Well, I wouldn’t say I’m the best place to look to when it comes to managing Shinies but I can try….~
It mostly matters on the diffusion of the surface, I mean, almost all materials reflect light to some degree. The more textured and bumpy the surface the more prone it is to diffuse and disperse the reflected light
This is an example (With Waffle) with a super shiny surface, the surface practically reflects the exact form of the light with no diffusion whatsoever. Sure if you look microscopically theres small tiny fibers and friction bumps that say otherwise, but theres barely any diffusion on the surface, resulting in a really clean and shiny surface.
This is generally what you’ll see from latexy and plasticey objects because they’re incredibly smooth. Of course, Contrast is a powerful factor, high contrast in value causes shiny things to really pop out.
This is an example of a more “textured” surface. This is a bit more realistic when the surface is like Skin or has bumps to it. Light will generally reflect on the spots directly facing the light source and any other spots will disperse the light outwards in different directions.
This is the example of a more highly populated surface of bumps. Light generally hits the surface and disperses in all directions, Resulting in a rather “less shiny” and “Matte” surface. It’s still Shiny, but the light is more dispersed and textured to the point it’s more rough and scattered.
And of course, Shiny surfaces don’t just reflect from the light source but from all directions. Think of it like a mirror, it reflects light from all sources from all over. Including dispersed lighting (radiosity), Ambient lighting (from the area) and other light sources.
It can be tempting to make everything shine like plastic but pay attention to the surface and the surrounding lighting to really get an idea of how an object will reflect light. Even if water hits our skin, we’re shiny for a short amount of time before the moisture is absorbed into our skin, leaving the “specular shine” on it rather diffused.
