Before we can start with the rendering in Photoworks we need to set up a new folder into which we can store the materials that will be used in this project. This of course is not always necessary as you can set up a standard folder with the materials and finishes that you will generally use. In this case I have created a folder at C:/Colours/Photoworks Colours/Toothpaste. I like to keep these specials separate from the normal Solidworks directory structure just in case the settings get lost at some point. (As you can guess this has happened in the past.)

When this directory is in place we can have Solidworks access it by clicking on the Material in the Photoworks Items column on the Right side of the screen, and then clicking on the ‘Add file location symbol’

Now we can start adding materials to the model and saving them to the toothpaste directory, but before we can do that we need to identify the colours that we are going to use. I have decided to use a scanned image of a label from a toothpaste dispenser for this project, so the colours are going to be taken from that. I have used ColorCop for this purpose as it will store the colours in a column on the right side of the ColorCop window and display the RGB values. You can configure this small application to stay on the top of the screen so you can have it visible whilst you enter the RGB values into PhotoWorks. The picture below shows the ColorCop window open beside the model and the Actuator part highlighted.

Having identified the part we wish to apply the material to we now need to open the materials menu which is shown below.

This opens the menu and allows us to enter the RGB values for the colour to be used on the actuator. There are a lot of setting that can be made here but we are only concerned at the moment with colour the illumination and then saving this to the toothpaste directory we set up earlier. I managed to clip off most of the bottom box where the RGB values are typed in, but you can just see the value for red at the very bottom. Add the other two values as well for green and blue and the click on the illumination tab at the top of the menu.

The Illumination dialogue collects the information that determines how the surface will react to the light shone on it, so if it is highly reflective plastic or metal surface, clear glass or textured, all of the settings are contained here. The setting shown below will give a reasonable impression of a gloss plastic without being over the top. We are not trying to create Photo realism with this render, so we don’t need highly reflective surfaces that white-out when rendered, but we do need to see and understand the construction of the model we are rendering.

Now that the material has been defined we need to save the material we have created to the toothpaste directory. To do this go back to the original Color/Image tab and click on save ,find your directory and save the material.

Once you have colours defined and appearing in the Photoworks Items menu on the right side of the screen, you can use that menu to drag the colour onto the part, but you do need to define the colours first. I have shown below how you can drag the yellow coloured material onto the flexing piston.

In the next instalment we will get to apply the label (Decal) to the tube and then render the images.