Table of Contents

This page offers information about the V-Ray Car Paint 2 material in Cinema 4D.


Overview


V-Ray Car Paint 2 is a material that simulates a metallic car paint. It is a complex material with three layers: a base diffuse layer, a flake layer, and clear coat layer. The material allows the adjustment of each of these layers separately. The V-Ray Car Paint 2 material uses GGX BRDF type and offers base glossiness tail falloff option.



UI Paths




||V-Ray|| > Car Paint 2 Material


||Create|| > V-Ray > Car Paint 2 Material (disabled Separate menu for V-Ray materials)



Base Layer Parameters


Base color – Specifies the diffuse color or map for the base layer.

Texture – Specifies a texture map to be used as the Base color.

Mix Strength – Specifies the blend amount for the Texture.

Base Reflection – Specifies reflectivity value or map for the base layer. The reflection color itself is the same as the Base color.

Base Glossiness –  Specifies the reflection glossiness value or map for the base layer. Higher values, like the default value, make the highlights sharper, while lower values make the transition more subtle.

Base Glossiness Tail – Controls the transition from highlighted areas to non-highlighted areas. Higher values, such as the default value, make the highlight transition sharper and lower values make the glossiness tail more diffuse.

Base Trace Reflections – When disabled, the base layer only produces specular highlights, but no (glossy) reflections.

Base Bump Color – Specifies a bump texture for the base layer.

Base Bump Amount – Specifies a bump amount for the base layer.

Base Bump Type – Specifies the type of the map.


Flake Layer Parameters


Flake Color – Specifies the color or map of the metal flakes.

Texture – Specifies a texture map to be used as the Flake Color.

Mix Strength – Specifies the blend amount for the Texture.

Flake Random Color – Sets colors from the specified map to the flakes in a random pattern. Only the u-axis of the map is sampled for colors (the bottom part of the image). See the Flake Random Color example below for more information.

Flake Orientation – Specifies the orientation value or map of the metal flakes. The orientation of the flakes is relative to the surface normal. When set to 0.0, all flakes are perfectly aligned with the surface. When set to 1.0, the flakes are rotated completely randomly with respect to the normal. Values above 0.5 are not recommended as they can produce artifacts. See the Flake Orientation below for more information.

Flake Orientation Tail – Controls the transition from highlighted areas to non-highlighted areas.

Flake Glossiness – Specifies the reflection glossiness value of the flakes.

Flake Density – Specifies the density (number of flakes) for a certain area. Lower values produce less flakes and higher values produce more flakes. Set this to 0.0 to produce a material without flakes. See the Flake Density example below for more information.

Flake Scale – Scales the entire flake structure when Mapping type is set to Mapping channel.

Flake Scale Triplanar – Scales the entire flake structure, when the Mapping type is set to Triplanar.

See the Flake Scale example below for more information on the scale parameters.

Flake Size – Specifies the size of the flakes relative to the distance between them. Higher values produce bigger flakes and lower values produce smaller flakes. See the Flake Size example below for more information.

Flake Map Size – Internally the material creates several bitmaps to store the generated flakes. This parameter determines the size of the bitmaps. Lower values reduce RAM usage, but may produce noticeable tiling in the flake structure. Higher values require more RAM, but tiling is reduced. 

Flake Seed – The random seed for the flakes. Changing this produces different flake patterns.

Mapping Type – Specifies the method for mapping the flakes.

Mapping channel – The flakes are mapped using the specified channel.
Triplanar – The material automatically computes mapping coordinates in object space, based on the surface normals.

Flake Trace Reflections – When disabled, the flakes only produce specular highlights, but no actual reflections are traced.




Example: Flake Random Color


This example shows the Flake Random Color parameter used with a V-Ray Ramp  map with five randomly set colors. Interpolation is set to Step.







Example: Flake Orientation


In this example, we show how the various flake orientation values affect the overall look of the V-Ray Car Paint 2 Material. Apart from the Flake Orientation, all of the parameters are at their default values. 


Orientation 0.0

Orientation 0.05

Orientation 0.1

Orientation 0.3

Orientation 0.5




Example: Flake Density


For this example, the Flake scale is set to 0.01 and all other parameters are at their default values. 


Density 0.5

Density 1

Density 2

Density 4

Density 6




Example: Flake Scale


This example shows how the Flake Scale Triplanar parameter affects the whole flake structure. Aside from scale, all other parameters are at their default values. 


Scale 0.001

Scale 0.005

Scale 0.01

Scale 0.015

Scale 0.02




Example: Flake Size


This example shows how the flake size parameter controls the overall flake look. The Flake Scale is set to 0.01 here and all other parameters are at their default values.


Flake Size 0.1

Flake Size 0.25

Flake Size 0.5

Flake Size 0.75

Flake Size 1


Coat Layer


Coat Color – Specifies the color or map of the coat layer.

Texture – Specifies a texture map to be used as the Coat Color.

Mix Strength – Specifies the blend amount for the Texture.

Coat Amount – Specifies the thickness amount of the coat layer. A value of 0 does not add a coat layer, while higher values blend the coat gradually.

Coat Ior – Specifies the Index of Refraction for the coat layer.

Coat Glossiness – Specifies the glossiness value or map of the coat reflections.

Coat Trace Reflections – When disabled, the clear coat only produces specular highlights, but no actual reflections.

Coat Bump Color – Allows the user to select a texture for the coat bump map. Leaving this unconnected turns off bump mapping.

Color Bump Amount – A multiplier for the bump map effect.

Coat Bump Type – Determines how the Coat Bump Color parameter is interpreted.

Bump Map – Uses a bump map to determine the bump effect on the material.
Normal map in Tangent space – Uses a tangent normal map to determine the bump effect on the material.
Normal map in Object space – Uses an object space normal map to determine the bump effect on the material.
Normal map in Screen space – Uses a screen space normal map to determine the bump effect on the material.
Normal map in World space – Uses a world space normal map to determine the bump effect on the material.
From Texture Bump Output
Explicit Normal


Options


MATERIAL ID

Material Id Enabled – Enables the use of Material ID.

Material IDThe color used by the Material ID render element. You can also use a shader here.

Multimatte ID – The integer ID of the material to be used by the Multi Matte render element.


ROUND EDGES

Round Edges Enabled –  Enables the round edges effect, which uses bump mapping to smooth out the edges of the geometry during render time.

Radius – Specify a radius (in world units) for the round edges effect. Since the actual geometry is not being changed and only the normals of the faces are affected, large values may produce undesirable effects.

Consider Same Object Only – When enabled, the rounded corners are produced only along edges that belong to the same object which has the attribute applied. When disabled, rounded corners are produced along edges formed when the object with the attribute intersects other objects in the scene. 

Corners – Choose which edges are considered in the calculation. Possible options are:

Covex and Concave – Considers all edges. 
Convex Only 
– Only applies Round Edges effect to edges with convex angles. 
Concave Only – 
Only applies Round Edges effect to edges with concave angles. 


Trace Reflections – When disabled, reflections from the different layers are not traced. They only produce specular highlights.

Trace Depth – Allows the user to control the maximum number of times a ray is going to be reflected by the material.

Double Sided – When enabled, the material is double-sided.

Cutoff Threshold – Specifies the cutoff threshold for the reflections of the different layers.

LPE Label – Allows a label to be assigned, which can be used to reference the material in a Light Path Expression. This is especially useful when working with the Light Select render element to evaluate custom light contribution in the scene.


Environment Override


Use Environment Override – Enables the environment override.

Environment Override – Specifies the Environment override texture for this material. 

Environment Priority – Specifies the priority of the material.




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