How do you make objects shine???

[Ydnar]

I was working on an animation and i came to something i just could'nt figure out in any book or tutorial, well atlease looking throught them roughly, But i was wondering out to make an objetc shine, like chrome or maybe even make an object like mirror, if you can help i would greatly appreciate it. thankz

[Suneet]

Fairly simple effect. It's called Raytracing.

I suggest Pg. 84 of the tutorial that came with MAX 4.

[Ydnar]

well can you tell me please becuase i'm currently unable to get to the tutorial book, any help would be great...

[Pamela]

can't you just go into the materials editor, into the mtl library and attach the material to the object? I haven't played with the program for awhile but I remeber them having metals and glass and stuff like that in the library.... Then you just shine a light on it I guess?

[Suneet]

I took some screenshots and added text to the images. Take a look.

By the way, to open the dialog in the second image, select an empty material slot, and click the "Get Material" button shown in the first image.

Link

The second image is related to what Pamela said.

So you're trying to make chrome? You can do it without raytracing, too. Try the "metal" file referred to in the second one.

[Ydnar]

thank you, this will help alot, thank you a bunch

[Suneet]

Any time.

[Daishichimaru]

Raytracing is very very bad for us, as it boosts render time through the roof for nominal gain. An easy trick is to map a still image approxomating the thing you need to have reflected into the reflection slot of your material and bump up the specularity. Doing that gives an effect approxomating that of raytrace reflection maps without the debilitating render time hike, especially when the resolution doesn't support effects that subtle.