Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!onfcanim!dave
From: dave@onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: Re: silver color
Message-ID: <15554@onfcanim.UUCP>
Date: 23 Feb 88 15:30:51 GMT
References: <2679@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <2029@bsu-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: dave@onfcanim.UUCP (Dave Martindale)
Organization: National Film Board / Office national du film, Montreal
Lines: 21

In article <2029@bsu-cs.UUCP> cfchiesa@bsu-cs.UUCP (Sir Xetwnk) writes:
>
>Without going into the math, but perhaps filling in a few general concepts,
>your question isn't so much one of finding the right COLOR for "silver,"
>but rather of how to vary that color properly so that it gives the impression
>of a reflective, rather than dull or "matte," surface.  A silver object is
>actually colorless, or perhaps "gray" (as the previous respondent's "0.95-for-
>all-three-primary-colors indicates), but usually reflects its surroundings.

Actually, silver is not uniformly reflective.  I don't have the data
handy, but you will find that it reflects more strongly in read than in
blue, with green probably somewhere in between.  This gives silver
the "warm" quality of its reflection.  Aluminum, on the other hand,
is somewhat weak in red, giving a "cold" reflection (as well as having
less overall reflectivity, but that probably wouldn't be visible except
in side-by-side comparison).

However, this is a subtle difference, if you really want silver to look
different from aluminum or tin or rhodium.  First, to make something
look metallic at all, you have to get it reflecting its environment
properly.