DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23963.82724 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337198734_BLENDER_TUTORIAL_VARIOUS_3D_OBJECTS_MIRROR_REFLECTIONS_AND_LIGHTING Mirror reflections are computed in the Blender Render and Cycles Renderers using ray tracing. (n.b. Reflections are not available in the Game Engine). Ray tracing can be used to make a material reflect its surroundings, like a mirror. The principle of ray-traced reflections is very simple: a ray is fired from the camera and travels through the scene until it encounters an object. If the first object hit by the ray is not reflective, then the ray takes the color of the object. If the object is reflective, then the ray bounces from its current location and travels up to another object, and so on, until a non-reflective object is finally met and gives the whole chain of rays its color. Indirect Lighting adds indirect light bouncing of surrounding objects. It models the light that is reflected from other surfaces to the current surface. Is more comprehensive, more physically correct, and produces more realistic images. It is also more computationally expensive. https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/materials/properties/mirror.html Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ - https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/world/indirect_lighting.html - rastermon.com - Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even videoediting and game creation. https://www.blender.org/. - Blender software. 2.79b Version. About, License & Development. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328677236_Blender_software_279b_Version_About_License_Development - Modern accessible application of the system Blender in 3D design practice. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312033613_Modern_accessible_application_of_the_system_Blender_in_3D_design_practice

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BLENDER TUTORIAL. VARIOUS 3D OBJECTS. MIRROR REFLECTIONS AND
LIGHTING
Presentation · November 2019
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.23963.82724
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2. BLENDER TUTORIAL. VARIOUS 3D OBJECTS.
MIRROR REFLECTIONS AND LIGHTING
Assoc. Prof. Tihomir Dovramadjiev PhD Eng.
Technical University of Varna
Department Industrial Design
tihomir.dovramadjiev@tu-varna.bg

3. 2019 2
BLENDER SOFTWARE
- Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—
modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video
editing and game creation. https://www.blender.org/.
- Blender software. 2.79b Version. About, License & Development.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328677236_Blender_software_279b_Version_About_Licen
se_Development
- Modern accessible application of the system Blender in 3D design practice.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312033613_Modern_accessible_application_of_the_syste
m_Blender_in_3D_design_practice

4. 2019 3
Mirror Reflections
Mirror reflections are computed in the Blender Render and Cycles Renderers using ray tracing. (n.b. Reflections
are not available in the Game Engine). Ray tracing can be used to make a material reflect its surroundings, like a
mirror. The principle of ray-traced reflections is very simple: a ray is fired from the camera and travels through the
scene until it encounters an object. If the first object hit by the ray is not reflective, then the ray takes the color of
the object. If the object is reflective, then the ray bounces from its current location and travels up to another object,
and so on, until a non-reflective object is finally met and gives the whole chain of rays its color.
Eventually, the first reflective object inherits the colors of its environment, proportional to its Reflectivity value.
Obviously, if there are only reflective objects in the scene, then the render could last forever. This is why a
mechanism for limiting the travel of a single ray is set through the Depth value: this parameter sets the maximum
number of bounces allowed for a single ray.
Note
You need to enable ray tracing in your scene settings if you want to use ray-traced reflections. This is done in the
Render Shading panel.‣
The Mirror Color in the mirror panel is the color of the light reflected back. Usually, for normal mirrors, use white.
However, some mirrors color the reflection (e.g. metals), so you can change the color by clicking on the color
button. The amount of mirrored reflection is determined by the Reflectivity value. If set to something greater than 0,
mirrored reflectivity will be activated and the reflection willbe tinted the color set in Mirror Color.
Links:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/materials/properties/mirror.html
Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

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Mirror Reflections / Options
Enable ray-traced reflections
Enable or disable ray-traced reflections.
Reflectivity
Sets the amount of reflectiveness of the object. Use a value of 1.0 if you need a perfect mirror, or set it to 0.0 if you
do not want any reflection.
Mirror Color
Color of mirrored reflection By default, an almost perfectly reflective material like chrome, or a mirror object, will
reflect the exact colors of its surrounding. But some other equally reflective materials tint the reflections with their
own color. This is the case for well-polished copper and gold, for example. In order to replicate this within Blender,
you have to set the Mirror Color accordingly. To set a mirror color, simply click the color button in the mirror panel
and select a color.
Link:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/materials/properties/mirror.html

6. 2019 5
Mirror Reflections / Anisotropic
The shape of the reflection, from 0.0 (circular) to 1.0 (fully stretched along the tangent). If the Tangent Shading is on, Blender
automatically renders blurry reflections as anisotropic reflections. When Tangent is switched on, the Anisotropic slider
controls the strength of this anisotropic reflection, with a range of 1.0 (default) being fully anisotropic and 0.0 being fully
circular, as-is when tangent shading on the material is switched off. Anisotropic ray-traced reflection uses the same tangent
vectors as for tangent shading, so you can modify the angle and layout the same way, with the auto-generated tangents, or
based on the mesh’s UV coordinates.
Link:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/materials/properties/mirror.html

7. 2019 6
Mirror Reflections / Fresnel Examples
Demonstration of the Fresnel effect.
With values equal to (from top to bottom) 0.0, 2.5 and 5.0.
Link:
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/materials/properties/mirror.html

8. 2019 7
Indirect Lighting
Indirect Lighting adds indirect light bouncing of surrounding objects. It models the light that is reflected from other
surfaces to the current surface. Is more comprehensive, more physically correct, and produces more realistic
images. It is also more computationally expensive. Take a look at the following examples of a scene lit with Direct
Lighting and both Direct and Indirect Lighting:
Images courtesy of rastermon.com.
Links:
- https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/world/indirect_lighting.html
- rastermon.com

9. 2019 8
Indirect Lighting only works with Approximate
gather method.
Options
The Indirect Lighting panel contains two options:
Factor
Defines how much surrounding objects contribute to light.
Bounces
Number of indirect diffuse light bounces.
The Gather panel contains settings for the indirect lighting quality. Note that these settings also apply to
Environment Lighting and Ambient Occlusion.
Links:
- https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/world/indirect_lighting.html

10. 2019 9
Indirect Lighting only works with Approximate
gather method.
The Approximate method gives a much smoother result for the same amount of render time, but as its name states,
it is only an approximation of the Raytrace method, which implies it might produce some artifacts and it cannot use
the sky’s texture as the base color.
This method seems to tend to “over-occlude” the results. You have two complementary options to reduce this problem:
Passes
Set the number of pre-processing passes, between (0 to 10) passes. Keeping the pre-processing passes high will increase render time, but will
also clear some artifacts and over-occlusions.
Error
This is the tolerance factor for approximation error (i.e. the max allowed difference between approximated result and fully computed result). The
lower, the slower the render, but the more accurate the results… Ranges between (0.0 to 10.0), defaults to 0.250.
Pixel Cache
When enabled, it will keep values of computed pixels to interpolate it with its neighbors. This further speeds up the render, generally without
visible loss in quality…
Correction
A correction factor to reduce over-occlusion. Ranges between (0.0 to 1.0) correction.
Links:
- https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/world/indirect_lighting.html

11. 2019 10
Tutorial

12. 2019 11
The Scene / 3D Objects / Options
Toggle Quad View

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The Scene / 3D Objects
3D Objects: Plane, Sphere, Pyramid & Text

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The Sphere
Object Mode. 1. Selecting 3D Sphere, 2. Click on Material and 3. New Material

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The Sphere / Material Mirror
Activating Mirror / Enable Raytraced Reflections.

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The Sphere + Reflectivity
Activating Mirror / Enable Raytraced Reflections. Reflecivity: 0.3

17. 2019 16
The Sphere + Reflectivity
Activating Mirror / Enable Raytraced Reflections. Reflecivity: 0.65

18. 2019 17
The Sphere + Reflectivity
Activating Mirror / Enable Raytraced Reflections. Reflecivity: 1

19. 2019 18
The Sphere + Reflectivity + Fresnel
Activating Mirror / Enable Raytraced Reflections. Reflecivity: 1 + Fresnel: 0.2

20. 2019 19
Variant 1

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The Pyramid
Object Mode. 3D Pyramid: New Material / Diffuse: Yellow color + Emit: 1.5

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World + Indirect Lighting
World / Indirect Lighting: Factor: 1 and Gather: Approximate

23. 2019 22
3D Text
Object Mode. 3D Text: New Material / Diffuse: Green Color + Transparency and Raytrace / Fresnel:
2.5

24. 2019 23
Result 1
Blender 2.79 Internal Render: Rendered Image

25. 2019 24
Variant 2

26. 2019 25
Toggle Quad View and positions
Arrange position of 3D Text

27. 2019 26
Toggle Quad View and positions
Arrange position of Camera

28. 2019 27
The Rendered Scene and Lighting
Rendered Preview

29. 2019 28
Result 2
Blender 2.79 Internal Render: Rendered Image

30. 2019 29
Variant 3
Blender 2.79 Internal Render: Rendered Image

31. 2019 30
Toggle Quad View and positions
Arrange position of Camera

32. 2019 31
The Rendered Scene and Lighting
Rendered Preview

33. 2019 32
Result 3
Blender 2.79 Internal Render: Rendered Image

34. 2019 33
Variant 4

35. 2019 34
The 3D Pyramid
3D Pyramid: Emit: 0.05, Mirror Reflectivity: 0.7 and Fresnel: 0.5

36. 2019 35
Result 4
Blender 2.79 Internal Render: Rendered Image

37. 2019 36
Variant 5

38. 2019 37
3D Pyramid + Solid
Object Mode. 3D Pyramid and activating Modifier Solidify. Thickness: 0.5 and Apply

39. 2019 38
Rendered Result
3D Pyramid Material. Activating Transparency and Raytrace: 3

40. 2019 39
Result 5
Blender 2.79 Internal Render: Rendered Image

41. 2019 40
REFERENCES
- Blender Software. https://www.blender.org/
- Tihomir Dovramadjiev PhD. Modern accessible application of the system Blender in 3D design
practice.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312033613_Modern_accessible_application_of_the_system_Blender_in_3D_design_practice
- Blender software. 2.79b Version. About, License & Development. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36167.75687
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328677236_Blender_software_279b_Version_About_License_Development
- Blender 2.79 Reference Manual. https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/index.html
- Blender 2.79.Mirror Reflections https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/materials/properties/mirror.html
- Blender 2.79. Inderect Lighting Links:
- https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/2.79/render/blender_render/world/indirect_lighting.html
- rastermon.com
- Tihomir Dovramadjiev PhD. BLENDER TUTORIAL. INDIRECT LIGHTING. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.26074.08649.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337170723_BLENDER_TUTORIAL_INDIRECT_LIGHTING
- Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
- Apace OpenOffice. http://www.openoffice.org/download/
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