2010

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This graph shows all material and texture nodes applied to this object.
While the Materials tab shows a catalog of the materials in the scene, the
Work Area tab shows whatever material, texture, or other node you are
currently working on. The Graph menu has several menu items that
change the contents of the Work Area display.
The Shader Library tab shown in the above illustration might not be a
part of your Maya installation. It is an optional feature, discussed at the
end of this lesson.
The Work Area shows connection lines between the nodes. The lines
have arrows that all point in one direction. For a closer look at these
arrows, dolly into the view using the same keyboard and mouse shortcuts
you would use in the scene view.
The arrows depict Mayas internal information input and output, called
a stream. The next step shows the importance of this connection stream.
7 Click the line between the file1 and phongE1 nodes (it turns yellow) and
press the Delete key.
The sphere reverts to the default gray color because you have broken the
connection between these nodes and the texture is no longer assigned
to it. This is a simple illustration of how the connection stream works.
The file1 texture node is upstream from the connection you deleted, so
it no longer inputs data into the material; Maya ignores it.
In practical terms, this is an example of how you can disconnect a texture
from a material without actually deleting the texture. For example, you
may want to remove the file texture from this material and connect it to
another material instead. In a later step, you will learn about using
Hypershade to make connections between textures and materials.
476 | Chapter 9 Rendering