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I'm using a procedural stainless steel texture in Cycles.

I've Smart UV Projected all faces ("Correct Aspect" is checked, "Stretch to UV bounds" is unchecked).

After unwrapping, some faces look right but others don't - as you can see below.

What's going on here and how can I fix it?

Cheers.

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ You're using Generated coordinates rather than UV coordinates (the Texture Coordinate node). This means that your Smart UV Project isn't actually being used at all. Try conecting UV rather than Generated. $\endgroup$
    – Rich Sedman
    Commented Aug 2, 2018 at 5:46
  • $\begingroup$ @RichSedman Thanks Rich, could you please explain $\endgroup$
    – gatzkerob
    Commented Aug 3, 2018 at 1:21

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You are using a Mapping node to stretch out or compress the noise to produce a 'brushed steel' effect. Here's a simplified material for demonstration (removing unnecessary nodes while retaining the stretched mapping) :

simple brushed steel using Generated coords

The Mapping is compressing the noise in the Y-axis so as to produce a 'brushed' effect. This works on some of the faces but not others (note the top and side looking 'brushed' but the 'front' just showing undistorted noise).

This is due to the mapping only affecting the Y axis. Since the 'front' face is aligned with the Y plane it is not affected by the mapping. This is due to Generated coordinates being a '3d' mapping - there is no distinction between faces and the orientation of those faces cannot be controlled individually.

The way to resolve this is to unwrap your model (which you have already done) and you should be using UV coordinates (instead of Generated) as follows :

simple brushed steel using UV coordinates

Using UV coordinates you can adjust the 'direction' of the brushing on each face by changing the UV map to reorientate each face as desired.

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