Major Project: Gem 009-018

I continued experimenting with creating a gem-like object/material. I tried out a few different height/colour maps this time. One of them I created in After Effects (which is animated, but I didn't render out any animation tests) and the other I used some images I found online and adjusted the colours in Photoshop as well as clean it up so it tiled without any issues. This time I also experimented with the Scale Anisotropy and Dispersion Abbe number.

I quite liked how these settings changed the object, but I only tried out Dispersion Abbe on Gem 018 so I hope to play around with that more. Out of these tests I like 015, 017, and 018 the most. I found gems 009-012 really fake and plastic looking in comparison. I still also really like 004 and 007 from my previous test as well. I think I will attempt to create a more geode-like material as well, so it'd have normal rock with pockets of crystals in it. I want to keep the object relatively spiky I think... so it still looks dangerous but enticing.