Anyone have any tips or tricks for rendering a realistic chrome in Alias? I generally use the chrome shader that I downloaded from the Alias site and the results are hit or miss...any help would be appreciated!
In this situation, the age-old (well, I suppose "twenty-to-thirty years old") raytracing mantra applies: lighting is everything.
You can make pretty decent chrome just by giving a blinn material not much color, almost full reflectivity (with reflect background checked "on"), and a tight and bright specular... the rest is all in the lighting and background stage/environment map.
I'm sure you've heard a thousand times before about the multiple-light rigs photographers use: ambiance, fill, highlight, and backlight. If you light your chrome object with just a single light from above and to the left, and place it on a boring stage or give it a dull environment map, you are going to get a flat, fake looking image. Experiment with light setups and with placing interesting objects in the scene for your chrome to reflect, and soon you're sure to get the hang of it.