9

Ambient Color Mapping 1497
the less blending there is and the sharper the
edge of the specular hi g hlight.
To incr ease or decrease the size of a highlight:
• Change the Glossiness value.
The width of the Highlight curve and the
highlight in the preview change. At 0%
gloss iness, the curve is at its maximum width.
At 100% glossiness, the curve is extremely
narrow.
Inter face
Specular Level—Affects the intensity of the specular
high light. As you increase the value, the highlight
grows brighter. Default=0.
Click the map button next to the spinner to
assign a map to the specular level component.
See Specular Level Mapping (page 2–1501) .This
button is a shortcut: you can als o assign specular
level mapping in the Maps rollout (page 2–1474).
Glossiness—Affects the size of the specular
high light. As you increase the value, the highlight
gets smaller a nd the material appears shinier.
Default=10.
Click the map button next to the spinner to assign
a m ap to the glossiness component. See Glossiness
Mapping (page 2–1502).Thisbuttonisashortcut:
you can also assign specular level mapping in the
Maps rollout (page 2–1474).
Backside specular—When on, both sides of the
materia l receive a specular highlight. When off,
only the front side of the material receives a
highlight. Default=on.
LeaveBacksideSpecularontomodelmaterialslike
translucentplastic.Turnitofftomodelmaterials
like frosted glass.
Tip: When Backside Specular is tur ned off,
the front side is always the one that receives
a specular highlig ht. You can change this by
reversing the normals of surfaces that have the
translucent-shaded material.
Mapping Standard Material
Components
Ambi ent Color M a pping
Material Editor > Stand ard material > Maps rollout >
Ambient button
Mapping the ambient color
Yo u c a n s e l e c t a b i t m a p f i l e o r procedural map
(page 3–997) to map an image to the material’s
ambient color (page 3–908). The image is painted
on the shaded parts of the object.
By default, diffu se mapping maps the ambient
component as well, so you seldom need to use a
different map for diffuse and ambient components.