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Multi/Sub-Object Material 1595
the fly. See Drag and Drop Sub-Object Material
Assignment (page 2–1424).
Yo u c a n a l s o c r e a t e a n e w Mu l t i / S u b - O b j e c t
material by dragging to faces selected with the Edit
Mesh modifier (page 1–634).
Sub-material IDs do not depend on the order of
the list, and you can enter new ID values.
The Make Unique button (page 2–1442) in the
Material Editor lets you make an instanced
sub-material into a unique copy.
At the Multi/Sub-Object material level, the sample
slot’s sample object shows a patchwork of the
sub-materials. When you edit a sub-material, the
sample slot display depends on the setting of the
Simple Multi Display Below Top Level toggle in the
Material Editor Options dialog (page 2–1436).
Using Mul ti/S ub-Object M ater ia ls
Here are some usage tips with regards to mesh
editing and managing sub-materials.
• When working at sub-object levels of Editable
Meshes, Polys, Patches and Splines, or with
objectsthathaveEditMesh,SplineorPatch
modifiers applied to them, you can browse
by sub-material names if the object has a
multi-sub-object material applied to it.
• Sub-materials that are not assig ned to an object,
orsurfaceofanobject,canbe’cleaned’from
the Multi-Sub-Object material by using the
Clean MultiMaterial utility (page 2–1742).
• Duplicate maps, assigned to materials, can
be changed to instances by using the Instance
Duplicate Maps utility (page 2–1744).
Pr ocedur es
To crea te a M ulti /Sub-Obj ect mater ia l:
1.
Activate a sample slot in the Material Editor .
2. Click the Ty pe button.
3. In the Material/Map Browser (page 2–1412),
choose Multi/Sub-Object and then click OK.
A Replace Map dialog (page 2–1456) is
displayed. This dialog asks whether you want
to discard the original material in the slot, or
retain it as a sub-m aterial.
The controls for a M ulti/Sub-Object material
are essentially a list of the sub-materials it
contains.
To assign a sub-material:
• On t he Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters
rollout, click a sub-material button.
The parameters for the sub-material appear. By
default, a sub-material is a Standard material
with Blinn shading.
To mak e one of the sub-materials a solid color:
• On t he Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters
rollout, click the color swatch next to the
sub-material button.
In the Color Selector (page 1–161), choose a
color.
The color swatches for sub-materials are
shortcuts. They assi gn the color you choose to
the sub-material’s D iffuse component.
To assign one of the sub-materials to a sub-object
selection:
1.
Select the object, and assign a Multi/Sub-Object
material to it.
2. On the Modify panel (page 3–758),apply
Mesh Select (page 1–719) to the object.
3. Click Sub-Object and choose Face as the
sub-object category.
4. Select the faces to which you will assign a
sub-material.