Datasheet

10 Chapter 1: Texturing and Lighting a Product, Part 1

is inappropriate and a Blinn is suitable. As such, Table 1.1 lists each of the surfaces found

in the headphones scene ﬁle, the real-world material it will try to emulate, and the recom-

mended Maya material type.

Surface Name real-World material recommeNded maya material

Slider Chromed metal Phong

Junction Black plastic Blinn

Wire Black rubber Blinn

Foam Gray cell foam Lambert

Ear_Cup Black plastic Blinn

Ear_Pad Thin, bunched white leather Blinn

Grommet Semitransparent yellow plastic Blinn

Head_Pad Plastic stamped to simulate leather Blinn

Light_Box (wall) Translucent white fabric Surface Shader

You can take one of two approaches to determine the total number of materials needed

for a scene:

Create a new material for each surface. For example, assign the Foam_L surface to a •

Foam_L_Color material and assign the Foam_R surface to a Foam_R_Color material.

This allows each surface’s material to be adjusted separately. However, the Hypershade

may become difficult to manage if a scene is complex and contains numerous surfaces.

Assign a single material to every surface that shares the same look. For example, create •

a single Foam material and assign it to both the Foam_L and Foam_R surfaces. This

simplifies the contents of Hypershade but limits flexibility when adjusting attributes.

Either of these approaches is suitable for this project. Should one approach prove limiting,

you can delete materials, reassign materials, or create new materials at any time. To delete a

material, simply select its icon in the Hypershade Materials tab and press the Delete key. If

a material is deleted, any surface assigned to it will not render until it is assigned to one of

the other surviving materials. Note that newly created primitives, NURBS, and polygon sur-

faces are automatically assigned to the Lambert1 material. Although you can edit Lambert1,

you cannot delete it. You can assign a surface to a new or different material at any time.

Assigning Multiple Materials to One Surface

When you assign a polygon surface to a material, all the polygon faces are assigned to the

same material. However, if you select individual faces before assigning, the surface can be

assigned multiple materials. For example, with the Light_Box geometry, it would be pref-

erable to assign the ﬂoor to one material and the walls and ceiling to a second material.

To do so, follow these steps:

1. In the Hypershade, create a new Blinn material and Surface Shader material.

2. In a view panel, RMB+click the Light_Box geometry and choose Face from the mark-

ing menu. Shift+click all the polygon faces along the floor. If you accidentally select

Table 1.1

Recommended

material types

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