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Plastic

with Metal Flakes

Description

This material is quite simple at the network topology level and the use of textures but took a bit of time to fine-tune all the parameters to achieve the consistency in multiple lighting scenarios. I specifically wanted this to remain plastic with embedded infusions such as metal flakes as opposed to a coated aluminum that has a much higher IOR than plastic. As with most of my materials, I’ve added a transparent coat with a smaller glossiness value.

Typically, complex materials have several visible frequencies due to their molecular structure, stress, or infusions. As a result, you can see multiple distinct specular components. This is most visible in my clay + polyurethane material where it is taken to the extreme with three components. In case of this plastic, I imagined that there are two overlaid frequencies of surface roughness. One (in the base material) is dominant, while the top coat adds a much broader specular reflection due to higher roughness frequency (lower glossiness).

Metal flake infusions are made with a very high frequency noise map that affects Reflection Glossiness of the base layer.

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