• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

• All the different map types in several different categories, including 2D, 3D, Compositors, Color Mods, and Reflection/Refraction

• The various mapping possibilities provided in the Maps rollout

• Using the Bitmap Path Editor to change map paths

• Using the Duplicate Map Instances utility

• How to create materials using external tools such as Photoshop and a digital camera

By combining materials and maps, you can create an infinite number of material combinations, but Max has even more ways to build and apply materials. In the next chapter, you learn how complex materials and material modifiers are used.

Chapter 18: Creating Compound Materials and Using Material Modifiers

IN THIS CHAPTER

Creating and using compound materials

Using material IDs to apply multiple materials

Working with material modifiers

Displacing surface with a bitmap

Now that you've learned to create materials using the Standard material type, you get a chance to see the variety of material types that you can create in Max. You can select all the various Max materials from the Material/Map Browser. Open this browser automatically by selecting Rendering⇒Material/Map Browser.

Although many of these materials 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 material IDs, you can apply multiple materials to the subobject selections of a single mesh object. The chapter concludes with a quick look at the various modifiers that are applied to materials.

Using Compound Materials

Compound materials combine several different materials into one. You select a compound object type by double-clicking the material type from the Material/Map Browser. Most of the entries in the Material/Map Browser are compound objects.

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 links between these different submaterials are clearly visible in the View Node panel.

Each compound material includes a customized rollout in the Parameter Editor 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. The Advanced Lighting Override and Lightscape materials are presented in Chapter 45, “Working with Advanced Lighting, Light Tracing, and Radiosity”; the raytracing and various mental ray material settings are covered in detail in Chapter 47, “Rendering with mental ray and iray”; and the XRef material is covered in Chapter 25, “Building Complex Scenes with Containers, XRefs, and the Schematic View.” •

Blend

The Blend material blends two separate materials on a surface. The Blend Basic Parameters rollout, shown in Figure 18.1, includes separate nodes for each of 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. Gray areas on the map are well blended, white areas show Material 1, and black areas show Material 2. 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. This value can be animated, allowing an object to gradually change between materials.

FIGURE 18.1

The Blend material can include a mask to define the areas that are blended.

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