According to the artist, the setup "automatically calculates the correct tangent of each individual scratch".
Have a look at this outstanding micro scratches shader with proper physically based anisotropy created by Alex "HotdogNugget" Heskett, a CG Generalist and Digital Artist Alex Heskett whose fantastic works never cease to amaze us.
Set up in Blender Cycles, this procedural shader features fake diffraction and, according to the creator, "automatically calculates the correct tangent of each individual scratch, which makes it super realistic when combined with anisotropic shading".
Here's a close-up of the scratches pattern shared by the author:
And here's the shader applied to the incredible Swiss Army Knife model, created by Alex using Blender and Substance 3D Painter:
Same model without the shader:
If you would like to learn more about creating complex shaders in Blender, here are some great tutorials that will help you out:
Check out more of Alex's amazing works here and don't forget to join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Threads, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.