using material editor

[thegeewz]

max 9 sp2

Can anybody recommend a good tut that will overview the basics of using this thing? I have made a few metals and glass following online tuts but I don't understand what I'm doing- I am completely lost on my own....

how do I apply more that one material to an object?
would it be better to detach said object into many different objects and work them separately?
what function does ambient/diffuse/specular serve?
how can I make more of those little balls the materials are going onto? messing with has ruined a lot of em and I'm gonna run out soon... is there a reset button or something?
If i change one that is being used on another project (image pane) will it effect that project once i open it up again?


I better stop with the questions, this is starting to look like an exam....

The step by step guides to making materials I find all over the net are great, but they don't explain anything, just tell you what buttons to push and whistles to blow, which is good if i need gold or silver or glass or something, not so good if i want to experiment and make some of my own stuff.

[sandmanninja]

hey

Mentalboutmax - Video Training & Tutorials for 3Ds Max & Mental Ray has some GREAT mental ray tutorials.
Not free but an INCREDIBLE value - 2 hours of video for 5 or 10 bucks. Fantastic.
I have all of his tutes (except for v-ray and fry render).

I strongly encourage you to get some. He has a material shader series and walks you through making a variety of materials - cloth, ice, etc.

As for applying many materials to the same object, you need multi sub-objects.
I've made a little video that I hope helps.

http://www.virtual-interiors.net/dow...Sub-object.rar

The video size is 1024x768 and requires the tunesmith codec (same as the tutorials from this website)

[sandmanninja]

Also, just drag one material on top of other and you've 'reset' it.
You can have 32 active material slots at one time, but dozens or hundreds or thousands in a scene.
You can use the eye dropper on the material editor and sample a material from an object in your scene and it will be placed into a material slot.

[thegeewz]

WoW!

Those are some cost effective tutorials, thanks for that- I might just have to break out the CC on this one... just what I was looking for.

unfortunate your video rar file seems to be corrupt, downloaded 3 times, winrar reports corrupt archive

drag one material over another..bingo. another one of those basic things I would have never thought to try.


thanks!

[sandmanninja]

hmm.. ok - just tested the original on my PC and it's WinRar 3.80 and the RAR file is okay, so I'll re-up it.
I was doing a lot of file transfers at the same time and some bits could have gotten fiddled.

Give it 30 minutes or so and try again.

Yeah, those are really great tutorials. You get the links via e-mail almost instantly.
They're very patient and explain lots of things in detail.

<time passes>

Okay, uploaded new rar file, then I downloaded it just to test. works fine (for me anyway).
You might need to clean your internet cache if it downloads "very quickly", as it's hitting the cache and not the new copy.

[ragupasta]

Ambient: Ambient colour swatch shouldn't do anything on its own, but in max it does, not sure about Maya. Ambient colour should be multiplied with the colour of any ambient lights in your scene. Be careful using ambience in your scene's as its very easy to wash things out and make your scene look flat.

Specular: Specular is in laymans terms "light reflection" Look in the mirror at your face and you will see very small amounts ofhighlights on your skin. Look at the Ocean and you will see light reflecting off the ocean, any surface has some specularity even if its hardly noticeable.

Diffuse is the main colour channel. This serves as a base colour.

More materials, right-click a material "ball" and off the top of my head there are a few multipliers Eg: 2x5 or something like that, choose the bigger one and you should get about 32 material slots. Also after materials have been added to your scene you can remove them from the material editor and it wont make a difference to your scene, the already added materials will stay on your geometry.

[thegeewz]

Thanks guys!


how can I get more materials to play with?

[davious]

just use the material slots that you already have. If you want to use a material from the scene you can select it 'from scene' as an option. This allows you to go back and tweek mats in the scene if necessary.

[ragupasta]

That looks very much like the sword from the "Joan Of Arc" tutorial.

[thegeewz]

your right!, I was browsing the tut and followed a few pages before I was more interested in the sword than the tut, if you look closely you might even be able to tell where the tut ends and I took over!
(am is supposed to declare if i modeled something from a tut before i post it?, don't want to step on anybody feet here, I'm not trying to plagiarize or anything.... just learning as best I can)


It looks like a good modeling tut by the way, thinking about start to finishing it.....


I couldn't think of a better excuse to use everything I've learned thus far than a treasure horde, nowhere close to complete, but there is still lots to learn!


What I mean t by more materials=

when i select a variable, diffuse/ambient/specular I am presented with a nice list of things, from the tuts I have followed thus far there seems to be a lot more available, though its different for everyone.
Are these all custom or is it possible to go download some stone, model my floor as such and apply it?


and HA! Im not even about to start trying to figure out lighting and all that good stuff just yet.....