For my MFA Thesis I have decided to focus on the captivating, mystifying concept that is rust. Like a snowflake, each instance of rust is unique. I plan to breakdown the actual process of rust to better understand how it forms. As I was beginning my thesis, I noticed I was spending the most time on the technical aspects of this process (which software/technique worked best to show rust progression), instead of the "metal-themed" museum gallery I was planning to create. Because of this, I decided to make these different approaches the main focus, to better document the pros and cons of each method for future rust enthusiasts. So far, I have found 3 solid ways to show the progression from metal to rust: (I will be rendering with Arnold in Maya)

• Substance Designer (wrench) - creating a custom procedural material to either use with the Maya plugin and key the attributes (buggy) or to use the $Time variable, bring the material into Substance Player and render out image sequences for each map (expensive). 

• Arnold AiMixShader + an alpha mask + a slider to change the value in Maya (oil sign) - this technique uses a grey scale alpha map to determine where should rust first on the object (white first, black last), while this is cheap and looks okay, the transition will always be smooth (fade in) and less scientifically accurate. 

• Particle SOP in Houdini - this idea is to create an animated alpha mask in Houdini using a point cloud system to then use with Arnold's AiMixShader. This concept seems to be the most scientifically accurate although I am still in the testing stages for this.