Ancient Peruvian Sicán earpiece

I had the luck of going to the Sicán museum in Ferreñafe in northern Perú. Quite inspiring to see all those ancient techniques applied to pottery, metallurgy and goldsmithing. This tutorial will be a consequence of the visit, and we will make a gold Sicán earpiece, based on one of the pieces seen in the museum. The modeling work is simple and the texturing, simpler still. There is an optional tweaking phase that can be a bit laborious, but it is optional.
View Tutorial

Controlling your light intensity through material parameters

Here are two videos which show how to control the lighting in a scene by adjusting several material channels. The diffuse and ambient amount channels govern how much light is absorbed or reflected back to the viewer. These videos show how to use them.
View Tutorial

Learning about global illumination (CX/SE)

This is a two part tutorial that walks through an interesting little projects which helps to demonstrate some of the render dialog settings. It specifically discusses what is called radiosity or global illumination and some settings that control this function.
View Tutorial