Quick Tip; How to Improve Reflections in Blender

Hey, everyone!  This is just a quick tip on how to make reflections look better in Blender.  If you've been following the lightsaber tutorials and want to make your handle look more realistic, this is one step closer to realism.  In light of that, I'll be using the lightsaber handle as an example for this tutorial.  I'll start by selecting the handle (Right Click).  Next, I'll go to our Silver material.

Now click on the texture button (you may have to drag your panel out a bit to see it) and add a new texture.

Change the type from 'Clouds' to 'Image', and load the image you want the handle to reflect.  In this case, I'm using this image I pulled off of http://cgtextures.com/, which is a very reliable texture resource database, and I strongly recommend you become a member.  

After opening the image, under the 'Mapping' tab, change the coordinates from 'Generated' to 'Reflection'.  Next, under the Influence tab, select 'RGB to Intensity', and change the color from pink to a darker grey.

If you render now, you should see the reflection.  You may need to tweak some of the coordinates in the 'Size' in the 'Mapping' panel, but other than that it should work!  Any questions, comments, or problems, post them in the comments below.  Thanks for reading!