How to make Crystals

 

Inspiration

 

 

If you take a little bit from each tutorial, like the driver part from the first one, the texture the intermediate one, and the volume absorbtion from the last one.  You should have a very good looking crystal.

 

Beginner

He sculpts the crystal, uses proceduals displacements for the shape.  He uses a driver in one of the displacements so when you resize the crystal the displacement is still correct.  Watch that part twice.   His shader for the texture is pretty good.   Best of all this tutorial is very to the point. 

 

Intermediate

He shows you how to make one, and uses an image map to texture the scratch like parts.  Also the way he places the crystals and rotates them using individual origins makes placing the crystals easy.

 

This Tutorial Was similar to the others, where you make a roughness map, and bump.  The thing he adds to better looking Crystals is the bevel node, and the volume absorption node.  Both take your crystals to the next level.   To note, the absorption node, allows you to color your crystal with out making the specular the same color. He doesn't show how he made the whole object, (with particles) but as of blender 2.9 you would  use geometry nodes.

Advanced

This is a very good tutorial on making Crystals, and uses the cel fracture plugin included with blender.  He shows how to make the crystal and also how to texture.

He also has a crystal making plugin he shows also.