9
Material Editor 1409
Material Editor
Main toolbar > Material Editor
Rendering menu > Material Editor
Keyboard > M
The Material Editor provides functions to create
and edit materials (page 3–971) and maps (page
3–968).
Materials create greater realism in a scene.
A m aterial describes how an object reflects
or transmits light. Material properties work
hand-in-hand with light properties; shading or
rendering combine the two, simulating how the
object would look in a real-world setting.
Yo u a p p l y m a t e r i a l s t o i n d i v i d u a l o b j e c t s o r
selectionsets;asinglescenecancontainmany
different materials.
Note: Creating a new material clears the
Undo/Redo lists.
Pr ocedur es
To view the Material Editor:
• Click the Material Editor button on the
main toolbar.
The Material Editor dialog has sample slots
(page 2–1420) for viewing p
reviews of
materials. When you first view the Material
Editor, the material previews have a u niform
default color.
To gi ve a mater ia l a dif fer ent na me:
• Edit the name field that appears below the
Material Editor toolbar.
The name of the active ma terial appears in the
title bar of the Mat
erial Editor dialog. The name
of the material is not a file name: it can contain
spaces, numbers, and special characters.
The name field displays only 16 characters, but
a m aterial name can be longer than that.
To mak e a copy of a preview material:
• On the Materia l Editor toolbar, click Make
Material Copy (page 2–1442).
To get a material from a scene:
If a material that you want to change has been
saved in the scene, but not in the Material Editor,
you can load the material by getting it from the
scene.
1. Click a sample slot to make it act ive.
Be careful not to click the sample slot of a
material you want to use later.
2. On the Material Editor toolbar, click Get
Material (page 2–1439).
AmodelessMaterial/Map Browser (page
2–1412) is displayed.
3. In the Browse From group bo x at the upper
left,makesurethateitherSelectedorSceneis
chosen.
The Selected option lists only materials in the
current selection. If no objects are selected, the
listofmaterialsisblank.
TheSceneoptionlistsallthematerialscurrently
in the scene.
4. In the list of materials, double-click the name of
the material you want.
You can also drag the m aterial name to the
sample slot.
The material you chose replaces the previous
materialintheactivesampleslot.
Wa rn in g : When you get a material from a scene, it is
initially a hot material (page 3–953).