Bringing a Model to Life using Textures
Texturing your 3D model is really where it comes to life. It transforms a digital shape to an object that you recognise, using multiple images to create a photo-realistic texture. In this article I will focus on a stainless steel texture used on a watch case or watch bracelet. For example:
- Diffuse: Black
- Specular: Black & Float 1
- Roughness: Float 0
- Index: 8
Index
There are a few things to note here, the values previously mentioned can be changed depending on the type of metal you want. For example, the Index. Setting this to 1.3 is the standard value for glossy materials and changing this value can determine how 'metallic' the material can look.
Specular
Another value that has a drastic effect is the Specular option, the colour value within this can change the entire colour of the metal. Moreover, this is how you can achieve a yellow gold or rose gold look. Or you can go wild with some very bright colours.
Texture Maps and Surface Imperfections


Brushed Textures
You may have noticed throughout this post there have been a few images that contained a brushed texture. This is created through the normal map and the roughness map. Here is the same example from before although, this time I'm applying the brushed texture to the centre links as well.


Summary
Overall, I hope this was an interesting insight into texturing watch cases and bracelets. Showing the flexibility of the materials and the kind of results you can achieve through these render engines. Stay tuned for more articles that will go into detail about other aspects of 3D rendering. If you missed them, feel free to have a read of the two previous Artist Notebooks! The 3D Artist's Notebook #1 - How we use 3D rendering The 3D Artist's Notebook #2 - Modelling a Watch