Adding a bit of colour

Using material editor top right hand side of the tool bar) i created a defuse colour of my choosing for the handle. white was to pale, yellow was too over bearing. After alot of tweaking i found a creamy gender neutral colour closes to my final sketches.
But it was too boring and dull....so i increased the reflection and glossiness to a level that wasn't too shiny but still gave it a clean new appearance.

The metal heads of my culery set were wihout a doubt the hardest objects to colour. The 3DSMAX gradients were quite useless and grey, It was after several tutorials i found the simplest ways to create a shiny metal colour.
I attempted the following with several bitmaps, the following three were the most successful, but in the end i choose number two, as one was two harsh and didnt look child friendly and three was too light and didnt show enough detail.

1.)

http://watermarked.cutcaster.com/cutcaster-photo-100196777-liquid-chrome.jpg

2.)

http://us.cdn1.123rf.com/168nwm/roystudio/roystudio1209/roystudio120900082/15329211-silver-metal-texture-dark-chrome-background.jpg

3.)

http://us.cdn3.123rf.com/168nwm/roystudio/roystudio1209/roystudio120900030/15165577-white-metal-texture-with-beam-of-light-smooth-chrome-background.jpg

I used the raytrace option, and played about with reflextion/glossiness/opacity options, and eventually got the perfect level of creamy metal shine.
Its not too over bearing and looks smooth to touch, perfectly matching my desired chrome pieces.

I was so happy with how well the cutlery set turned out, the boring black background didnt seem to do it justice, i decided to take the time to put it in a scene, it seemed to fade in a plain place matt, so i figured it would suit a similar appropriate scene, a kitchen. 

I created two planes, and using the material editor 'defuse' and a dark wooden bitmap (below) i created a fake table top/counter. I liked the idea of a dark wooden counter top, since i would be very striking compared to my pale and shiny cutlery.

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=LE2rvVUvwcQSGM&tbnid=Jrk7d_Zxy78hAM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.veddermountainhardwoods.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F11%2F&ei=XleZUZLtHqOl0QX9poHgAQ&bvm=bv.46751780,d.d2k&psig=AFQjCNHtatQ2CTCdDOQaYGItQ5mxiHiWPw&ust=1369090252389147

The walls were two similar planes rotated into position. At first i thought tiles or bricks would match the homey country counter top, but they just didnt suit in the end and made everything too fake and dull. 

So i looked online for an appropriate bitmap, and found several light coloured backgrounds that could be used as walls,however in the end i decided on playing around the with available options on 3DSMAX material editor.

Using the defuse, swirl, and playing with the opacity to make it more 3D and realistic, i achieved my 'kitchen walls' which were very down o earth and relaxing looking.

Since the swirl coloured walls looked best when faded out in the opacity options, it took further playing around with the plains positioning before i got the kitchen corner i wanted.

Once i had the scene and cutlery to my liking, it was time to start messing about with the rendering, and screen angles for final render images. 

I wanted one nice angled over all image and smaller images to show off different colours and smaller aspects for my cutlery set, below is some of the render saves i liked the most. 

This is the angle i liked the best, as i showed off the FULL set without going into too much detail and wasnt front facing and boring.