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In this chapter, you did the following:

• 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 to apply materials to a model

This chapter should have been enough to whet your appetite for materials, and yet it really covered only one part of the equation. The other critical piece for materials is maps, and you'll dive into those in the next chapter.

Chapter 17: Adding Material Details with Maps

IN THIS CHAPTER

Understanding mapping

Connecting maps to material nodes

Exploring all the map types including 2D and 3D maps, compositors, color modifiers, and others

Applying maps to material properties using the Maps rollout

Using the Bitmap Path Editor

Creating textures with Photoshop

In addition to using materials, another way to enhance an object is to use a map—but not a roadmap. In Max, maps are bitmaps, with patterns that can be applied to the surface of an object. Some maps wrap an image onto objects, but others, such as displacement and bump maps, modify the surface based on the map's intensity. For example, you can use a diffuse map to add a label to a soup can, or a bump map to add some texture to the surface of an orange.

Several external tools can be very helpful when you create texture maps. These tools include an image-editing package such as Photoshop, a digital camera, and a scanner. With these tools, you can create and capture bitmap images that can be applied as materials to the surface of the object.

Understanding Maps

To understand a material map, think of this example. Cut the label off of a soup can, scan it into the computer, and save the image as a bitmap. You can then create a cylinder with roughly the same dimensions as the can, load the scanned label image as a material map, and apply it to the cylinder object to simulate the original soup can.

Different map types

Different types of maps exist. Some maps wrap images about objects, while others define areas to be modified by comparing the intensity of the pixels in the map. An example of this is a bump map. A standard bump map would be a grayscale image—when mapped onto an object, lighter-colored sections would be raised to a maximum of pure white; darker sections would be those regions where a minimal bump or no bump is applied. This enables you to easily create surface textures, such as the rivets on the side of machine, without having to model them.

Still other uses for maps include background images called environment maps and projection maps that are used with lights.

Cross-Reference

For information on environment maps, see Chapter 23, “Rendering a Scene and Enabling Quicksilver.” Chapter 20, “Using Lights and Basic Lighting Techniques,” covers projection maps. •

Maps that are used to create materials are all applied using the Material Editor. The Material/Map Browser provides access to all the available maps. These maps have many common features.

Enabling the global viewport rendering setting

To see applied maps in the viewports, select the Show Standard Map in Viewport button in the Material Editor or enable all scene maps with the Views⇒Show Materials in Viewport As⇒Shaded Display with Maps menu command.

For more accurate maps that show highlights, you can enable the Views⇒Show Materials in Viewport As⇒Hardware Display with Maps option. This is especially helpful when the scene objects use the Arch & Design materials. Hardware rendering in the viewport is available only when the Direct3D display driver is being used and if you are using a video card that supports hardware rendering.

Using Real-World maps

When maps are applied to scene objects, they are applied based on the object's UV coordinates, which control the size of the applied map. But, each bitmap can be sized along each axis to stretch the map over the surface. Another