This article is intended to guide you through the process of creating basic materials from scratch. These can be developed further to give you an even more realistic look towards your renders. Please note that the values given below are subject to change and have been used as ''artistic interpretation''. Feel free to play around with these settings to suit your needs.
Additionally, the Corona Physical material does include a list of ''pre-made'' materials that one can use and expand on. These can be found under the ''General'' tab using the ''Apply preset'' drop-down menu.
And with that said, let's make some materials!
Glass - Clear
- Create a Corona Physical material and set the roughness amount to 0%.
- Use the default IOR value of 1.5 and enable the Refraction channel.
Note: For windows or glass found in picture frames, the ''Thin shell (no inside)'' option can be enabled in the General tab of the Physical material.
Glass - Tinted
- Create a new Corona Physical material and reduce the roughness amount to 0%.
- Enable Refraction and leave settings to default values.
- Enable Volumetrics and add a color to the Absorption. In this example the HSV values are: 150, 68%, 73%.
- Increase or decrease the Distance amount in the ''Additional'' settings. A smaller distance will make the glass darker and a higher amount will make the glass more clear.
Water - Clear/Still
- Create a new Corona Physical material and reduce the roughness amount to 0%.
- Decrease the IOR value to 1.33 for water. A list of IOR values can be found here: IOR List
Metal - Chrome
- Create a Corona Physical material and change the ''Metalness'' mode to Metal from the General tab of the Physical material.
- Set the roughness amount to 0%.
Note: For colored metal such as Brass, Gold, Copper etc, you can change the color of the base layer.
Plastic
- Create a new Corona Physical material and a give the base a color of your liking.
- Reduce the roughness amount to suit the kind of plastic you wish to create. In this case we used a value of 20%.
- Set the IOR value to 1.35
Ceramics - Porcelain
- Create a new Corona Physical material and give the base layer an HSV colour value of 14, 80%, 55% (or another to your liking).
- Reduce the roughness amount to suit the kind of ceramic you wish to create. In this case we used a value of 10%.
- Enable bump and reduce it to around 30%. Add a noise shader and adjust the global size or strength amount to suit your scene.
Wax - Candle
- Create a new Corona Physical material and reduce the roughness amount to around 30%.
- Give the base layer a color. This example the HSV values are: 47, 10%, 100%.
- Set the IOR value to 1.3
- Enable SSS and reduce the radius to 5cm (the amount will vary from scene to scene. Working to scale is always recommended).
- Change the scatter color to a darker version from what was used in the base layer. In this case the HSV values are: 47, 18%, 71%.
Wood - Walnut
- Create a new Corona Physical material and reduce the roughness amount to around 28%.
- Give the texture slot in the base layer a wood shader. (See settings image below).
- Leave the IOR value to 1.5.
- Enable Bump and assign the same wood shader as done in the second step. Open the wood shader and change to the colors to black and white.
If you are looking for more ''advanced'' materials or a certain type of material, please keep in mind that there is also the Corona Material Library and the Cosmos Browser which come included with the Corona installer for both Cinema 4D and 3ds Max.