Any way to do a two-sided shader/material in Iray?

aaráribel caađo

Is there a way to get a different material on each side of a single polygon/selection? For example, cloak that's white on the inside and black on the outside, but doesn't have separate geometry for the white part and the black part?

jag11

You can do that with the help of Shader Mixer, every Iray material has a surface and a backface. Any use case in particular?

aaráribel caađo

Thanks!

jag11 said:

You can do that with the help of Shader Mixer, every Iray material has a surface and a backface. Any use case in particular?

I work as a designer in an enterprise analytics department. I recently made everybody I work with stop saying "use case." :) Not a single one of them could explain what use case adds to plain old use. I also have a friend who mocks people who say utilize, so…

I'm working on something with a cape-like structure that I'm playing with having a version with vivid silk that shows up inside, so when it moves about, you get a flash of color in the otherwise monotone outfit. I have some shirts with an inner/outer combination for the cuffs and collar, which looks pretty cool, so I'd like to emulate that occassionally, too.

agent unawares

aaráribel caađo said:

Thanks!

jag11 said:

You can do that with the help of Shader Mixer, every Iray material has a surface and a backface. Any use case in particular?

I work as a designer in an enterprise analytics department. I recently made everybody I work with stop saying "use case." :) Not a single one of them could explain what use case adds to plain old use.

That's really, really painful because they are distinct things. Use is a general "what does this solution/item/whatever do at a base level?" So the use of a shader with separate surface and backface is to render different materials on different sides of a polygon.

Use case is a set of specific problems I need to solve with the thing that has a use. Use case is "what am I trying to fix or change?" So the use case of a shader with separate surface and backface is (here) to make a cape model look like it has a a silk interior.

Knowing the use case can allow other people to suggest alternative solutions than you originally suggested. For example, now that I know you want to have a different material on the interior of a cape, I will suggest that you can do this using a geometry shell with a very small offset, negative if you want the geometry shell to be the interior, and positive if you want it to be the exterior.

jag11

aaráribel caađo said:

I'm working on something with a cape-like structure that I'm playing with having a version with vivid silk that shows up inside, so when it moves about, you get a flash of color in the otherwise monotone outfit. I have some shirts with an inner/outer combination for the cuffs and collar, which looks pretty cool, so I'd like to emulate that occassionally, too.

This should give you an idea on how to acomplish what you need.

aaráribel caađo

Thanks so much, jag. I opened the mixer last night and decided it was probably more hassel than I wanted to deal with. But this might change my mind.

aaráribel caađo

 

agent unawares said:

aaráribel caađo said:

I work as a designer in an enterprise analytics department. I recently made everybody I work with stop saying "use case." :) Not a single one of them could explain what use case adds to plain old use.

That's really, really painful because they are distinct things. Use is a general "what does this solution/item/whatever do at a base level?" So the use of a shader with separate surface and backface is to render different materials on different sides of a polygon.

Use case is a set of specific problems I need to solve with the thing that has a use. Use case is "what am I trying to fix or change?" So the use case of a shader with separate surface and backface is (here) to make a cape model look like it has a a silk interior.

Knowing the use case can allow other people to suggest alternative solutions than you originally suggested. For example, now that I know you want to have a different material on the interior of a cape, I will suggest that you can do this using a geometry shell with a very small offset, negative if you want the geometry shell to be the interior, and positive if you want it to be the exterior.

Hmm…that's a good distiction, although not one that I've found in practice. Of course, for my example, jag if had asked me what I wanted to use it for, I'd have given the same answer 

agent unawares

aaráribel caađo said:

 

agent unawares said:

aaráribel caađo said:

I work as a designer in an enterprise analytics department. I recently made everybody I work with stop saying "use case." :) Not a single one of them could explain what use case adds to plain old use.

That's really, really painful because they are distinct things. Use is a general "what does this solution/item/whatever do at a base level?" So the use of a shader with separate surface and backface is to render different materials on different sides of a polygon.

Use case is a set of specific problems I need to solve with the thing that has a use. Use case is "what am I trying to fix or change?" So the use case of a shader with separate surface and backface is (here) to make a cape model look like it has a a silk interior.

Knowing the use case can allow other people to suggest alternative solutions than you originally suggested. For example, now that I know you want to have a different material on the interior of a cape, I will suggest that you can do this using a geometry shell with a very small offset, negative if you want the geometry shell to be the interior, and positive if you want it to be the exterior.

Hmm…that's a good distiction, although not one that I've found in practice. Of course, for my example, jag if had asked me what I wanted to use it for, I'd have given the same answer 

Mmmm yes, but that's use as a verb, not a noun.

Inkubo

I never would have dreamed it possible. Thanks for the node map, jag11!