9

Self-Illumination Setting 1487
Copy ing a nd Locki ng Color Components
For convenience in changi ng color components,
the Material Editor lets you copy one color
component to another by dragging, and to lock
two color components together with the lo ck
buttons to the left of the Ambient and Diffuse, and
Diffuse and Specular color swatches.
When you drag and drop a color swatch, the Copy
or Swap Colors dialog (page 2–1452) asks if you
want to copy the color or swap the two colors.
In general, materials with two identical color
components do not look realistic, and except for
materials that are close to solid black, you should
avoid using copied or locked color components in
materials you use in a scene. Color copying and
locking are b e st used as conveniences w hen you
design a new basic material.
Shor tcut M ap B uttons
The small buttons to the right of the color swatches
access the Material/Map Browser (page 2–1447),
where y ou select a map for that component.
Thesebuttonsareshortcuts:youcanalsousethe
corresponding buttons in the Maps rollout (page
2–1474) If you have assigned a map to one of t hese
color components, the button displays the letter
M. An uppercase M means that the corresponding
map is assigned and act ive. A lowercase m m eans
that the map is assigned and inactive (turned off).
The lock button to the right of the Diffuse
map button locks Ambient mapping to Diffuse
mapping. It is on by default. Usually it makes
sense to use the same map for the ambient and
diffuse components. To use different maps for
ambient and diffuse, turn off the lock button. A
mapshortcutbuttonforAmbientappears.
Self-Illumination Setting
Material Editor > Standard m aterial > Anisotropic, Blinn,
Metal, Multi-Layer, Oren-Nayar-Blinn, or Pho ng Basic
Parameters rollout > Self-Illuminatio n group
Thesecontrolsmakethematerialself illuminated
(page 3–1009).Self-illuminationcreatesthe
illusion of incandescence by replacing shadows on
the surface with the diffuse color. As you increase
self-illumination, the self-illumination color takes
over f rom the ambient color. At a setting of 100,
the materia l shows no shaded areas, although it
can show specular hig h lights.
The self-illumination color appears in viewports.
(In releases prior to 3ds Max 5,,viewportsshowed
the self-illumination value but not the color.)
Note: The Strauss shader (page 2–1483) does not
have self-illumination.
There are two ways to specif y self-illumination.
You c an turn on the check box and use a
self-illuminationcolor,orturnoffthecheck
box and use a monochrome spinner, w hich is
comparable to using a gray scale self-illumination
color.
Self-illuminated materials do not show shadows
cast onto them, and they are unaffected by the
lights in the scene. The brightness (Value in the
HSV color description (page 3–1001))remainsthe
same regardless of t he scene’s lighting.
To make a visible light source in a scene, you can
combine a geometric object with a lig ht object,
and give the geometric object a self-illuminating
surface. For example, you could create a lofted
light bu lb shape, ass ign it a self-illuminating white
or yellowish material, and place an omni light in
thesamelocation.
To ma ke a material b oth self-illuminating and
transparent, use the Additive tr ansparency ty pe in