Phenomenal - Jewelry Design and Visualization

Phenomenal

Jewelry concept design and advanced shaders in Unreal Engine 5

In gemology the term "phenomenal" refers to unique light effects displayed by certain gemstone varieties. This projects aims to re-create qualities unique to gemstones through advanced shader techniques in Unreal Engine 5

Chatoyancy - (cat's eye effect)

Chatoyancy is the gemological term for the cat's eye effect seen in stones like tiger's eye and cat's eye chrysoberyl. In most cases, this band of light is caused by very thin crystals of rutile present inside the gemstone. The crystal inclusions all grow in the same direction, and when light strikes their reflective surfaces, the result is a bright line perpendicular to the rutile crystals growth direction.

This effect uses the anisotropy and tangent material inputs in UE5 to determine the light directionality on the stone. As seen at the end of the video, these inputs define the cat's eye appearance using the direction and strength of the light source.

Pleochroism

Although not considered a true "phenomenal" effect of gemstones, pleochroism is the appearance of different colors depending on the direction of view. This is an effect displayed by most gemstones and is caused by the way a crystal polarizes light in different directions. Dichroic stones show two different colors, while Trichroic gems display three colors.

Iolite, a trichroic gemstone, can appear blue, violet, or a pale greenish-yellow color depending on the angle it is viewed from. The shader for the faceted drop stones in these earrings imitates the appearance of Iolite by displaying one of these three colors depending on the camera viewing direction. 

Adularescence

Often associated with moonstone, adularescence is a white or blue glow that dances through a gemstone's interior. The effect is caused by the interaction of light with microscopic layers in the crystal structure. Although this effect looks similar to iridescence, adularescence takes place within the stone instead of on the surface.

The material follows a similar approach to creating iridescence in a shader. The blue color appears based on the camera viewing direction, and its appearance varies with the translucency of the material. 

Jewelry and display models made in Blender 3D. Rendered in Unreal Engine 5 with standalone ray tracing. Some material from Epic Games starter pack and Quixel Megascans.

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