Looking like steel

[ashscott]

Hi all,

Am trying to create a custom logo for a brochure cover and need some suggestions to make the attached look as realistic as possible - as if it has been cut from steel.

Currently I'm just using basic brushed metal templates for the two textures, boxlight HDRI for the environment, have beveled the edges and gave it a few minutes on exterior progressive to create the example below - my questions are:
1) Should I model welds along the edges? If so, does anyone know a good trick for modelling realistic looking welds?
2) What materials would make this pop
3) What render settings?

[Chris]

One thing to remember when dealing with metal surfaces is that if you want them to appear reflective, they have to be reflecting something. Usually this can be achieved by using a spherical sky background, or even just an image plane behind the camera.

Otherwise, if you want a machined look you could go for one of the brushed metal templates. And whenever I want the highest quality without concern for the render time, I always use Indoor / Indoor+.

[Fletch]

In addition to Chris' comments, I would say your lighting will be everything with this scene... once you nail the metal look you want. You may want to explore the lighting done in the studio with this Ford Falcon for inspiration... exact camera angle and exact light plane placement (LEMs) and light umbrellas and color of lights can make a huge impact - just like real life photography.

Alvydas did model his welds on close-up metal objects and they looked fantastic.

[ashscott]

Falcon looks great, I used to have a blue one of those!

Do you know if Alvydas modeled the welds manually or had some kind of plugin to create the geometry?

[ashscott]

No matter how I arrange the environment, the sun, the HDRI, the shadow settings in SU, I can't get a reflection on the face of the text, why is that?

[Fletch]

... I can't get a reflection on the face of the text, why is that?

perfection takes practice.
If you have v2 pro I suggest trying the exploration render in progressive rendering mode for positioning the lighting.

[alvydas]

How to make welds, can be studied in the attached skp file (without HDR) . I do not know whether this effect is good, but my client was satisfied. Good studio provide a good reflection.

[alvydas]

Blended with Sketchup

[ashscott]

Fantastic stuff Alvydas!

Have been playing round with your file and have learned a lot.
I've taken this to the limit of what I currently understand - how would you suggest I make it better?

[alvydas]

Fantastic stuff Alvydas!

...- how would you suggest I make it better?

I'm not a big guru on the subject. You need to know what you specifically need. If you do not like the result, well, give space for experiments. Start is already good.