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Type Button (Materials and Maps) 1293
the names of maps and sub-materials assigned at
lower levels of the map or material hierarchy.
Thenameofthematerialisnotafilename:itcan
contain spaces, numbers, and special characters.
It can be of any length.
Note: In releases prior to 3ds Max 4, material names
were limited to 16 characters. As of 3ds Max 4,you
can assig n material names of arbitrary length.
This field a lso functions as a drop-dow n list. At
the top level, it shows only the material or map
name. At lower levels of the hierarchy, drop the
list down to see the names of ancestors to the map
or material. The top level is at the top of the list,
the c urrent level is at the bottom, and intermediate
levels appear between them.
Procedure
To give a mater ia l a dif fer ent na me:
• Edit the name field that appears below t he
Material Editor toolbar.
The name of the active material appears in the
title bar of the Material Ed itor dialog.
Ty pe B utton (Materials and Maps)
Material Editor > Type button
Material Editor menu > Material menu > Change
Material/Map Type
Click the Type button to display the Material/Map
Browser (page 2–1256)
and choose which material
type or map type to use.
When changing a material’s t ype, the orig inal
material type is replaced unless you choose a
compound material (page 3–1016) ,inwhich
case a
Replace Materia l dialog (page 2–1300) is
displayed. The Replace Material dialog lets you
choose between discarding the original material or
using it as a sub-material within the new m aterial.
For a standalone map (a map at t he top level),
clickingtheTypebuttonletsyouchangethemap
type instead of the material ty pe. However, you
can’t use this button to make a map standalone.
To make a standalone map, you have to click
Get
Material (page 2–1283)
and choose a map from
the Browser it displays.
When you change the type of a standalone map, a
Replace Map dialog (page 2–1300) is displayed.
The Replace Map dialog lets you choose b etween
discarding the original map or using it as a
sub-map within the new map.
Animating Materials
This topic provides some suggestions about how
to animate materials.
Animating B asic M aterials
In general, you animate a basic material by
changing its parameters in different keyframes
while Auto Key is active. 3ds Max interpolates
values between keyf r ames, as it do es when you
animate transforms and modifiers.
Be aware that the tr acks for a material assig ned
to an object are distinct from the material tracks
that belong to the Material Editor: animating a
mate rial in the Material Editor affects the scene
only if the material is
hot (page 3–1047) .
Animating Mapped Materials
As with basic materials, you can create animation
keys for map parameters.
The noise parameters and the
Noise map (page
2–1484)
itself provide the Phase parameter
specifically for animating the noise function.