Create & Light a Gold Metallic Material in Blender (Beginner)

Learn how to create a Gold material within Blender and how to illuminate the scene with lights and an HDRI image. Details below...
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/MichaelBullo

0:00 - Intro
Demonstration of gold ring that will be created.
0:23 - Create & Edit Torus
A torus can be inserted by choosing it from within the Mesh category in the Add menu. Immediately after inserting an object, the properties used to create that object can be found in the lower left corner of Blender. These properties are still live and can be amended. In the case of the torus, increasing the number of Minor Segments creates a smoother result. Right mouse clicking on the Torus and choosing Shade Smooth creates a smooth, donut like result.
1:10 - Coloring the Object Gold
The Material Properties tab can be found within the Properties panel. With an object selected, if no values appear within this tab, click the New button.

To create a gold look, change the following options...
Base Color: Change to yellow/orange
Metallic: Push to a number close to 1 such as 0.95
Roughness: Drop to a lowish number such as 0.3

To see these changes, change the Viewport Shading from Solid to Rendered. This can be done by clicking on the 4th button in the upper right corner of the 3D Viewport.
3:11 - Adding Lights
To duplicate a light, first select it. Press Shift + D to duplicate, move it into position with the mouse and then click the left mouse button to commit the duplication.
3:48 - Adding Environment Texture for Reflections & Lighting
Within the Properties panel is the World Properties tab. Within the Surface section is a Color setting. Next to the color chip is an icon containing a circle. Clicking on this circle reveals a menu that includes Environment Texture. Having selected this, choose the Open button and select an image with which to light the scene. The website hdrihaven.com contains an excellent range of HDRI images with which to light a scene.

By default, an Environment Texture will render. It's possible to still have such an image light the scene but not show in the background. Within the Properties panel is a Render Properties tab which contains a Film section. Activating the Transparent option will prevent the rendering of the Environment Texture.
6:06 - Lights and Environment Textures
Lights and HDRI Environment Textures can be used simultaneously to light a scene. One type of lighting does not override the other.
6:40 - Adjusting Contrast Without Altering Lights
Adjusting the lighting within a scene can be an extremely tedious and time consuming process. What if, for example, the lighting was good but the overall contrast needed to be adjusted?

Within the Render Properties tab of the Properties panel is a Color Management section. The Look option contains a series of Contrast settings ranging from Very Low Contrast to Very High Contrast. The Medium Contrast setting is effectively the same as the None setting which is the default.

The Look setting not only changes the preview within Blender but it also alters rendered images.
7:51 - Changing Material Properties
All of the properties of the materials are dynamic. The values for Base Color, Metallic and Roughness can be easily changed at any time. Bringing the Roughness value to 0 effectively creates a color tinted mirror. To create a silver look, simply set the Saturation value of the Base Color to 0.
HDRI reference image:
https://hdrihaven.com/hdri/?c=urban&h=urban_alley_01

Видео Create & Light a Gold Metallic Material in Blender (Beginner) канала Michael Bullo