Digital Art Zone

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to build a mirror in Carrara? Is is as simply as making a completely reflective shader?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

Is this a trick question? 

I guess it depends on how detailed you want to get. But yeah, pretty much. Technically, a mirror is usually a sheet of clear glass sandwiched with a backing layer of very reflective/metallic foil (or whatever), so you can reproduce that if you want. But a lot of reflection should do the trick otherwise.

But keep in mind 99% of the effect of reflection is not in the shader, it’s in providing something to reflect in the mirror. If there’s nothing to reflect, nobody believes it a mirror.

No not a trick question. Thanks for tip I was able to make a mirror shader.

By the way why am I a “New Member” I have been on these forums since the 1990s.

mdelaflor - 22 August 2012 09:14 AM

By the way why am I a “New Member” I have been on these forums since the 1990s.

It’s the way the new forum works. Everyone is new until you hit a certain post level. I’ve been around since March, 2001 on the DAZ site forum dropping in here and there when time permits.

you need 26 posts!
then you are just a member.
250 is active member
1001 power member (not Forum Troll, that is MY special title, kinda like administrator etc!!! you do beleive me?)
2500 addict

mdelaflor - 22 August 2012 09:14 AM

No not a trick question. Thanks for tip I was able to make a mirror shader.

By the way why am I a “New Member” I have been on these forums since the 1990s.

I somehow doubt that. The forums didn’t start until October 2003.

Other than that, Wendy has explained the reason for the New Memeber status. Most people started that way on the new forums. Just some of us had a wee bit of a head start is all, as we needed to get some announcements and stickies up before the forums went live.

Well, 2003 then for me… I was going back to my first purchase which I thought was around the same time.

There are some things to consider with using a reflective shader. The default ray depth within the shader is 2. The depth in the render room is 8. If you place two “mirrors” so that they reflect each other, the higher number will provide more reflections, so you might want to change it match the render room’s ray depth at least. There is a limit though, even if you have the ray depth cranked all the way up. You will not get an infinity mirror- at least not in the 32 bit versions of Carrara.

There also may be some wonkiness with the depth of field and other render time effects such as blur object not working as you’d expect with the reflections. There is a blurry reflections option available in the shader, but use with caution as this can really increase render times.