2.2

For realistic results, the Diffuse must use colors

The 10 to 230 range is for Photoshop textures

If your Texture image has brighter or darker

Using Bitmaps and

This blur is caused by Texture Filtering. It is used to avoid moire artifacts on

Another option is to disable the ltering altogether in the Bitmap Parameters

Diffuse Color vs.

Next week: V-Ray Material, Part 2: Re ection

This series of tutorials was made with our friends at Viscorbel

3DS MAX (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/TAG/3DS-MAX/)

Upload attachment (Allowed le types: jpg, gif, png, maximum le size: 5MB.

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Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

 Optimizing Render Speed (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/01/07/turbotips-

 Scene Optimizations – Part 2

 Scene Optimizations – Part 3

 Scene Optimizations – Part 4

 V-Ray Materials (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-

 Part 1: Diffuse (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/08/turbotips-v-ray-

 Part 2: Re ection (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/14/turbotips-v-ray-

 Part 3: Refraction (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/04/21/turbotips-v-ray-

 Part 4: Translucency & Bump

 Part 5: Work ow (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/05/turbotips-v-ray-

 V-Ray Blend Material (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-

 Blend Material – Part 2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/06/17/turbotips-v-

 Blend Material – Part 3 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/06/24/turbotips-v-

 V-Ray FastSSS2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/category/artists/turbotips/vray-

 FastSSS2 Material – Part 1 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/13/turbotips-

 FastSSS2 Material – Part 2 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/19/turbotips-

 Fast SSS2 Material – Part 3 (https://blog.turbosquid.com/2014/05/27/turbotips-

MEET THE SQUIDS

OFFICIAL LICENSEE (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/CATEGORY/OFFICIAL-LICENSEE/)

V-RAY FASTSSS2 (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/CATEGORY/ARTISTS/TURBOTIPS/VRAY-

V-RAY TIPS (HTTPS://BLOG.TURBOSQUID.COM/CATEGORY/ARTISTS/TURBOTIPS/VRAY-TIPS/)

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This adorable robot was created in

TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 2:

Adding Realism with Texture

Always Turn on Fresnel

Let’s look at some examples…

Below is a general guide on which values to use for which

compound materials (wood, stone, concrete, etc.): 3-6

metals: 18-100 (Though you should rarely exceed 40)

This gives us a useable range of 0.35-0.99.

Unlinking Specular & Reflection Glossiness

Using Texture To Drive Glossiness

The next parameter is Subdivs:

Note: Most V-Ray users prefer to use the Adaptive DMC

Reflection Depth & Exit Color

If your material has blurry re ections, you can make it

Glossiness 0.9-0.99 = max depth 5

Glossiness 0.8-0.89 = max depth 4

Glossiness 0.7-0.79 = max depth 3

Glossiness 0.6-0.69 = max depth 2

Glossiness 0.35-0.59 = max depth 1