Requesting help with Materials/Textures on Tail Lights?

[audio]

Hi All,
I'm after some assistance applying textures/materials to my Audi A3. I'm failry adequate at modelling cars in 3DSM, and am also fairly knowledgeable with photoshop, but always struggle a bit when it comes to getting the materials right in 3DSM. I've managed to do the entire car without hassle, but the final part I'm reallystruggling with is the tail lights.

You can see my model in the attachments (comments/opinions welcome), but at the minute I've left the tail lights as plain red.

As I said, any help you can provide would be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks in advance

AudiØ

[Dark Tempest]

This belongs in the 3D-Max forum.

I'm not very good at cars, what effect are you looking for for the material.

[audio]

Thanks for the reply. Whoops! Sorry for not posting in correct forum... Do you recommend posting there too or leave it to the mods to move this one?

Really I'm after making the light look as realistic as possible. I managed to find some pics of a rendered a3 for sale on the3dstudio.com which I've attached.

The 3 ways I can think of doing it are:

1) - Apply a bump map to the inside of the light (the chrome that surrounds the bulb, not the Glass/plastic outer layer), using the same bump map as a reflection.

2) - Apply a bump map to the outer red glass/plastic, using the same bump map as a refraction

3) - Scrap creating an inside/outside to the light and use a bitmap image with a UVW Map modifier

So far I'm having difficulty with all 3 of the above, but if anybody has any suggestions, whether it be a way I've not mentioned above, or any tips on the one's I've mentioned. It'd much appreciated.

Cheers,
AudiØ

[Dark Tempest]

The 2 you suggested first should be your best bet. (Same map for refraction and bump) What seems to be the problem with it?

[audio]

I just never seem to get the results I'm after... I'll try it out and post my results then you may know where I'm going wrong... Thanks

AudiØ