Let's recap some of the material we have covered in this chapter.

The workhorse material in V-Ray for SketchUp has always been the Standard material, and even though in the 2.0 release we get some very welcome additions to the materials and maps options, the Standard material remains the most versatile option available for recreating most surface types.

Having said that, one of the welcome additions to the material system in V-Ray has been the inclusion of the new VRayBRDF layer, which of course also doubles as the standalone V-Ray Material. For V-Ray users coming from the likes of 3ds Max and Maya, this option adds a much more familiar working environment as well as avoiding the need to add extra reflection and refraction layers to a material in order to work those properties.

Although we have tried to create materials that behave in a physically plausible manner, taking the time to understand why it is that real world surfaces look the way they do can go a long way towards helping...