painted steel materials doesn't look natural

[Rekan23915078uhps]

Hello everybody

I have been struggling to get a realistic painted steel material, and normally most of the workflows and prepared online assets doesnt look natural, they look like a paint on any other material, i think the paint on steel should look different that a paint on concrete, can you please help me how to get a realistic painted steel material?

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hello @Rekan23915078uhps,

This question is kind of hard to answer, because there's a lot of condition for a realistic material and I am afraid there isn't one workaround.

First of all, I'd say a good material relies on good references. So always keep your references close and take a deep look on what's making them what they are. 

Then decompose the material. First comes the steel. Is it damaged? Is it rusty? Does it have scratches? Is it visible only in the roughness or also the Base color? etc.

The already made materials are here to ease your work. For example, you could take an online metal material and add your custom painting on top of it with masks and effects.

Also, I've always loved the result on this tutorial, even if it isn't about painted metal, this will probably interest you.

Best regards,