Improve this symbol if possible: Nelson flying saucer pendant

GeneDavis · May 31, 2022

I tried this in the General Q and A and got no bites, so I will try it here where it belongs, where we discuss and present symbol stuff.

My file is attached. The fixture is one I got from the 3D Warehouse long ago, and it is not there now, but I had it in my archives. It is a better model than the one I placed in the thread in Q and A. It this one, the skin of the lamp is nicely done to emulate the stretching over the ribs and the belly-ing between, as exists in the real fixture. I love midcentury modern, and these Nelson bubbles are perfect fixtures for classically-done MCM interiors.

The lamp has materials assigned to each element so it is all controllable. What has to be studied and worked on some more, I think, is the skin, with its properties of sheen, translucency, and emissivity to light it up the way the for-real lamps do when the big white globe lamp inside is lit. As can be seen when you examine my model, I tried to do this with lights assigned both to the fixture, and lights placed around outside the fixture.

If you are a lighting tinkerer, I would like to see what you can do with this. Thanks.

Attached is the file, plus two screencaps of renders, one done with RTRT, the other (better) with CPU RT.

I also attached a photo of one in a room. Note how the fixture's skin has translucency to exibit the ribs showing through. I'd like to get there.