TurboTips: V-Ray Material, Part 3: Refraction

CALVIN BRYSON APRIL 21, 2014 3D MODELING, ARTISTS, TURBOTIPS, V-RAY

MATERIAL, V-RAY TIPS
In this series of Turbo Tips, were giving you an in-depth guide to regular V-Ray
Material. Well cover the theory behind many of the features of the material and
give you specific examples of settings and tricks to use. While the example images
are from 3ds Max, the same concepts and settings can be used in V-Ray for Maya.
The information covered here is generally useful in V-Ray for C4D, but the specific
fields and values may be different.

Last week, we talked about the Reflection tab. This week, well be moving on to:

Refraction

Refraction controls how an object lets light through. For example, if you were to
shine a light on an object, how much light would you see coming through the other
side? Unlike Reflection, not all objects are refractive. Some typical examples that
use this V-Ray material component are: glass, water, transparent plastic, crystal,
oil, etc.

The amount of Refraction can be controlled by a number, Map, or Texture. It can be

grayscale or colored, but it is recommended to stick to grayscale for more realistic
results.

If you are not using Caustics in your scene (most likely you arent), turn on the
Affect Shadows option to get realistic, transparent shadows. Otherwise, the
shadows will be too dark.
Adding Color To Refraction

So, how do we actually get colored refractions, if its not recommended to use
colors in the Refraction amount? We should use the Fog color option, in this case. It
works realistically, since thicker parts of the model will be more colored/darker
than the thin parts.

Depending on your objects physical size, you might need to adjust the Fog
Multiplier Value. Larger objects will look darker than smaller ones when using the
same material.

Use Fog Bias to control the color transitions. Lower values make the color more
intense and the transitions sharper, while higher values make the tinting more
weak but even. If you adjust both of these parameters (Fog Multiplier and Fog
Bias), you should be able to achieve any effect you might need.
Refraction Glossiness

Refraction Glossiness simulates a rougher surface, by diffusing the light rays in

different directions. Lower values create a rougher look (frosted or sand-blasted
glass, or textured rough plastic), and higher values are for smooth surfaces. Since
glossy Refractions are one of the biggest increases for render times, they are
usually used in a smaller range. You probably dont need to go lower than 0.7 to
achieve the desired look.

You can use a Texture to create a rougher, more realistic look. If the material is still
pretty clean, dont overdo it and use a map that is mostly pure white with some
darker spots/patches. Its usually a good idea to keep the Refraction Glossiness
map similar to the reflection glossiness. Any rougher areas would affect the
Reflections and Refractions in a similar way.
Note: As with Reflections, we think its best to leave the Subdivs at 8, for the end
user (your customer) to adjust for themselves.

Refraction Depth and Exit Color

The Refraction Depth and Exit Color function exactly the same as their Reflection
counterparts: bump up the max depth if there are lots of refractive/reflective
objects and bring it down if using blurry Refractions.

Refraction IOR

IOR is a very important parameter to set correctly, in order for your material to
look believable. Fortunately, these values have been calculated for all sorts of
materials, so theres no need to guess here.

With the Value of 1 (same as air), the rays of light are going straight through the
object without any distortion. As you raise the number higher, the rays get
distorted more and more.
Acetone 1.36

Agate 1.544

Air 1.0002926

Alcohol 1.329

Amber 1.546

Amethyst 1.544

Crystal 2.00

Diamond 2.417

Emerald 1.576

Ethanol 1.36

Glass 1.51714

Glass, Albite 1.4890

Glass, Crown 1.520

Glass, Crown, Zinc 1.517

Glass, Flint, Dense 1.66

Glass, Flint, Heaviest 1.89

Glass, Flint, Heavy 1.65548

Glass, Flint, Lanthanum 1.80

Glass, Flint, Light 1.58038

Glass, Flint, Medium 1.62725

Ice 1.309

Jade, Nephrite 1.610

Jadeite 1.665

Methanol 1.329

Moonstone, Albite 1.535

Nylon 1.53

Onyx 1.486

Opal 1.450

Plastic 1.460

Plexiglas 1.50

Polystyrene 1.55

Quartz 1.544

Quartz, Fused 1.45843

Rock Salt 1.544

Ruby 1.760

Sapphire 1.760

Tiger eye 1.544

Topaz 1.620

Tourmaline 1.624

Turpentine 1.472

Turquoise 1.610

Water 35C (Room temp) 1.33

Zirconia, Cubic 2.170

Breaking the Rules

Technically, both the Reflection and Refraction IOR should be the same, but
sometimes, you might want to unlock them for artistic reasons. This trick is used
when glass or transparent plastic material just seems to lack reflections. In this
case, bumping up the Reflection IOR can help in bringing out those reflections. Its
also useful when you want to create a more even distribution of the reflections,
without increasing their intensity.

Dispersion

Dispersion controls how the light is split up into different colors when passing
through an object. A classic example of this would be a ray of light going through a
prism, creating a rainbow effect. Most glass and other refractive materials show at
least a little bit of dispersion. The exact amount is controlled by the Abbe number.
The basic idea is, as the Abbe number goes lower, the dispersion effect increases.
Its easy to overdo it, but it should actually be pretty subtle.

Since it is quite slow to render, most of the time you can get by without dispersion.
We only suggest using it for close-up studio renders of things like jewellery, glass,
or crystals.
Refraction & Alpha Channels

Finally, a quick tip to remember: for Refractive objects, it is generally a good idea
to set the Affect Channels to All Channels. This way, your alpha channel will
not be solid white, but will be adjusted, depending on the transparency of the
object. This is very useful in post-production.