Major Project: Gem 001-008 & Gem Influence Map

Now that the Minor Project submission is over, I returned to some suggestions I was given in regards to my crystal/gem. I created a quick height and diffuse map using some photos and applied it to the sphere. I applied a Frosted Glass preset on the AiStandardSurface shader and began experimenting with the displacement and the colours.

I wanted this material to resemble something more raw and crystal-like rather than something like a polished diamond. This is because I relate 'precious gem' to 'anorexia' I think of those crystal growing kits - something that is unnatural but is also beautiful and captivating. I also think I want to try out some materials that look more like a geode. I've also begin experimenting with animating maps in After Effects to see if I could make some sort of animated crystal map.

I mostly focused on colour with these tests, once I added in some colour to the scatter channel I think the object began to look really interesting. Out of these I think Gems 004 and 007 are my favourites. It was fun combining different colours for the scatter, transmission colour, and specularity to see how they interacted with each other