Topic awaiting preservation: Lighting and Metallic materials

I've been hunting for a good tutorial on the net for making realistic metallic, more specifically chromed or highly polished metallic surfaces.

I've come across several web sites that point the following information but when I try to emulate it I can not get the materials to look like that and I don't know how to get the overhead atmosphere that is reflected either. I am using 3D Studio Max. Can someone tell me where I might find a good tutorial for this sort of image?

Quote:

I often see newbies asking how to make chrome or other reflective metals. Rather than give the
same answer every time, I decided to put up this tutorial.
I used the Blinn shader rather than Metal on a raytrace material because I like the better control
over highlights. A black or very dark blue in the Diffuse channel will prevent the metal from looking
washed-out and dull.
Specular Level is shot up to way above 100 (378 here) and Glossiness to around 50, resulting in
sharp and bright highlights.
I used a mask with falloff in the Reflect channel to have the metal reflect more with increasing
perpendicularity to the viewer. This is a real-life phenomenon that occures to any shiny surface; a
ceramic coffee mug will actually reflect along the sides perpendiular to you. (in fact almost any
surface will change its look depending on the angle it's seen from). For chrome, add full Reflect.
Silver has a slightly lighter Diffuse color and is less reflective than chrome.
Most importantly though is the surrounding area of the metal. If you use a reflective material, you
will of course need something to reflect! This is the actual secret behind chrome, silver or steel.
Not the material itself, but its environment.
I usually use an environment map for general reflections and add in boxes or cylinders of black
and white for specific accents. Placing these objects is a matter of trial-and-error and loads of
testrenders as it's not possible to see it in realtime.
A trick is to place a lightsource in the scene and then use Place Highlight (Align rollout) on your
reflective object. Then you put your black or white objects where the light ends up.
Raytracing in 3ds max is still slow so you might want to invest in a renderer plugin like
finalRender, Brazil, VRay, etc
I added a small scene without lightsources as an example for environmental reflections

Unquote

" If you use a reflective material, you
will of course need something to reflect! This is the actual secret behind chrome, silver or steel.
Not the material itself, but its environment."

This is all there is too it. You dont need a tutorial, just practice. Later (when I've got a few minutes) I'll put up some examples for you.

I know how to setup the materials correctly but I'm unsure how to set up the environment and the lighting in order to get a great reflection.

just make a simple box, zoom INSIDE the box (now your in a room). Apply a checkerboard pattern (2 sided) to the box and now you have something to reflect.

MAX (if you have a real version and not a cracked copy) comes with materials. Just load the ray-traced library and you will see reflective material

If you can already setup the materials, then you don't need a tutorial on chrome. You just need to create an environment. Create the scene as it exists in real life, add walls, a roof, and furniture (or plantlife/sky -if its outside), then put your chrome in it.

Step 1. Make Scene
Step 2. Add Chrome

Neil Blevins has a few things to say about metal. Even though geared towards Max and Brazil, a lot of his stuff is very applicable to other 3d apps.

http://www.neilblevins.com/cg_education/cg_education.htm

After many test renders I came up with this. I still can't figure out how to properly setup a ceiling in conjunction with the lights?!?!?