Hey, does anyone know where I can find a Formica texture bump map or normal map? I know this is not Terragen related (unless you are making Formica mountains or something! :)), but I am having difficulty finding a suitable texture.
Thanks for any leads.
Sink-top on!
Try looking in the CGSociety page for some links. Blender.org has some links to textures also. The Blender stuff is usually free for downloading.
Formica is very smooth and flat, why would you need (or how could you even use) a bump or normal map? It would be just a flat grey.
Richard
It depends on where the formica has been mined I think. ;D ::) I've seen it used where the surface was quite rough, once in paisley. Hippies...
Typical Formica looks very smooth in general, but it has a very subtle texture that causes very unique, anisotropic reflections. A perfect example are the space pod control panel surfaces in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The panels look like metal, but they were in fact made from Formica, which gives a tell-tale sign when you get familiar with the stuff.
The way I found out was that I was working on a space pod interior 3D model and was in the process of RegiStacking frame blowups from the movie of different shots. The noise was going away in this particular group of frames I was working with, except for this odd texture that looked like noise that paradoxically wasn't going away. In fact, it was getting more DEFINED. So then I thought, "it must actually be part of the material." ???? All of a sudden I realized I recognized the texture...Formica! Coincidentally, and shortly after that, I had access to some very early Discovery blueprints that survived the "Great Kubrick Demolition", and indeed, Formica was spec'd out as the surface material.
njeneb > I will check out your tip.
Thanks everybody!
Ahh, I was thinking from a terragen point of view :)
I once had to create a similar surface for a set of perfume bottle images to rest on. It was a polymer surface made of a very fine suspension of particles in a resin base. I tried physically modelling it and even making a thin volumetric layer with some limited success but the final solution was to just find out the refractive index of the resin (formica is 1.47 I think) and use a slight blur on both reflection and refraction together with a very slight and tiny perlin bump.
:)
Richard
That sounds like a cool solution. Definitely using the ole' noggin, there!