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I've been playing around with cycle nodes for the better part of 2 days in Blender, but I'm getting no closer to my desired result. Instead, I'm getting washed out colors or terrible refractions.

I'm trying to get a shader close to what was used for Super Hot game, for rendering out some sprites for a cyber punk like game.

Here's the shader in question Furniture uses the same color as the black model enter image description here

This is what my model currently looks like. BEHOLD Huma-tron

The initial idea of the art direction was to have the world be represented by polygons roughly representing the volumes of the world. Everything would have a Glassy look with a careful color scheme to prevent the risk of color shock.

The models would be rendered into isometric sprites.

My initial process was because the model looks chisiled, I should try and make it a gem. Unfortunately, even though I am a programmer at heart, I have absolutely no experience with shaders.

I honestly do not care for photorealism... so I will be perfectly fine with any weird hacks. My main requirement is that many of the polygons will be well represented and there will be blown out highlights.

So... Can you show me the way?

A side note, some of the polygons are nonplanar, which causes that triangulated look in some areas, while other's were on purpose. Any tips here would be appreciated too.

Here's the blend:

It's a bit of a mess. I am sorry.

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  • $\begingroup$ Judging by the screenshot here, this look is a very simple shader. What's important is the geometry, and that you set it to use Flat shading, not Smooth. Beyond that, use a toon diffuse with a size above .6 and experiment with toon gloss with size below .3 or regular gloss with low roughness (under .2) My guess is that your actual problems are coming from your lighting setup. Can you describe your setup or share the file? (The above picture also involves hatching in the shadows. Cycles cannot do things based on lighting in the materials, but you can do it in the compositor.) $\endgroup$
    – Ascalon
    Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 5:21
  • $\begingroup$ @Drudge ... Literally one light. I have a feeling I'm kicking myself in the teeth there, am I? What would you recommend for a light set up? Also, I just added a link to the blend. Please check the OP $\endgroup$
    – moonshineTheleocat
    Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 5:31
  • $\begingroup$ @moonshineTheleocat, your file has a Blender Render setup, do you confirm you want a Cycles rendering ? $\endgroup$
    – lemon
    Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 6:47
  • $\begingroup$ @lemon, yes. Sorry... but that lighting set up is pretty much what you see. Currently I've just been making copys and throwing them out as I tried to create that shader. That's basically the master copy you got there. $\endgroup$
    – moonshineTheleocat
    Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 7:34

1 Answer 1

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I think you may achieve similar effect using Layer Weight (Facing) node for a mixing factor of Diffuse and Glossy shaders. A little bit of compositing (adding Glare (Fog Glow) node) may be also needed. enter image description here

Set up the nodes as pictured below (experiment with Layer Weight's Blend and Glossy shader's Roughness values). To achieve a stripped pattern add a Wave Texture (Bands) node and adjust it's scale. enter image description here

My lighting setup: Two Area Lamps with pure white color- key light (Strenght-10000, Size-0.1) and fill light (Strenght-2000, Size-0.1). enter image description here

To make it look better go to compositing nodes and add a Glare Node (Fog Glow) and increase its Threshold and Size. enter image description here

Animated result:
enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ Excellent! Also, can I request your lighting scene? $\endgroup$
    – moonshineTheleocat
    Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 18:13
  • $\begingroup$ Lighting is super simple. Just two lights- I described it in my answer. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Gonet
    Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 18:18
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks for the help! I've managed to get a secent looking sprite going. Though I might need to play around with the lighting a bit more later. imgur.com/a/nohHQ $\endgroup$
    – moonshineTheleocat
    Commented Sep 4, 2016 at 4:17
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    $\begingroup$ @qubodup I'm glad you like it! I'll try to find a .blend file and post it here for you to study. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Gonet
    Commented Aug 20, 2017 at 14:24
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    $\begingroup$ @qubodup Sorry, but it seems I haven't saved the .blend. I guess the ground it's a blueish L-shaped plane. Lighting: two spot lamps with a strong energy and very little Size and Blend values + some World Ambient Occlusion. That's it. $\endgroup$
    – Paul Gonet
    Commented Aug 21, 2017 at 21:32

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