A standard material’s parameters are organized into four rollouts: Basic Parameters, Extended Parameters, Maps, and Dynamics Properties.
Basic and Extended Parameters are covered in this topic, as are Dynamics Properties.
Maps are a particularly powerful way to create a material, and are covered in their own set of topics.
Contains controls that let you set the color of your material, the shininess, the transparency, and so on, and specify maps to use for the various components of the material.
The Basic Parameters rollout contains the following controls:
Shading: Sets the type of shading mode used by the material: constant, phong, Blinn (the default), and metal.
2-Sided: Makes the material 2-sided. Applies the material to both sides of selected faces.
Wire: Renders the material in wireframe mode. You can set the size of the wire in Extended Parameters.
Face Map: Applies the material to the faces of the geometry. If the material is a mapped material, it requires no mapping coordinates. The map is automatically applied to each facet of the object.
SuperSample: Super-sampling reduces aliasing in specular highlights and bump maps. It does this by calling the shader five times rather than once, using a quincunx pattern (the five on a domino), then averaging the results. Naturally, this slows down rendering time. Turn this on only if you are having trouble with aliasing in specular highlights or bump maps.
Sets the colors for these color elements. You can set the color either by adjusting the spinners to the right of the dialog, or by clicking the color swatch to display the Color Selector.
The small buttons to the right of the color swatches take you to the Material/Map Browser to select a map of corresponding type. These are shortcuts – you can also use the corresponding buttons in the Maps rollout. If you have assigned a map to one of these colors, the button displays the letter “M.” An uppercase M means that the corresponding map is assigned and active. A lowercase “m” means that the map is assigned and inactive (turned off).
Ambient: Controls the ambient color. The ambient color is the color of that part of the object not in direct light.
Diffuse: Controls the diffuse color. The diffuse color is the color of the lighted part of the object.
Specular: Controls the specular color. The specular color is the color of the highlight on a shiny object.
Filter: Controls the filter color. The filter, or transmissive color, is the color transmitted through transparent or semi-transparent materials such as glass. You can use the filter color with volumetric lighting to create effects such as colored light through a stained-glass window. Ray-traced shadows cast by transparent objects are tinted with the filter color. The filter color is used by the Filter opacity type in the Extended Parameters.
For convenience in changing color components, the Material Editor lets you copy one color component to another by dragging, and to lock two color components together with the lock buttons to the left of Ambient and Diffuse, and Diffuse and Specular radio buttons..
In general, materials with two identical color components do not look realistic, and except for materials that are close to solid black, you should avoid using copied or locked color components in materials you use in a scene. Color copying and locking are best used as conveniences when you design a new basic material.
Shininess: Affects the size of the specular highlight. As you increase the value, the highlight gets smaller and the material appears shinier. Default = 25.
Shininess Strength: Affects the intensity of the specular highlight. As you increase the value, the highlight grows brighter. This is equivalent to moving the light closer to the material. Default = 5.
Self-Illumination: Creates the illusion of a light source. As you increase the value, the diffuse color takes over from the ambient color. At a setting of 100, the self-illuminated material shows no shaded areas, although it can show specular highlights.
Opacity: Sets the opacity/transparency of the material as a percentage. The effect is best seen against a pattern background in the sample window. You can control opacity falloff in the Extended Parameters.
Highlight: Shows the effect of adjusting the Shininess and Shininess Strength spinners in the form of a curve. As you decrease Shininess, the curve grows wider; as you increase Shininess Strength, the curve grows taller.
The curve has a different shape and responds to these values somewhat differently when the material uses Metal shading.
Soften: Softens the effect of specular highlights, especially those formed by glancing light.
Metal-shaded materials don't use this parameter.
The Extended Parameters rollout contains the following controls:
Controls the opacity falloff of a transparent material.
Falloff In: Increases transparency towards the inside of the object, as in a glass bottle.
Falloff Out: Increases transparency towards the outside of the object, as in a cloud of smoke.
Amount: Specifies the amount of transparency at the outside or inside extreme.
Opacity Type: Filter opacity computes a filter color that it multiplies by the color behind the transparent surface. Subtractive opacity subtracts from the color behind the transparent surface. Additive opacity adds to the color behind the transparent surface. The Filter opacity type uses the filter color (in Basic Parameters).
Refract Map/Ray Trace IOR: Sets the index of refraction (IOR) used by refraction maps and raytracing. Note that the IOR of air is 1.0, and the IOR of glass is 1.5 (the default setting). Very few real-world objects have an IOR greater than 2.
Size: Sets the size of the wire in wireframe mode. You can set either pixels (the default) or current units.
With pixels, wires maintains the same apparent thickness regardless of the scale of the geometry or how near or far the object is positioned. With units, the wires appear thinner at a distance and thicker at close range, as if they were modeled in the geometry.
These controls dim reflection maps that are in shadow.
Apply: Turn on to use reflection dimming. When Apply is off, the reflection-mapped material is not affected by the presence or absence of direct light. Default = off.
Dim Level: The amount of dimming that takes place in shadow. At 0.0 (the default), the reflection map is comletely dark in shadow. At 0.5, the reflection map is half dimmed. At 1.0, the reflection map is not dimmed and the material appears as if Apply were turned off.
Dim Level values less than 1.0 affect reflections in areas that are directly lit, as well. Use the second value, Reflection Level, to compensate for this effect.
Refl. Level: Affects the intensity of the reflection that is not in shadow. The Reflection Level value multiplies the illumination level of the lit area of the reflection, to compensate for dimming. In most cases, the default value of 3.0 keeps the reflection in the lit area at about the same level it would appear if reflection dimming were not on.
This rollout let you specify surface properties that affect the animation of an object upon collision with another object. Note that if there are no collisions in your simulation, these settings have no effect.
Since the Dynamics Properties rollout is available at the top level of any material (including submaterials), you can specify different surface dynamic properties for each face in an object, if you wish. There are also controls in the Dynamics utility that let you adjust the surface properties at the object level, but only the Materials Editor lets you alter the surface properties at the sub-object level (through use of a Multi/Sub-Object material).
As a default, the values in the Dynamics Properties rollout provide a surface that’s similar to Teflon-coated hardened steel.
Bounce Coefficient: How far an object bounces after hitting a surface. The higher the value, the greater the bounce. A value of 1 represents a “perfectly elastic collision,” or a bounce in which no kinetic energy is lost. Default = 1.0.
If you’ve seen the desktop toy with four ball bearings swinging back and forth on strings and hitting one another, you’ve seen an example that comes very close to a bounce coefficient of 1. Generally, hardened steel or a super ball have a bounce near 1, while lead has a bounce near 0.
Static Friction (spinner): How difficult it is for the object to start moving along a surface. The higher this value, the more difficult. Default = 0.0.
If something weighs ten pounds and sits on Teflon (a static friction of near zero), it takes almost no force to make it move sideways. On the other hand, if it sits on sandpaper, then the static friction might be very high, on the order of .5 to .8. A static friction near 1 is very difficult to create in the real world without adhesives or friction material.
Sliding Friction (spinner): How difficult it is for the object to keep moving over a surface. The higher this value, the more difficult for the object to keep moving. Default = 0.0.
Once two objects begin to slide over one another, static friction disappears and sliding friction takes over. Generally, sliding friction is lower than static friction due to surface tension effects. For example, once steel starts sliding over brass -- a value of static friction that might run from .05 to .2 -- the sliding friction drops to a significantly lower value, on the order of .01 to .1. For some materials, such as specific friction materials like brake linings, sliding friction is just as high as static friction because it is used in conjunction with a nearly frictionless material such as hardened polished steel.
The Material Editor displays a Color Selector dialog. The following topic reviews the Select Color controls.
Right-clicking the color swatch also displays the Color Selector.
As you change color values, the ambient, diffuse, or specular color component also changes in the sample in the sample slot.
Note: You can also make a color component active by clicking the radio button next to its name. This makes the color active but does not display the Color Selector. You can still adjust the color by using the RGB and HLS spinners.
The Material Editor has some shortcuts to help you work with component colors.
A few other preview controls are provided to help you design specific kinds of materials. Their use is described in the topics that describe those materials.
A Copy or Swap Colors dialog appears.
The Material Editor displays an alert that asks whether you want to lock the two color components.
If one of the colors you locked was active (its radio button chosen), the inactive color is replaced by the active color.
If neither of the colors was active, the color above replaces the color below. In other words, Ambient replaces Diffuse and Diffuse replaces Specular.
If two colors are locked and you lock the other two, all three component colors are replaced by the active color.
While two colors are locked, adjustments to one color component affect the other as well.
The name of the active material appears in the title bar of the Material Editor dialog.
Note: The name of the material is not a file name - it can contain spaces, numbers, and special characters.
If a material that you want to change has been saved in the scene but not the Material Editor, you can load the material by getting it from the scene.
Be careful not to click the sample slot of a material you want to use later.
The Material/Map Browser appears.
The Selected option lists only materials in the current selection. If no objects are selected, the list of materials is blank.
The Scene option lists all the materials currently in the scene.
The material you chose replaces the previous material in the active sample slot.
Warning: When you get a material from a scene it is initially a hot material.
Warning: When you assign a material to an object or selection, that material becomes a hot material. When you change the material's properties, 3DS MAX immediately updates the scene to reflect those changes. Any object with that material will change its appearance - not just the objects in the current selection. When a material is hot, its sample slot appears with white corner brackets.
To make a material no longer hot so it doesn't change the current scene, you make a copy of it.
The white corner brackets disappear to indicate the material is no longer hot.
Be careful not to drag the material to the sample slot of a material you want to use.
Tip: Copying a material by dragging its sample slot is a useful way to create variations on a material, fine-tuning it until you have a result you like.
When you change a material that isn't hot, and you now want to use it in the scene, you put the material to the scene.
The material in the active sample slot is now a hot material.
The Put Material button is enabled only when (1) the material in the active sample slot has the same name as a material in a scene, and (2) the material in the active sample slot is not hot. In other words, this command is meant to fit into the following overall sequence of handling materials:
These steps are not as immediate as changing a material while it is hot, but they help you avoid changing the scene's materials unintentionally or in unexpected ways.
When a material in the Material Editor is assigned to objects in the scene, you can select the objects from the Material Editor.
White corner brackets indicate materials that are in the scene.
This button is grayed out unless the active sample slot contains a material in the scene.
A Select Entities dialog appears. The names of objects assigned the active material are highlighted when the dialog appears.
You can also change the selection by choosing other objects. If you change the selection, you must then click Assign to Material to assign the active material to newly selected objects.
The Material/Map Browser appears.
If you have opened a library, the list of materials shows the contents of the library.
If you haven't opened a library, click Open in the file area of the Browser. A file dialog appears, where you can choose a material library to open. After you open the library, the list of materials updates to show the library's contents.
The material you chose replaces the previous material in the active sample slot.
A Put to Library dialog appears.
The material is saved in the currently open library. If no library is open, 3D Studio MAX starts creation of a new library, which you can save as a file using the Material/Map Browser file controls.
The width of the Highlight curve and the highlight in the preview change. At 0% shininess, the curve is at its maximum width. At 100% shininess, the curve is extremely narrow.
The intensity of the Highlight curve and the highlight in the preview change. At 0% strength, there is no highlight. At 100% strength, the curve is at its maximum height.
The shape of the Highlight curve affects the blending between the specular and diffuse color regions of the material. The steeper the curve, the less blending there is and the sharper the edge of the specular highlight.
The material becomes more transparent. An object that is fully transparent (0% Opacity) is nearly invisible except for the light it reflects (the specular highlights).
To help you preview transparency in the sample slots, it is useful to view the sample object against a background. To do so, click the checkered Background button to the right of the Sample slot.
As self illumination increases, the sample object appears flatter and more luminous.
Self illumination replaces a material's ambient color with its diffuse color. At 100% self illumination, no ambient color is visible. Shading shows only the diffuse color and specular highlights (if any).
Self-illuminated materials do not show shadows cast onto them, and they are unaffected by the lights in the scene. The brightness (Value in the HSV color description) remains the same regardless of the scene's lighting.
To make a visible light source in a scene, you can combine a geometric object with a light object, and give the geometric object a self-illuminating surface. For example, you could create a lofted light bulb shape, assign it a self-illuminating white or yellowish material, and place an Omni light in the same location.
To make a material self-illuminating and transparent as well, use the Additive Opacity Type in combination with self illumination.
The material is now shaded as a wireframe mesh. The wire portions of the geometry have the same material settings as previously - color components, shininess, and so on.
Tip: Check the 2-Sided option for a wireframe material.
You have two choices for how wireframe materials are rendered. The controls for tuning wireframe shading are on the Extended Parameters rollout.