Newbie having trouble in 3dmax6, finalrender, reflective floor...

[fafa1234]

Hello, I am quite new to 3dmax and I can really use some help...

I have done interiors before in 3dmax6, and i realized i have never had/used a reflective floor...so i've been trying for over a day to get it to work, and i just have no idea what i am doing. I make my model in autocad, then import it into 3dmax, apply materials and lights, render, done. But, for some reason, a reflective floor is completely eluding me.

I've tried using fR-Advanced materials, and i am sort of getting reflections, but they are too light, and the floor material is too dark...its just a disaster. Nothing I am trying is working.

Can anyone suggest something, or direct me to a tutorial? Any help is appreciated!!! :)

[Likwidmotive]

First off I want to welcome you to the community, and to the wonderful world of 3d Studio Max haha... there definitely is a learning curve; but you've come to the right place.

I am using 3D Studio Max 2010 with Mental Ray, however you can use the default scanline (I used default lights, settings, and materials in this tut).

I want to point out that you can in-fact achieve this effect a whole bunch of different ways through the Default Scanline renderer, Mentalray, V-Ray, Radiosity (I think), and a whole bunch more. And with those, they ahve other methods such as reflect/refract, raytracer, etc in the material library. Plus with the Standard material, you can simply go down to maps, and where it says reflect, and refract, you can put in a material, such as raytracer, or a reflect material.

I did this tutorial with a mix material, and I don't suggest doing it this way, but it'll give you a chance to explore other ones to get a feel for the overall spectrum of materials and their uses (plus I'm trying to solve my current problem with sub-surface scattered leaves)

For a quick reflection just go down to the standard material box, and scroll down to where it says reflect, and insert a REFLECT material from the library. This should set it up pretty quickly, and you just have to tweak it. However I found the below example to give me better results.


In studio max, make a plane, and 3 solids; square, cylinder, and sphere. Hit (m) or go to render and material editor. What you have there are different materials that you can manipulate. We are going to stick with the standard material for this tut.

In the diffuse section, click on the grey box, and select 'Mix' from the library. set up the mix to how I have it in the image. Should be half in half. I do believe this changes the colour of the texture. You want a reflect material in one box and your diffuse(your bitmap/image) material in the other.

The thing thats going to make this realistic is your bump map if you have a floor that has bumps

hope this helped you, and any questions, don't hesitate to ask.
-Adam

[fafa1234]

Well I tried both of your suggestions and I got nothing. Maybe it has to do with me using Finalrender? I feel like there is a simple setting that I am missing, and it has ruined my day(s). Haha. :(

I have modeled a "room" with a couple of solids in it, and they are not giving me a reflection on the floor. I'm using a wood floor, so I'm not worried about bumps on it, I just want reflections! :(

This program can be very frustrating...

Thank you for trying to help me anyway :)

[Likwidmotive]

it is
Go to render ---> and then Render Setup. Scroll down in the common tab to where it says 'Assign Renderer', and click on either scanline, or MentalRay.

[fafa1234]

Thank you for your help, but we have been using finalrender forever in my office, and i really need a solution in finalrender...

I am appreciative of your help :)

[bobi]

Well,
in "final render advanced" material, under the reflection tab, make the "reflect" color from black to pure white, and then increase IOR untill you see a reflection clearly.
Lastly, you may want to increase "blurry" parameter of the reflection, so you got more realistic reflection.

[fafa1234]

Bobi, YOU WIN!!!!

I cant believe how EASY that was!!!

THANK YOU!!!!