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1240 Chapter 16: Material Editor, Materials, and Maps
For more details, follow the links in the workflow
outline.
Work flow Outline
In general, when you create a new material and
apply it to a n object, you follow these steps:
1. Make a
sample slot (page 2–1240) active, and
enteranameforthematerialyouareaboutto
design.
2. Choose the
material type (page 2–1241) .
Tip: 3ds Max prov ides two renderers, the default
scanline renderer (p age 3–37)
and the mental
ray renderer (page 3–77)
. E ach has its ow n
capabilities. In general, for each scene, you will
decide which renderer you want to use. It is a
good idea to design materials with a particular
renderer in mind. The
ment al ray Connection
rollout (page 2–1305)
lets you add features
unique to the mental ray renderer to basic
3ds Max materials.
3. For a Standard or Rayt race material, choose the
shading type (page 2–1242) .
4. Enter settings for the various material
components (page 2–1243) :diffusecolor,
glossiness, opacity, and so on.
Note: Lights and Shading (page 2–1243)
describes how lights affect the appearance of a
mater ial.
ChoosingColorsforRealism(page
2–1244)
gives guidelines on getting good results
from unmapped materials.
5. Assign
maps (page 2–1247) to the components
you want to m ap, and adjust their parameters.
6.
Apply (page 2–1249) the material to the object .
7. If necessary, adjust the
UV mapping
coordinates (page 2–1249)
in order to orient
maps w ith objects correctly.
8.
Save (page 2–1250) the material.
Sample Slots and Material Name
The sample slots (page 2–1264) display previews
of materials. They are the most prominent feature
of the Material Editor interface. Below and to the
rig ht of the sample slots are various
tool buttons
(page 2–1271)
for the Material Editor. Below the
toolbuttonsisanamefieldthatshowsthename
of the material.
Tip: Always give a material a unique, intelligible
name as soon as you begin to work on it.
By default, six sample slots are visible at once. The
Material Editor actually holds 24 materials at one
time. You can use the scroll bars to move among
the sample slots, or you can change t he number
of sample slots visible at once to 15 or 24 slots.
Seeing more slots at once can be helpful if you are
working with a complex scene.
Impor tant: While the Material Editor can edit no more
than 24 materials at a time, a scene can contain an
unlimited number of materials. When you are through
editing one material, and have applied it to objects in
the scene, you can use that sample slot to get a different
material from the scene (or create a new one) and then
edit it.
Toincreasethenumberofsampleslotsvisible
at once, right-click a slot and then choose 5 X 3