8

Sample Slots 1265
Hot and Cool M ater i als
Asampleslotis "hot" (page 3–1047) when the
material in the slot is assigned to one or more
surfaces in the scene. When you use the Material
Editor to adjust a hot sample slot, the material in
the scene changes a t the same time.
The corners of a sample slot indicate whether the
material is a hot material:
• No triang le: The material is not used in the
scene.
• Outlined w hite triangle: The material is hot.
In other words, it’s instanced in the scene.
Changes you make to the material in the sample
slot will change the material displayed in the
scene.
• Solid white t riangle: The material is not only
hot, but is applied to the currently selected
object.
Left: "Hot" material applied to currently selected object.
Middle: "Hot" material assigned to scene but not to
currently selected object.
Right: "Cool" material: active but not assigned to scene.
Amaterialis "cool" (page 3–1018) if it is not
applied to any object in the scene.
To make a hot sample slot cool, click
Make
Material Copy (page 2–1286)
.Thiscopiesthe
materialinthesampleslotontopofitselfsothat
it’s no longer used in the scene.
You can have the same material (with the same
name)inmorethanonesampleslot,butonlyone
slot containing that material can be hot. You can
havemorethanonehotsampleslot,aslongaseach
has a different material.
If you drag to copy a material from a hot slot to
another slot, the destination slot is cool, and the
original slot remains hot.
See also
Sample Slot Right-Click Menu (page 2–1266)
Dragging and Dropping Maps and Materials (page
2–1267)
Creating a Custom Sample Object (page 2–1269)
Procedures
To use a sample slot:
• Clickthesampleslottomakeitactive.
Theactivesampleslotisdisplayedwithawhite
border around it.
Thesampleslotshowsasampleobjectshaded
with a material. (By default, the sample object
is a sphere.) The sample object is lit by a light
sourceaboveitandslightlytowardtheviewer.
For the sphere, the highlight is in the upper-left
quadrant. The diffuse color shows most clearly
aboveandtotheleftofthehighlight,shading
toward the ambient color at the sphere’s lo wer
right.
To change the preview shape:
1.
Make sure the sample slot of the material you
want to view is act ive.
2. Use the Sample Type flyout (page 2–1275) to
choosetheshapeyouwanttoview.Theflyout
gives you three options: sphere (the default),
cylinder, or box.
Thenewshapeisdisplayedinthesampleslot,
w ith the material mapped to it.
To r ender t he curr ent mapping level :
1.
Move to the level of the map hierarchy that you
want to render.