Chapter 20 Creating Simple Materials 583

Figure 20-15: A fishing net completed easily with the net texture applied as an Opacity map

Summary

This chapter presented the Standard material and gave you a chance to create some simple original materials.

In this chapter, you

Learned about various material types

Discovered and learned to use the various material parameters

Discovered the basics of using standard materials

Learned how to use the various shaders

Explored the other Material rollouts

Learned how to create materials using external tools such as Photoshop and a digital camera.

This chapter should have been enough to whet your appetite for materials, and yet it really covered only one material — the Standard material. Many other materials are available, and we dive into those in the next chapter.

Creating Advanced

Multi-Layer

Materials

Now that you’ve learned to create materials using the Standard material type, you get a chance to see the variety of materials

that you can create in Max. You can select all the various Max materials from the Material/Map Browser. Open this browser automatically by clicking the Material Type button beneath the sample slots.

Although these are called Compound materials, they are really just collections of materials that work together as one. Just like a mesh object can include multiple elements, materials also can be made up of several materials.

Using Compound Materials

Compound materials combine several different materials into one. You select a compound object type by clicking the Type button in the Material Editor and then selecting the material type from the Material/ Map Browser. The Type button is the button to the right of the material name. It lists the current material on the button, such as Standard, which is the default material. Most of the entries in the Material/Map Browser are compound objects.

Whenever compound materials are selected, the Replace Material dialog box appears, asking whether you want to discard the current material or make the old material a submaterial. This feature enables you to change a normal material into a compound material while retaining the current material.

Compound materials usually include several different levels. For example, a Top/Bottom material includes a separate material for the top and the bottom. Each of these submaterials can then include another Top/Bottom material, and so on. The Material/Map Navigator dialog box (accessed by clicking the Material/Map Navigator button) displays the material as a hierarchical list. This list lets you easily choose the level you want to work with.

21C H A P T E R

In This Chapter

Creating and using compound materials

Using raytrace materials

Using matte/shadow materials

Using Ink ‘n’ Paint materials

Using material IDs to apply multiple materials

Working with material modifiers such as MaterialByElement

586 Part IV Materials and Maps

Cross-	Chapter 19, “Exploring the Material Editor,” covers the Material/Map Navigator in more detail.
Reference

Each compound material includes a customized rollout for specifying the submaterials associated with the compound material.

Cross-

Reference

Some of the material types work closely with specific objects and other Max features. These materials are covered in their respective chapters. For example, the Advanced Lighting Override material is presented in Chapter 28, “Advanced Lighting and Light Tracing,” and the Architectural material is presented in Chapter 51, “Max and Visualization.”

Blend

The Blend material blends two separate materials on a surface. The Blend Basic Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 21-1, includes buttons for loading the two submaterials. The check boxes to the right of these buttons enable or disable each submaterial. The Interactive option enables you to select one of the submaterials to be viewed in the viewports.

The Mask button (which appears below the two submaterial buttons) lets you load a map to specify how the submaterials are mixed. White areas on the map are well blended, and black areas don’t blend at all. As an alternative to a mask, the Mix Amount determines how much of each submaterial to display. A value of 0 displays only Material 1, and a value of 100 displays only Material 2.

Figure 21-1: The Blend material can include a mask to define the areas that are blended.

Chapter 21 Creating Advanced Multi-Layer Materials

587

The Mixing Curve defines the transition between edges of the two materials. The Upper and Lower spinners help you control the curve.

Composite

The Composite material mixes up to ten different materials by adding, subtracting, or mixing the opacity. The Composite Basic Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 21-2, includes buttons for the base material and ten additional materials that can be composited on top of the base material. The materials are applied from top to bottom.

Figure 21-2: Composite materials are applied from top to bottom with the

last layer being placed on top of the rest.

You enable or disable each material using the check box to its left. The buttons labeled with the letters A, S, and M specify the opacity type: Additive, Subtractive, or Mix. The Additive option brightens the material by adding the background colors to the current material. The Subtractive option has the opposite effect and subtracts the background colors from the current material. The Mix option blends the materials based on their Amount values.

To the right of the A, S, and M buttons is the Mix amount. This value can range from 0 to 200. At 0, none of the materials below it will be visible. At 100, full compositing occurs. Values greater than 100 cause transparent regions to become more opaque.

588 Part IV Materials and Maps

Cross- You can learn more about compositing in Chapter 46, “Using External Compositing Tools,” Reference and compositing with the Video Post interface in Chapter 47, “Using the Video Post

Interface.”

Double Sided

The Double Sided material specifies different materials for the front and back of object faces. You also have an option to make the material translucent. This material is for objects that have holes in their surface. Typically, objects with surface holes do not appear correctly because only the surfaces with normals pointing outward are visible. Applying the Double Sided material shows the interior and exterior of such an object.

The Double Sided Basic Parameters rollout includes two buttons, one for the Facing material and one for the Back material. The Translucency value sets how much of one material shows through the other.

Shellac

The Shellac material is added on top of the Base material. The Shellac Basic Parameters rollout includes only two buttons for each material, along with a Color Blend value. The Blend value has no upper limit.

Multi/Sub-Object

You can use the Multi/Sub-Object material to assign several different materials to a single object via the material IDs. You can use the Mesh Select modifier to select each subobject area to receive the different materials.

At the top of the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 21-3, is a Set Number button that lets you select the number of subobject materials to include. This number is displayed in a text field to the left of the button. Each submaterial is displayed as a separate area on the sample object in the sample slots. Using the Add and Delete buttons, you can selectively add or delete submaterials from the list.

Each submaterial includes a sample preview of the submaterial and an index number listed to the left, a Name field where you can type the name of the submaterial, a button for selecting the material, a color swatch for creating solid color materials, and a check box for enabling or disabling the submaterial. You can sort the submaterials by clicking the ID, Name, or SubMaterial buttons at the top of each column.

After you apply a Multi/Sub-Object material to an object, use the Mesh Select modifier to make a subobject selection. In the Material section for this subobject selection, choose a material ID to associate with a submaterial ID or select the material by name from the dropdown list.

Chapter 21 Creating Advanced Multi-Layer Materials

589

Figure 21-3: The Multi/Sub-Object material defines materials according to material IDs.

Tutorial: Creating a patchwork quilt

When I think of patches, I think of a 3D Max object type, but for many people, “patches” instead bring to mind small scraps of cloth used to make a quilt. Because they share the same name, maybe we can use Max patches to create a quilt. We can then use the Multi/Sub-Object material to appropriately color the various patches.

Cross- You can learn more about modeling with patches in Chapter 15, “Creating and Editing

Reference Patches.”

To create a quilt using patches, follow these steps:

1.Open the Patch quilt.max file from the Chap 21 directory on the CD-ROM.

This file contains a quilt made of patch objects that have been combined into one object.

590 Part IV Materials and Maps

2.Open the Material Editor by choosing Rendering Material Editor (or press M), and click the first sample slot. Then click the Type button. The Material/Map Browser opens. In the list of materials, locate and double-click the Multi/Sub-Object material (or select it and press the Ok button). In the dialog box that appears, select Discard old material and click OK.

The Multi/Sub-Object material loads into the selected sample slot, and the Multi/SubObject Basic Parameters rollout displays in the Material Editor.

3.In the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout, click the color swatches to the right of the Material button to open the Color Selector. Select different colors for each of the first ten material ID slots.

4.Drag the Multi/Sub-Object material from its sample slot in the Material Editor, and drop it onto the patch object. Close the Material/Map Browser and the Material Editor.

5.In the Modify panel, select the Patch subobject and scroll to the bottom of the Modify panel to the Surface Properties rollout.

6.Assign each patch a separate material ID by clicking a patch and changing the ID number in the rollout field.

Figure 21-4 shows the finished quilt. Because it’s a patch, you can drape it over objects easily.

Figure 21-4: A quilt composed of patches and colored using the Multi/Sub-Object material

Chapter 21 Creating Advanced Multi-Layer Materials

591

Morpher

The Morpher material type works with the Morpher modifier to change materials as an object morphs. For example, you can associate a blushing effect with light red applied to the cheeks of a facial expression to show embarrassment. You can use this material only on an object that has the Morpher modifier in its Stack. The Morpher modifier includes a button called Assign New Material in the Global Parameters rollout for loading the Material Editor with the Morpher material type.

Cross-	Discover more about the Morpher modifier in Chapter 30, “Animation Basics.”
Reference

For the Morpher material, the Choose Morph Object button in the Morpher Basic Parameters rollout lets you pick a morpher object in the viewports and then opens a dialog box that is used to bind the Morpher material to an object with the Morpher modifier applied. The Refresh button updates all the channels. The base material is the material used before any channel effects are used.

The Morpher material includes 100 channels that correlate to the channels included in the Morpher modifier. Each channel can be turned on and off. At the bottom of the parameters rollout are three Mixing Calculation options that can be used to determine how often the blending is calculated. The Always setting can consume lots of memory and can slow down the system. Other options are When Rendering and Never Calculate.

Shell

The Shell material consists of an original material and a baked material. For each of these materials, you can specify which appear in the Viewport and which are rendered.

Top/Bottom

The Top/Bottom material assigns different materials to the top and bottom of an object. The Top and Bottom areas are determined by the direction in which the face normals point. These normals can be according to the World or Local coordinate system. You can also blend the two materials.

The Top/Bottom Basic Parameters rollout includes two buttons for loading the Top and Bottom materials. You can use the Swap button to switch the two materials. Using World coordinates enables you to rotate the object without changing the material positions. Local coordinates tie the material to the object.

The Blend value can range from 0 to 100, with 0 being a hard edge and 100 being a smooth transition. The Position value sets the location where the two materials meet. A value of 0 represents the bottom of the object and displays only the top material. A value of 100 represents the top of the object, and only the Bottom material is displayed.

Tutorial: Surfing the waves

There’s nothing like hitting the surf early in the morning, unless you consider hitting the virtual surf early in the morning. As an example of a compound material, we apply the Top/Bottom material to a surfboard.