In UDK I used to do that simply through colored specular maps, which allowed me to add nice details, but it seems that doesn’t work anymore in UE4, which is extremely disappointing.
So I am wondering what’s the workflow looking like now? I don’t want to change the base color map, which would ruin the overall look of the model and the reflection needs to be achieved through a custom texture, since only certain parts of the model are supposed to have that reflection.
This should be in rendering or content creation, not blueprints.
Googling pearlescence and iridescent materials in UE4 should give you some nice reference, it’s a pretty common topic.
I believe UE4’s hair shader supports colored high lights, like you see on the bird (feathers are similar to hair in that they are fuzzy and are made up of tiny lines). Might be worth a try.
You could also try putting dark green/blue/purple in the base color and trying playing with the metallic value and see if that gives you acceptable results. There are photos of that bird where you see some vibrant but dark color on the bird outside of the highlights.
This is just one of the few rare situations where the standard PBR materials/shaders don’t work.
Hello. Thanks for the replies. As I stated, I don’t want to change the base color.
The model also doesn’t have the details of the feathers (it’s very simplistic in terms of style), so the hair shader isn’t an option either, but I will look into the materials you mentioned.
