IOR of object embedded in glass/plastic

The Brazil help talks about getting the correct IOR for something like whiskey in a glass by having a single surface for the whiskey/glass interface with a calculated IOR. How do I set things up for something metal embedded inside the glass? I can't put an "IOR" on the metal.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by jim.carruthers on August 8, 2011 at 7:57am

If it helps, or just to ask for more general help, I'm trying to make a very realistic looking and hopefully working LED, with a light source that's photon-capable. So the problem I've got in the original post is that the emitter and reflector and whatnot that's encased in the (are they glass or plastic?) housing doesn't look right, the IOR is wrong somehow.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brian James on August 8, 2011 at 10:19am

Hi Jim,

Do you have a sample file for what you want to accomplish? I don't want to assume I know what you're after but I would say just make the metal object slightly overlap the glass solid.

Thanks,

Brian

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by jim.carruthers on August 8, 2011 at 10:35am

Maybe I'm over-thinking this, from the sound of the reply, and just have the wrong IOR for the casing. If I put a metal something inside glass, the IOR for the 'metal/glass' interface would be IORmetal/IORglass which would be a big fat 0, so I shouldn't have to actually do anything special for an opaque object 'inside' glass/plastic/water?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brian James on August 8, 2011 at 10:50am

I don't think you need to do that division for the refractive index in your case... in fact it doesn't apply if only one object is transparent. The opaque object may have an index of reflection but I don't think this will need to change. Does your result look 'wrong' to you? Like I said, I'm assuming I know what the scene is and could be misinterpreting your question.