2011

Table Of Contents
DescriptionColor
Sets a color to modulate the color of layer surfaces with reflective
properties and/or reflection maps applied. You typically set a grayscale
value, with white being reflective, and black having no reflectivity.
Reflective
Sets a color to modulate the subtle changes in color that occur as light
passes through an object where transparency or translucency is incor-
porated. Black has no refractive properties.
Refractive
Sets a color to modulate radiosity effects applied to your scene. Radiosity
effects add a high degree of realism to images as it considers all light
Radiosity
in an entire environment and simulates what happens when rays of light
hit an object. Some stick (where a surface is opaque and absorbs the
light), and others are reflected and refracted. These rays then go on to
illuminate other surfaces before reaching the human eye. This yields
indirect lighting and color bleeding effects ideal for global illumination.
To set material color values:
Click the color pot of the channel that you want to set a color.
The Color Picker is displayed, so you can set color valuessee
Color
Picker
on page 154.
Using Texture or Environment Maps to Control Surface Attributes
The Main texture channel defines the surface's general appearance, but if your
main texture is not enough to give you the look you want, you can add more
texture maps. Each Material node has five texture channels that you can use
to apply texture and environment maps to refine the appearance of an object's
surface. You can set parameters for each channel.
The Main and Bump texture channels let you wrap and position a texture on
the surface. By default, the image is clamped to the surface. You can then use
placement parameters to position the source image on the surface and apply
tiling effects.
The Radiosity, Reflection, and Refraction channels let you apply environment
maps to your surface object. The environment maps use their source image
to surround the surface with a virtual sphere to simulate an environment,
which shows up as reflections on the surfaces of objects with reflective
properties. The environment map always covers the sphere exactly once. You
can transform your object and see the effects of the environment map change
264 | Chapter 12 Multilayer Compositing and 3D Effects