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Water Jug — Procedural Metal Study

Material and look-development study exploring fully procedural metallic shading, surface wear, and material variation in V-Ray GPU.

Project Type
Material / Look-Development Study
Role
Retopology, Modeling, Look Development, Lighting, Rendering
Tools
Maya, V-Ray GPU, Nuke, Photoshop
Gold procedural water jug final render

I was responsible for retopology, modeling, look development, lighting, and rendering for this study. Built in Maya, rendered with V-Ray GPU, and finished in Nuke and Photoshop, the project was designed to test fully procedural metallic shading using V-Ray Dirt and Bercon noise rather than painted texture maps. The goal was to build a believable aged metal treatment and evaluate how the same asset and shader logic held up across a hero image, close-up details, and alternate material variations.

Base form and procedural setup

The clay render isolates the underlying form, silhouette, and light response before material development. From there, the study focused on building a procedural surface treatment capable of producing wear, dirt buildup, tonal breakup, and variation without relying on painted bitmap textures.

Water jug clay render before procedural shading
Clay render used to evaluate form before final shading.

Gold material close-ups

These close-up views examine edge breakup, dirt distribution, reflectivity, material layering, and how the procedural treatment behaves across the more ornate areas of the asset in the final gold pass.

Gold procedural material detail on water jug upper section
Gold material crop.
Gold procedural material detail on water jug lower section
Gold material crop.
Gold procedural material detail showing glass and aged metal
Gold material crop.

Silver material pass

The same asset and procedural logic were then tested with a silver finish. This variation provided a direct comparison of how the shader translated to a cooler metallic treatment while retaining the same aged surface character and procedural breakup.

Silver procedural water jug material variation
Silver variation of the same procedural shading setup.

More work

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