3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [200]
Tip
You also can pan the view by dragging with the middle mouse button and zoom by scrubbing the mouse scroll wheel, just like you can in the viewports. •
In addition to the navigation tools in the lower-right corner of the Material Editor, the View menu includes several options for navigating the Material Node View panel, including options to Show/Hide the Grid (G), show scrollbars, and options to lay out all nodes (L).
If you right-click the Node View tab, you can access a menu to rename or delete the current view. You can also create a new view. This new view appears as another tab at the top of the Material Editor. The new view is navigated independently of the other views and can hold a completely different set of materials. With several views created, you can drag the tabs to reorder the panels as desired.
Selecting and applying materials
A material node block can be selected by simply clicking its title. When selected, the title bar turns dark blue in both the Material Node View and Navigator panels. Selected materials are applied to the object selected in the viewport using the Assign Material to Selection button in the Material Editor toolbar, using the Material⇒Assign Material to Selection (A) menu or by using the right-click pop-up menu. You can also apply a material to a scene object by dragging on the material node's output socket and dropping the material on a viewport object whether it is selected or not.
Tip
Although they aren't listed in the menu options, you can use the Undo (Ctrl+Z) and Redo (Ctrl+Y) commands to undo and redo actions done in the Slate Material Editor.
Holding down the Ctrl key while clicking material node blocks lets you select multiple nodes at once. Pressing the Delete key deletes the selected material node.
The Material Node View panel is a temporary placeholder for materials and maps. An actual scene can have hundreds of materials. By loading a material into a material node, you can change its parameters, apply it to other objects, or save it to a library for use in other scenes. When a file is saved, all materials in the Material Editor are saved with the file.
Changing the material preview
Next to the material name is a preview of the material. If you double-click the preview, the preview is enlarged to show more detail. You can change the Sample Type object displayed in the material block to be a sphere, cylinder, or box using the Preview Object Type menu in the right-click pop-up menu.
The right-click pop-up menu also includes options to show the background in the preview, to show a backlight, and to change the preview tiling for applied maps. The Open Preview Window option opens the material preview in a separate window, as shown in Figure 15.3. Within this floating window, you can resize the preview to be larger, revealing more details. The Show End Result button shows the material with all materials and maps applied.
Tip
The Material Preview panel also can be docked to the Material Editor. •
When you assign a material to an object in the scene, the material becomes “hot.” A hot material is automatically updated in the scene when the material parameters change. Hot materials have white corner brackets displayed around their material preview. You can “cool” a material by making a copy of its material block. To copy a material block, simply drag it with the Shift key held down. This detaches the material node from the object in the scene to which it is applied, so that any changes to the material aren't applied to the object.
FIGURE 15.3
Material previews can be opened in a floating window.
Whenever a material is applied to an object