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June 12, 2014

Microscratches / Swirl marks / Spiderwebbing

Circular spiderweb around bright highlights in the reections, caused by

microscratches catching light at dierent angles. We see this eect quite often on
real world surfaces that have been scued, scratched and worn out for a while.

Over the years, Ive tried to achieve this eect in VRay for quite a few times
unsuccessfully

After nding some leads on how to approach this on VRay forums, nally I think Ive
got a method that gives good looking results, naturally I also made a tutorial :)

First of all, forget about using a regular Bump map, it simply doesnt look right in my
experience. You need to use a Normal map to simulate those extremely tiny
scratches.
This sort of map is best hand drawn in Photoshop, since you can easily make it
tileable. Draw a bunch of scratches in the center of the image, making sure none of
them approach the borders. Then, use Oset lter and draw a few more in the white
areas. Keep doing until everything is well covered up in scratches.

Heres a quick video on how I do it and my resulting map.

02:34
Now using the NVidia Normal Map lter, generate a Normal map.
Ok, now that we got the map, we can create our shader.
The shader we are creating is going to be pure reection. So start with a Vray mat
with pure black Diuse, pure White Reection and no Fresnel.

Add Normal Bump to the Bump slot and load in the map. Make sure its Gamma is
set to 1.0 and ltering is disabled. Ill use the strength of the Normals at 1.5

Now convert the material to VrayBlend and duplicate this rst layer a few times.
For each subsequent coat layer, lower the Normal strength a bit. This will create a
more gradual fallo around the highlights.
So in my example I used 1.5 for the rst layer, 1.0 for the second, 0.5 for the third,
and nally 0 for the fourth. This last layer gives pure, smooth reections, without the
scratches. You can adjust the blend amount of the last layer to control the strength of
the scratches. Just make the pure reection stronger to make it less worn.
So far the result looks like this:

This is basically our completed Reection coat.

If you want to add these scratches to a material like polished plastic its easy.
Create a new material, set up your diuse color/etc and use it as the base layer in a
new VrayBlend.

Now add our scratched reection shader to the Coat slot and use a Fallo map in the
blend amount slot, set it to Fresnel (1.4~3)
Ta-da! Your plastic now has a scratched up clear coat.
Same technique can be used to add these scratches to any other material. Just look
out for the ones that already have strong glossy reections its best to disable them
altogether and just use the coat.

Obviously there are still some things to tweak, like adjusting the normal strength in
dierent layers or increasing the number of layers and so on, but I think this is a
pretty good starting point!

Perhaps you use a dierent method to achieve this result? If you do, please share in
the comments!

VRay Tutorials 59 Comments Austris

Modeling the ONYX sofa

Using VrayLightMeter to Estimate the Exposure

59 thoughts on Microscratches / Swirl marks /

Spiderwebbing
June 12, 2014 at 11:40 am
Bruno

Hello,

It seems that you rotate the map slightly in those normal map copiesdid you
mention that?

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 11:42 am

Austris

Hi,

I do not rotate the map. It is exactly the same in all layers :)

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 11:43 am

Rihards

Nice mat! Only used car and used teapot =))))

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 11:52 am

Moritz

You are the best :)

Love the tutorial!
 Reply

June 12, 2014 at 12:19 pm

Seba

Waw!!Long time I wondered how to achieve a similar eect,this has solved that
problem to me. I will put into practice for my next project Thanks!

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 12:39 pm

Avi

Austris, with this eect its so realistic, almost every material has something like
this in the reality, amazing!

Thanks again :)

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 12:44 pm

HaPham

Love your tutorial. Thank you very much!

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 12:50 pm

Phuong

Woaamazingyoure more than an expert.Youre my idol.:)

 Reply

June 12, 2014 at 12:50 pm

Asim

THANKS a lot Dear for this Nice Tip Good Luck ! :)

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 1:39 pm

Orlando Hoyos

Eres un experto, muy buen aporte, millones de gracias.

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 1:57 pm

Brian

Austris you are a genoius.

Ive been working on various methods to achieve this eect. Thank you for this
great tutorial

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 2:20 pm

Thomas Chadail

Hi Austris,
Tricky technic, thanks for sharing.
 I tried to recreate this eect: rst using your nVidia generated normal map, then
with a xNormal generated normal map as this is the tool I am used to. In both
cases the shader is exactly the same, only the maps dier.
The render with your map is ne (although I had to push the bump value to 60,
40 and 20 instead of 1.5, 1 and 0.5 like you), but there is something weird with
the other: it seems like I oset the UV coordinates of normal maps from one slot
to another but I didnt.
Here are the renders:
http://bit.ly/1oSscle
http://img104.xooimage.com/les/b/3/9/xnormal_map_render-4628011.jpg

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 3:52 pm

Austris

Interesting results. The rst thing I can think of is that the midpoint
of the normal map is somehow wrong in the XNormal generated
map. If you load it up with gamma 1.0 the midpoint should be
exactly the same in all three layers, ie only the scratches should
aect the surface.
It looks like in your example, the whole shader is bumped up (or
down) slightly depending on the bump strength, compare the
dominant purple pixel RGB values in photoshop for both textures to
see if thats the case. If they dont match theres your answer.

The bump strength in my example is actually 30, it is the normal

bump normal strength that is 1.5, 1.0, 0.5

Also, this eect is best seen with very bright light sources like
camera ash or direct sunlight, your test scene has a pretty cloudy
look, so its not the best hdri to test with :)

Reply
 June 13, 2014 at 7:59 am

Thomas Chadail

Thank you Austris, you are right: I checked both normal

maps and it appears that the RGB midpoint values were
not exactly the same. Thats because I usually correct
xNormal maps with a slight curve (bad habbit though !).
So I got rid of the strange bump oset in my render, but
now I notice that the scratches eect is more convincing
with the nVidia normal map than with the xNormal
map. So I think I am going to work with the nVidia plugin
from now on.

Just a question: to recreate the exact same normal map

as yours, I had to activate Wrap, Invert X and Invert
Y settings. Do you always use these settings ?

Reply

June 16, 2014 at 7:39 am

Austris

There was a mistake in the map I posted.

The settings were left from a dierent
texture. As a result the map actually needed
a negative normal bump value to appear
correct.
The correct texture would be generated
with wrap or invert options o.

The settings can be dierent when creating

a normal map from photo-sourced texture.
 Reply

June 12, 2014 at 2:26 pm

Dmirtry

Thank you Austris, you said forget about using a regular Bump map, it simply
doesnt look right, can you please explain why regular bump map wont work? It
would be great for better understanding..
Thank you for another great tutorial!

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 3:47 pm

Austris

I think the best way to explain would be to try and render out just
one reection layer with regular bump map (increase the scratch
size to see all the detail) and normal bump set to approximately the
same depth. For me, the regular bump map lacks the detail and
smooth transitions I get from normal map.

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 4:24 pm

Catalystc

Hi,
the normal bump -map takes advantage of the three channels (RGB,
0-255) of normal data available in a proper normal map, where as
the regular bump map only uses one channel of data (grayscale,
0-255), resulting in a less realistic, atter shaded simulation of bump
detail.
 If you understand what a vector is, you can try to understand it this
way: each normal maps pixel is a vector that can point to any
direction, upwards, to the side or anything in between, with a
varying strength. Regular bump map can only point straight
upwards, with a varying strength.

Ugh, it is a bit hard to explain in clear manner. So, as suggested, you

should try them yourself, or take a look of these images. :)

http://www.cnjmultimedia.com/genetica/tutorials/Tut_02-
Normal_Bump_Maps_1/All%20maps.jpg
http://community.secondlife.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-
id/108437i654D3D7BC0632288/image-size/original?v=mpbl-1&px=-1
http://static.squarespace.com/static/512a50e4e4b0dc8d3ddd8640
/t/5218de1ce4b0ee5879040fbf/1377361437801/OrangeSlice.jpg

Reply

June 14, 2014 at 7:54 am

madness

Austris, Catalystc thanks guys! I hope after some

practise with these maps it would be absolutely clear for
me.

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 3:17 pm

Andrew

Man, thanks! this is pure awesome, my hat goes o to you good Sir.

Reply
 June 12, 2014 at 3:35 pm

Slava

! !

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 3:59 pm

ketut

its great
thank alot

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 4:18 pm

den

THX for nice mat %)

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 5:36 pm

Mahsube

t is not about just scratches.

Really amazing that your way of thinking for solving problem of the get very close
real nal.
I think map is big part and map and photoshop are should be good partner.
You showed us that.
You are very good trainer.
Please dont stop.
 Thanks a lot.

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 7:23 pm

cawe

I wonder how many times I have tried to recreate this eect. Looking at that
stainless steel wash basin. Thank you so much!

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 9:30 pm

samane

THX for sharing this great tutorial

excuce me but i couldnt watch the video tutorial
and ithought its one of those errors youve said
i thought should tell you
thank you again dear master ;)

Reply

June 12, 2014 at 9:38 pm

Kevin

Thanks for yet another great tutorial!

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 12:07 am

louisse

Thank you very much for share your knowledges . Congratulations Austris.

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 3:18 am

Proteus

Your results look great

This plugin might be worth a try
http://maxplugins.de/max2012.php?search=Scratch&sort=Author

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 7:34 am

surendrababu

I am very glad to knew about this technique,

Austris u are always great
Thanks,
Surendra

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 11:00 am

Jan

I just cant get it to look like that at all

http://i.imgur.com/kBEcY6E.jpg
 The VRayLights dont feather out what am I doing wrong?

Could you possibly share your max le?

Reply

June 16, 2014 at 7:43 am

Austris

The setup is a bit nicky. In some lighting scenarios it doesnt work

that well, you might need to play around with the normal bump
values.

It also helps when there are few lights much brighter than the rest of
the environment. Think camera ash, sunlight, spotlight, etc Your
scene looks very evenly lit.

*note, the normal map posted was inverted and actually needs
negative Normal Bump value. My mistake!

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 12:00 pm

Hesham Elshipli

Thank you Austris.

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 12:07 pm

Vic
 Nice tutorial! Have you considered to make tutorials for Corona render ? Have
you tried it?

Reply

June 16, 2014 at 7:18 am

Austris

Ive tried it, yes. Not sure Im ready to make tutorials yet, need some
more experience!

Reply

June 13, 2014 at 6:45 pm

Andre

Thank you Austris.

Reply

June 14, 2014 at 6:02 am

mahmood lachi nany

very nice tutorial

Reply

June 14, 2014 at 10:37 am

bausmans
 thanks top tut

Reply

June 15, 2014 at 7:24 am

kim jong kwon

Thanks Austris.

I would like to know nVidia options of normal map into this tuto.

Reply

June 15, 2014 at 7:32 am

kim jong kwon

I tried to test this tutorial.

Good ~

http://blog.naver.com/kjgsgi/220031014303

Reply

June 16, 2014 at 7:16 am

Austris

Nice Results!

Reply

June 17, 2014 at 5:24 pm

Aquiles

Hi
how I can get this eect using mental ray?

Reply

June 17, 2014 at 5:32 pm

Aquiles

I tried dierent ways but it did not work.

Reply

June 18, 2014 at 1:58 pm

borgesdaniel.com

You are the best.

Reply

June 19, 2014 at 10:19 pm

Mwa

This technique looks like Grant Warwicks ones. Have you checked his workow
out Austris? I would love to know your point of view over his way to create
shaders with v-ray.

take care!

Reply
 June 25, 2014 at 6:54 am

Austris

Grant has a very interesting workow. Im subscribed to his course,

but I do not use his techniques as is I take some of the ideas,
tweak them and incorporate them into my own workow.

Reply

June 20, 2014 at 8:20 am

Muhammad

! Austris , ,

Reply

June 20, 2014 at 8:10 pm

majid

very very nice.tnx a lot

Reply

June 26, 2014 at 4:07 pm

Vladimir

. 3
?
?
 Reply

June 27, 2014 at 7:20 am

Austris

The radius of the circular highlights is determined by bump strength,

more bump = larger circle of scratches.
Combining in blend is not straightforward, its not 4 layers = 25%
strength each. Its something like 12.5% rst layer, 12.5% second
layer, 25% third layer and 50% fourth layer (with default medium
grey blend amount). This makes the rst layers weaker than the
ones after them. So the layers with most bump are less visible, this
makes the smooth fallo. Now that I see it written down, its clear
that the second layer should have a brighter blend amount, to make
the transition even smoother.

Im not a mathematician or programmer, so this is all just done by

eye. To get a perfect, smooth fallo, there would probably need to
be more layers with exact blending amount and bump strength
calculated.

Reply

June 26, 2014 at 4:14 pm

Vladimir

. .
,
.

http://clip2net.com/s/ioFN3m
http://clip2net.com/s/ioFQfd
 Reply

June 27, 2014 at 7:22 am

Austris

Its a technical issue with vray blend material.

Developers say that the Coat Dup is needed for some reason, but its
not a special slot with any eect, its just a duplicate of the regular
coat that is only visible in slate editor.

Reply

July 27, 2014 at 5:35 am

jay singh

as always nice and eective tutorial. i want to ask one thing not regarding this its
all about material .. when i put my camera to any object ( on which material is
applied) texture appear blurred. if i want to show concrete wall just by putting
camera near to it ..it will not appear as real as i see in real jpeg.

Reply

September 16, 2014 at 12:16 pm

hankash

Good day,

Great material, I would say one of the most advanced and realistic.
Can I ask you to show me how to make a dark grey Alucobond Material, It never
seems to work with me.
Thank you very much
 Reply

October 17, 2014 at 9:32 pm

lawl

Really nice tut.

It works really well, (better if you have many little scratches in your map)

But actually I dont get why it makes a twirl eect around specs from a map
made of straight lines
Can you explain it ? :)

Reply

August 6, 2015 at 12:59 pm

Derrick Nau

Hi There! Cool tutorial.

I am having trouble getting the eect you have show in your image. I have
followed the tut and created a scratch map but I end up with oset high lights
that dont look right at all. Any idea why this could be? See link for image.

http://imgur.com/MUYgCB4

Second question: It looks like your scratches are circular but mine are more
angular. What can I do to emulate your eect? I think this is as similar question
to the one directly above mine from lawl

Reply
Leave a August 6, 2015 at 1:30 pm
Reply Austris

Comment
Hi,
my rst thought is that your normal map is wrong either you are
loading it with the wrong gamma (should be set to 1.0)
or there is something about the way it was generated (dierent
plugin?)

Reply

August 6, 2015 at 3:46 pm

Derrick Nau

Where can you set the gamma for the bump normal? Do
you not have gamma/color correction turned on in Max?

I used the same plugin and settings that you have

shown above. I have tried inverting the green channel,
red channel, swapping them, etc with no luck. However,
a vray normal map with dierent bump settings (i.e. not
30) works pretty well.

Thus, I am wondering if it is something to do with the

bump normal?

Reply

August 6, 2015 at 5:27 pm

Austris

When loading the bitmap set gamma to

override and input 1.0
 Reply

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