Review: Metalworks Shader Pack

BlenderNation Reviewer RegusMartin reviews the Metalworks Shader Pack from the Blender Market.

Metalworks is a shader pack for the Cycles renderer designed for fast shading of almost any metal surface. It includes 17 shaders and 3 “Pass-through” shaders that add on to existing shaders. The included shaders are as listed in the image:

Value

For many, the price may seem way too high. But Metalworks is intended to be a library for continual use in all your projects involving metal. Considering that, the price isn’t so bad. As Jim Morren (the creator of Metalworks) pointed out in response to a comment about the price. Each shader only costs $4.00. which is a pretty good price for a shader of such quality.

Usability

Using the shaders is as easy as appending them into your file and adding them to your model like any other shader. And modifying the shaders for your needs is just as easy. All the needed controls are outputted via a group node so you don’t have to look there huge node setup to change something as simple as roughness or color. I did have some problems with mapping some of the textures. But that is to be expected and unavoidable for certain objects.

Realism

The overall realism of the shaders is amazing and most of the shaders looked perfect on almost every model I threw them on. The rust shader quickly became my favorite shader, as its perfect for adding age to models. However, I did find the stainless steel and painted metal to be lacking in certain settings. The painted metal looked slightly too dull in a few renders and more like rubber than metal. And the stainless steel didn't look quite realistic in my opinion. But other than those two shaders the realism is superb throughout the collection.

Note: My renders hardly do justice to what the shaders are capable of, so please don’t judge the shaders from the images in the post alone.

Product specifications

• Author: Jim Morren
• Product Page: Blender Market - Metalworks Shader Pack
• Price: $79.99
• Created: January 26, 2015
• Last Updated: February 9, 2015
• Software Version: Blender 2.7x