# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Light a Silver Goblet

|previous=Spin a goblet
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```
Note that the images are outdated.

## Techniques

You should know how to:

-   Perform actions discussed previously in the tutorial.

This section will recap or introduce:

-   Reflective material
-   Positioning camera and light
-   Editing the World colors

## Objects in the Scene

Create the goblet discussed in Model a Silver
Goblet or
load it if previously made. If you haven\'t already made the goblet,
feel free to try the tutorial using a sphere or something else instead
and you will still get a good outcome. In Object Mode with **NUM 7**
view, add a plane mesh. Scale the plane to a very large size and make
sure the goblet is sitting comfortably on top of it.

Select the camera and move it so that the goblet, and its reflection in
the plane will be seen or else if you want. You can see the numerical
location of the camera by bringing up the *Transform Properties* window
by pressing **NKEY** in the viewport. In my example where 0,0,0 is the
bottom center of the goblet, the camera is located at 27, -21, 19 XYZ
with a rotation of 63.5, 0.62, 46.7.

Create a Sun with **Shift+A** → Lamp → Sun. And (in the lamp properties
\"Object Data\") set \"energy\" to \"0.5\", and place it above the
goblet. Move it at around 80 points on the Z-axis. It is very important
that you place the lamp on the right spot cause it will give your goblet
anon 100 times more true to nature when you will give your goblet a
silver texture. You can try placing a point or another lamp but it\'s
very difficult to get a realistic image then. If you choose a different
lamp click on the World button in the \"Properties\" header (the section
where you can edit the sky). Check the Environmental Lighting box. Set
energy to \"0.800\".

The rendering of this scene yields:

!Current render Old Picture.

## Adding the Atmosphere

In Object Mode, select the goblet and go to the \"Material Properties\".
If no material is linked to the goblet, add new material. Rename the
material \'cup\' or something similar. The area of interest is the
*Mirror* window. Highlighted below are the mirror options we\'ll be
playing with. Press the Mirror button to make the material act like a
mirror and reflect light.

Move the \"Reflectivity\" slide to 0.85 or type it in after **LMB** on
the number. This is how reflective the surface will be. A low number of
0.00 means that it reflects little while a high number of 1.00 reflects
everything.

Also change the Fresnel slide from 0.0 to 1.4. This will increase the
power of the Fresnel function. What this means is the color of the
material will be strong because the light source is taken into
consideration. If the Fresnel wasn\'t used, the object would appear dark
because the light source isn\'t directly calculated in the mirror. Also,
change the color of the goblet to white. Using a light color will give
your goblet an interesting patina if you so choose.

!No material linked

!Make the goblet reflective

Next, select the plane and modify the material, add if it is not there.
We want the plane to be dark and shiny. Set *Diffuse* and *Specular* to
near black for the color. For reflectivity, turn on *Mirror* to about
0.15 Reflective and ignore Fresnel this time.

!Edit the materials of the
plane

There is only one more thing to do before rendering the scene: change
the world. Under the \"Properties\" Header is the \"World\" panel. Here
you have *Paper Sky*, *Blend Sky*, and *Real Sky* buttons. There are
also options for changing the color of the horizon (Horizon color),
zenith (Zenith color), and ambient (Ambient color). We\'re interested in
these two windows at the moment.

Using *Real sky* and *Blend sky* will affect the way the horizon and
zenith interact. Experiment with them to see what they do in the
preview. In this example, *Real* and *Blend* are turned on.

The *Paper* button works a little differently in that what you see in
the preview will essentially be the background of your render. This
effect is most noticeable when your camera is rotated. Despite the
camera rotation, the preview would still be \'wallpapered\' on the
render.

For our world, set the color close to black for the horizon, zenith, and
ambient.

!World shading

That was the last step! Make sure the camera is in the right spot and
render the scene. Here is the output of this example

!Final rendering

## Creating a metallic texture for the goblet:

The metallic look can be achieved by these steps:

1.  **Materials** \> **Diffuse**. Set color Hex value to: **C7C8CB** or
    you can set it completely black for dark metal. Set intensity to
    \"0.8\".
2.  **Materials** \> **Specular**. Set color to white(Hex: **FFFFFF**).
    Change **Intensity** to \"**1.000**\", left of the color-swatch, set
    the *specular shader* to **CookTorr**. Also change the **Hardness**
    to value around \"**16**\".
3.  **Materials** \> **Mirror**. Make sure the Mirror check-box is
    checked. Set **Reflectivity** to **1.000** and color to white(Hex:
    **FFFFFF**). Make sure that under \"Gloss\" the \"Amount\" is set to
    \"1.000\".
4.  (not compulsory but it may be required) Use the texture from this
    earlier tutorial: Procedural Wood
    Texture
    on the planes that are below and behind the goblet as in the picture
    below. It will give you a much better contrast.

![](3d_Modelled_steel_goblets2.jpg "3d_Modelled_steel_goblets2.jpg")

**Notes:**

*Problem:* When I render I see brown where I have used \"Shift-E\" and
\"G\" and I followed everything. *Answer:* Please remember, the author
did say play with the settings a bit, this tutorial should be used as a
guide. We are learning how to use all the tools that Blender has to
offer, that is the important thing. It is up to us to experiment more
with the settings set forth in these tutorials. If the settings in these
tutorials do not give us the same results, that is OK, we should be
changing them anyway to express ourselves! Also remember, NEVER strive
for PERFECTION, but ALWAYS strive for EXCELLENCE. Perfection only leads
to frustration, and it is frustrating enough, at times, to learn
something new. Have fun learning, I know I am.

*Noob Question:* I managed to get it looking like the first picture
above. How do I get it to look like the second?\
*Pro Answer:* Change the reflection settings. a higher depth and a
larger raymir value will make the goblet more \"mirror\" like as in the
2nd picture. the other settings should be left alone, or you can
experiment with them to achieve the effect that you want. lighting is
also important. the object that is to be reflected has to be illuminated
as well as the object that is doing the illuminating. Different lights
(don\'t use a hemi if you want it to be realistic) at different angles
will give you a more realistic effect.

*Noob Note:* On the answer above, I didn\'t manage to do it with any of
the things the pro said in the answer here, I found out that the key is
to change the color of the material which is white (or close to white)
in the upper picture. In the lower picture the color is set to black (or
close to black). This eliminates the \"un-metallic\" whitish sheen that
the goblet in the upper picture has.

*Noob Note:* I don\'t know about those using lower versions but those
using v2.5x have a choice of different shaders both for diffuse and
specular colours. I strongly suggest that for the same object one should
try playing around with the shaders. They can create different effects.
for eg. here if you change the diffuse shader type to **oren-nayar** and
the specular shader type to **wardiso**, the goblet will have a glossy ,
finished look.

![](Silver_goblet.jpg "Silver_goblet.jpg")

![](Goblets_two_mooroon.png "Goblets_two_mooroon.png")

