metal surface?

[smmuck]

Hello all, im working with a simple metal robot and im begining to start creating metal surfaces. I am less familiar with surfacing and texturing so I thought I would ask you guys if anyone has any tips for me. I am not worried about super complex ways to create these metal surfaces (although im sure it would pay off), i am relativley new to lightwave so any super complex methods will probably throw me for a loop. mostly how to achive nice semi dull metal finish. Any other suggestions would also be much appreciated.
thanx again
sm
ps The metals i am thinking of are brass, bronze, steel and iron :confused:

[Hoopti]

Have you checked out the presets to see how they setup the metals? That would be my first stop.

Hoop

[ACLOBO]

Once you check out those presets, take a look at real metal objects around you. What makes a metal surface different from other surfaces? Metal objects (clean ones) tend to reflect things around them pretty well, while rusted metal does not. So, after looking at some of the presets, think about an environment that you want to reflect in your metal surface. THis can be done with real geometry or faked using an image map as a reflection map.

-Adrian