Dumb question about Iray shaders
RLSprouse
Posts: 288
I'm trying to get the hang of Iray, and I am struggling. I set up a simple test scene with a character, and a couple of sphere primatives. I left one sphere as it came in, and selected the other sphere and applied the Iray Glossy (Metallic) setting. But when I render, both spheres are the same white color. I was expecting the metallic one to be reflective, like a mirror ball.
What am I doing wrong?
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Comments
Are you sure the Render Engine is set to Iray?
It's best to use the Surface Selector tool for shading, rather than just selecting the object in the Scene tab. Sometimes the shading just doesn't "take" otherwise.
If you open the Surfaces tab, you can visually check that the new shader has been applied, because the parameter nodes will significantly differ between the two spheres.
Not just "sometimes" — there are two different types of file here, Materials and Shaders. Materials files are built to apply to one particular object; they contain the Surfaces names of that object, so they won't work on any other object. You don't need to select any Surfaces, only the object itself.
Actual Shader files don't specify the names of the object's Surfaces, so you must select which Surfaces you want the shader to apply to. If you only select the object, but not any of its Surfaces, nothing happens. Note that you're not limited to only applying Shaders to one object at a time, you can select Surfaces on multiple objects.
One other difference, Materials files can affect many Surfaces in one go, with different textures and settings for each one, because each Surface in the object is identified by its own name. Shader files apply only one set of Surface settings; if you have multiple Surfaces selected, the same textures and settings will be applied to all of them.
Thanks for that very clear explanation, Kitty.
@Richard: Yes, I am using the Iray render engine.
@SpottedKitty: Thanks, good info, but I think I have selected the Surface. I am using the Surface Selection Tool (from the top of the screen), and I click on the sphere. Then I go to the Surfaces tab, Editor sub-tab, Lighting Model pulldown, and select Glossy (Metallic). Is there anythig else I need to do?
Yes, as you describe your steps both spheres will still be white. If you want a different color choose the DIFFUSE COLOR sub-tab and change the color there.
In general you can use the editor, in which case you can just start playing with the various sub-tabs and see what they do.
Also, it may be a lot easier to go to PRESETS | Shaders | Iray | Metal and selet one of the ready made shaders.
Of course you can combine the two, choose a Preset then fool around with the Editor to alter that Preset's settings.
Have fun!
You are changing a property of the 3Delight surface shader, not actually changing that surface to an Iray shader. Not entirely sure that is going to give you much result (thought it does translate the shaders, I don't think that's enough of a difference).
If you really want an Iray shader, you are going to have to locate one in the library and apply it to that surface. I have utterly forgotten where those are stored at this point. Are you by any chance using Smart Content?
Yes, as noted above, in that case you're not using an Iray shader. Select the object, then the surface(s) you wish to re-shade. Apply the Iray Uber shader -- it's in My Library/Shader Presets/Iray/Daz Uber. The basic shader is !Iray Uber Base.
You may now change the parameters, and they will have the intended effect when rendered in Iray.
If it says Lighting Model, that's a 3Delight shader. In Daz's infinite wisdom, from 4.8 on, they made Iray the default renderer, but didn't change the default shader. Yeah, go figure. You need to apply the default Iray shader to a surface. You can tell an Iray shader if there's a Material ID node near the top.