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Understanding Material Properties

Before jumping into the Material Editor, let's take a close look at the type of material properties that you will deal with. Understanding these properties will help you as you begin to create new materials.

Up until now, the only material property that has been applied to an object has been the default object color, randomly assigned by Max. The Material Editor can add a whole new level of realism using materials that simulate many different types of physical properties.

Note

Many of these material properties are not visible until the scene is rendered. •

Colors

Color is probably the simplest material property and the easiest to identify. However, unlike the object color defined in the Create and Modify panels, there isn't a single color swatch that controls an object's color.

Consider a basket of shiny, red apples. When you shine a bright blue spotlight on them, all the apples turn purple because the blue highlights from the light mix with the red of the apple's surface. So, even if the apples are assigned a red material, the final color in the image might be very different because the light makes the color change.

Within the Material Editor are several different color swatches that control different aspects of the object's color. The following list describes the types of color swatches that are available for various materials:

• Ambient: Defines an overall background lighting that affects all objects in the scene, including the color of the object when it is in the shadows. This color is locked to the Diffuse color by default so that they are changed together.

• Diffuse: The surface color of the object in normal, full, white light. The normal color of an object is typically defined by its Diffuse color.

• Specular: The color of the highlights where the light is focused on the surface of a shiny material.

• Self-Illumination: The color that the object glows from within. This color takes over any shadows on the object.

• Filter: The transmitted color caused by light shining through a transparent object.

• Reflect: The color reflected by a raytrace material to other objects in the scene.

• Luminosity: Causes an object to glow with the defined color. It is similar to Self-Illumination color but can be independent of the Diffuse color.

Note

Standard materials don't have Reflectivity and Luminosity color swatches, but these swatches are part of the raytrace material. •

If you ask someone the color of an object, he or she would respond by identifying the Diffuse color, but all these properties play an important part in bringing a sense of realism to the material. Try applying very different, bright materials to each of these color swatches and notice the results. This gives a sense of the contribution of each color.

Tip

For realistic materials, your choice of colors depends greatly on the scene lights. Indoor lights have a result different from an outdoor light like the sun. You can simulate objects in direct sunlight by giving their Specular color a yellow tint and their Ambient color a complementary, dark, almost black or purple color. For indoor objects, make the Specular color bright white and use an Ambient color that is the same as the Diffuse color, only much darker. Another option is to change the light colors instead of changing the specular colors. •

Opacity and transparency

Opaque objects are objects that you cannot see through, such as rocks and trees. Transparent objects, on the other hand, are objects that you can see through, such as glass and clear plastic. Max's materials include several controls for adjusting these properties, including Opacity and several Transparency controls.

Opacity is the amount that an object refuses to allow light to pass through it. It is the opposite of transparency and is typically measured as a percentage. An object with 0 percent opacity is completely transparent, and an object