*(on the first day of voting 133 views… 9 votes… 6% voting   Let’s hear from you .  Thanks for voting)*

Ladies and gentlemen,

You are being asked to choose from the preview objects proposed, and vote for the one that will be used.  Soon we will have a community material library open to all to add to and use.  The Material Preview Object you choose will be the one used for this library.

A little background…

The challenge here is to create a Material Preview Project which will reveal as much as possible about the broadest range of materials applied to it.  The goal is that everyone will use the preview project as-is, thus making it possible for people to compare the effects of different materials against others.  A lot is being asked of the project, as it needs at once to show the characteristics of transparent materials, and solids.  It needs to show case materials designed for rectilinear objects as well as organic.  It needs to show how the material reflects, refracts, and handles caustics.... you get the idea.  As the Preview Project will never be able to show off all of the materials full potential, the material library will allow the user to submit a rendering of his or her choice to show case the material in use.

There were two basic solutions put forward. 
The first (The Two in the Poll) suggests two separate objects, a sphere and a cube.  This solution gives the submitter greater flexibility over how their material is represented in the library.

The second solution (The One in the Poll) suggests a single object which is both sphere and cube.  This solution offers greater neutrality for the users when comparing materials in the library, apples to apples.

Please vote here.  If you would like to submit your own Preview Project for consideration, or find out more about the library project, or make suggestions, please go here… http://eitechnologygroup.com/forums/viewthread/35/

Thanks for your input,
Yon

One more view of Project 1,
AKA:’The Two‘ in the poll above… I know I could have made it easier…

One more view of Project 2
AKA:’The One‘ in the poll above…

Hi Yon

I think you have done a great job and personally I really like the combination of the sphere and the cube - very smart solution.

What I do have a problem with is the ground texture. For me I find that it is way to busy and detracts from the actual material. This seem particully true in the materials that have a lot of reflections as this detail is repeated. Also I don’t think I would ever use this information. IMHO I would just use a simple checker board with no extra lines or information.

Cheers

Robert

Great job!!
I agree with Robert, too much information on the ground that distracrts from the preview model. I like the combination of cube and sphere, anyway.
Carlos

Thanks for the feedback and the participation.  This was a group effort, so I’ll beam the thanks out to the others too.

Here’s the idea behind the grid… If you look at the previews of transparent objects closely, you will see that the checkerboard offers two things. It let’s you see how it refracts and how it distorts the reflection.  Depending on your material settings, the range of effects is rather large, and important for understanding the material.  If it were a grid it would be less distracting as an image, and it would be hard to see how much those two effects are working (big squares being easier to trace than single lines).  Compare the distortion in this rendering to one above, especially with the gold-oily-transparent object.

Of course, if the pattern is more annoying than helpful, it should go. 

Thanks for sharing that.
Yon