Chapter 19 Exploring the Material Editor 561

Figure 19-7: These eggs have been assigned materials with different Diffuse colors.

Using the Material/Map Browser

Now that you know how to apply materials to objects, the easiest way to get materials is from the Material/Map Browser. Max ships with several libraries of materials that you can access. If you click the Get Material button, the Material/Map Browser, shown in Figure 19-8, appears.

The Material/Map Browser is the place where all your materials are stored. They are stored in sets called libraries. These libraries are saved along with the scene file or they can be saved as a separate file. The Material/Map Browser opens whenever you change material types (by clicking on the material type button), choose a new map, or click the Get Material button. Materials are indicated with a blue sphere icon, and material maps have a green parallelogram next to them.

The Material/Map Browser includes several browse options accessible as radio buttons on the left of the dialog box. The browse options include Material Library, Material Editor, Active Slot, Selected, Scene, and New. The Material Library options list all the materials available in the open material library. The current library set is listed in the title bar of the Material/Map Browser. The Material Editor options lists the 24 materials found in the current sample slots. The Active Slot option lists the single material sound in the selected sample slot. The Selected and Scene options list the materials applied to the selected viewport objects or all the materials found in the current scene. The New option is the default and lists all the available material types and maps.

562 Part IV Materials and Maps

Material icon

View options

Material Library name

Clear Material Library

Delete from Library

Update Scene Materials from Library

Map icon

Figure 19-8: The Material/Map Browser lets you select new materials from a library of materials.

You can also limit the material list to show only materials, only maps, or both. The Incompatible option displays all materials and maps that will not work with the current assigned renderer. For example, the mental ray materials are not compatible with the default Scanline renderer. Incompatible materials and maps are shown in gray. You can also specify to see all the pieces that make up a material or only the base material with the Root Only option.

The view options buttons above the material list enable you to display the materials and maps in different ways, including List, List + Icons, Small Icons, and Large Icons, shown in Table 19-3. Figure 19-9 shows two different display methods.

Chapter 19 Exploring the Material Editor 563

		Table 19-3: View Options Buttons
	Button	Description
		List
		List + Icons
		Small Icons
		Large Icons

Figure 19-9: You can use the Material/Map Browser to view the materials in many different ways, such as View List + Icons and Large Icons.

The text field directly above the material sample slot in the Material/Map Browser is a selection field. Typing a name in this field searches and selects materials. Above the material list, three additional buttons become enabled when you open a material library. These buttons let you update the scene, delete the selected material from the library, and clear the entire library.

564 Part IV Materials and Maps

Working with libraries

Anytime you adjust a material or a map parameter, a new material is created and the material’s sample slot is updated. Although newly created materials are saved along with the scene file, you can make them available for reuse by including them in a library.

Note Max ships with several different material libraries, including Backgrounds, Bricks, Concrete, Fabric, Ground, Metal, Nature, RayTraced, ReflectionMaps, Skys, Space, Stones, Wood and several architecture material sets. You can find all these libraries in the matlibs directory.

You can save new materials to a new library or to the default library. Select the material’s sample slot, and click the Put in Library button to open a simple dialog box in which you can name the material and add it to the current library.

To see which library is current, open the Material/Map Browser by clicking the Get Material button. Select the Mtl Library option in the Browse From section — the library name is shown in the title bar. The File section includes four buttons for opening, merging, and saving material libraries. After you’ve created all the materials you want to keep to a library, the Save button lets you save the library as a file. Material libraries are saved with the .mat extension.

Cross-	Although materials can be saved out as libraries, perhaps the easiest way to share materials
Reference	between applications is using the Material XML Export utility. To learn about this utility, see
	Chapter 3, “Working with Files and XRefs.”

Tutorial: Loading a custom material library

To practice loading a material library, I’ve created a custom library of materials using various textures created with Kai’s Power Tools.

To load a custom material library, follow these steps:

1.Choose Rendering Material Editor (or press the M key) to open the Material Editor. Then click the Get Material button, which is the leftmost button on the horizontal toolbar (or press the G key), to open the Material/Map Browser.

2.In the Browse From section, select the Mtl Library option and click the Open button.

3.Select and open the KPT.mat file from the Chap 19 directory on the CD-ROM. The library loads into the Material/Map Browser.

4.In the selection field (above the sample slot), type Bug to locate and select the bug eyes material.

Figure 19-10 shows the Material/Map Browser with the custom material library open.