7.7 Multi-sub-object material (Compound Material)

Multi/Sub-Object Material

The Multi/Sub-Object material lets you assign different materials at the sub-object level of your geometry. You create a multi-material, assign it to an object, and then use the Mesh Select modifier to select faces and choose which of the sub-materials in the multi-material are assigned to the selected faces.

Figure mapped using a Multi/Sub-Object material

If the object is an editable mesh or editable poly, you can drag and drop materials to different selections of faces, building a Multi/Sub-Object material on the fly. 

You can also create a new Multi/Sub-Object material by dragging to faces selected with the Edit Mesh modifier.

Sub-material IDs do not depend on the order of the list, and you can enter new ID values.

The Material Editor Make Unique function lets you make an instanced sub-material into a unique copy.

At the Multi/Sub-Object material level, the sample slot's sample object shows a patchwork of the sub-materials. When you edit a sub-material, the sample slot display depends on the setting of the Simple Multi Display Below Top Level toggle in the Material Editor Options dialog.

Using Multi/Sub-Object Materials

Here are some usage tips with regards to mesh editing and managing sub-materials.

• When working at sub-object levels of Editable Meshes, Polys, Patches and Splines, or with objects that have Edit Mesh, Spline or Patch modifiers applied to them, you can browse by sub-material names if the object has a multi-sub-object material applied to it.
• Sub-materials that are not assigned to an object, or surface of an object, can be 'cleaned' from the Multi-Sub-Object material by using the Clean MultiMaterial utility.
• Duplicate maps, assigned to materials, can be changed to instances by using the Instance Duplicate Maps utility.

Procedures

To create a Multi/Sub-Object material, do one of the following:

• In the Slate Material Editor Browser panel Materials Standard group, drag a Multi/Sub-Object material into the active View.
• In the Compact Material Editor, activate a sample slot, click the Type button, then in the Material/Map Browser , choose Multi/Sub-Object and then click OK.

3ds Max opens a Replace Map dialog. This dialog asks whether you want to discard the original material in the sample slot, or retain it as a sub-material.

The controls for a Multi/Sub-Object material are essentially a list of the sub-materials it contains.

To assign a sub-material, do one of the following:

• On the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout, click a sub-material button.

The parameters for the sub-material appear. By default, a sub-material is a Standard material with Blinn shading.

• In the Slate Material Editor, the default sub-materials appear as nodes in the active View. You can double-click these nodes to see and adjust the material parameters, or you can replace the Standard material nodes with nodes of a different type.

To make one of the sub-materials a solid color:

• On the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout, click the color swatch next to the sub-material button.

In the Color Selector, choose a color.

The color swatches for sub-materials are shortcuts. They assign the color you choose to the sub-material's Diffuse component.

To assign one of the sub-materials to a sub-object selection:

1. Select the object, and assign a Multi/Sub-Object material to it.
2. On the Modify panel, apply Mesh Select to the object.
3. Click Sub-Object and choose Face as the sub-object category.
4. Select the faces to which you will assign a sub-material.
5. Apply a Material modifier, and set the material ID value to the number of the sub-material you want to assign.

The viewport updates to show the sub-material assigned to the selected faces.

The material ID values in the Multi/Sub-Object material and the material ID numbers in the Select Face rollout correspond. If you set the ID to a number that doesn't correspond to a material contained in the Multi/Sub-Object material, the faces render as black.

Warning: Some geometric primitives do not use 1 as the default material ID, and some, such as hedra or box, have multiple material IDs by default.

Tip: You can also use the Edit Mesh modifier to assign a contained material to selected faces. Apply Edit Mesh to the object, go to the Face sub-object level, and select the faces to assign. Then on the Edit Surface rollout, set the material ID value to the ID of the sub-material. (You can drag and drop a Multi/Sub-Object material to an Edit Mesh modifier as you can to an editable mesh object.)

To add a new sub-material:

• Click Add.

A new sub-material is added to the end of the list. By default, the new sub-material's ID number is one greater than the highest material ID already in use.

To remove a sub-material:

1. Select the sub-material by clicking its small sample sphere in the Multi/Sub-Object Basic Parameters rollout.

The small sample sphere is surrounded by a black and white border to show the sub-material is selected.

If the list of sub-materials is longer than the rollout will hold, you can use the scroll bar at the right to display other parts of the list.

2. Click Delete.

The sub-material is removed.

Deleting a sub-material is an undoable operation.

Interface

Number

This field displays the number of sub-materials contained in the Multi/Sub-Object material.

Set Number

Sets the number of sub-materials make up the material. At the Multi/Sub-Object material level, the sample slot's sample object shows a patchwork of the sub-materials. (When you edit a sub-material, the sample slot display depends on the setting of the Simple Multi Display Below Top Level toggle on the Material Editor Options dialog.)

Reducing the number of sub-materials removes sub-materials from the end of the list. You can undo Set Number when you have used it to delete materials.

Add

Click to add a new sub-material to the list. By default, the new sub-material's ID number is one greater than the highest material ID already in use.

Delete

Click to delete the currently chosen sub-material from the list. You can undo deleting a sub-material.

[sort list controls]

These buttons appear above three of the columns in the sub-materials list.

ID

Click to sort the list so it begins with the sub-material that has the lowest material ID, and ends with the sub-material that has the highest material ID.

Name

Click to sort the list by the names you have entered in the Name column.

Sub-Material

Click to sort the list by the sub-material names that appear on the Sub-Material buttons.

[list of sub-materials]

Each sub-material has a single entry in this list. The rollout displays up to 10 sub-materials at a time. If the Multi/Sub-Object material contains more than 10 sub-materials, you can scroll the list using the scrollbar at the right.

Each sub-material in the list has the following controls:

Small sample sphere

The small sample sphere is a "mini-preview" of the sub-material. Click it to select this sub-material. You must select a sub-material before you delete it.

ID

Shows the ID number assigned to this sub-material. You can edit this field to change the ID number. If you assign two sub-materials the same ID, a warning message appears at the top of the rollout.

When the Multi/Sub-Object material is applied to an object, faces in the object assigned the same material ID number render with this sub-material.

You can click Sort by ID to sort the sub-material list by this value, from lowest to highest.

Note: Sometimes the Sub-Material button shows a material number. This is not the sub-material ID.

Name

Lets you enter a custom name for the material. A sub-material name appears in the Name field when you're at the level of the sub-material. It also appears in the Browser and the Navigator.

Sub-Material button

Click the sub-material button to create or edit one of the sub-materials. Each of the sub-materials is a complete material in its own right, with as many maps and levels as you want.

By default, each sub-material is a Standard material with Blinn shading.

Color swatch

Click the color swatch to the right of the Sub-Material button to display the Color Selector and choose a diffuse color for the sub-material.

On/Off toggle

Turns the sub-material on or off. When a sub-material is off, it appears black in the sample slot and on objects in the scene. Default=on.

7.6 Morpher Material (Compound Material)

Morpher Material

The Morpher material works hand-in-hand with the Morpher modifier. You can use it to make the cheeks of a character blush, or to wrinkle a character's forehead when the eyebrows are raised. With the Morpher modifier's channel spinners, you can blend materials the same way you morph the geometry.

The Morpher material has 100 material channels that map directly to the 100 channels in the Morpher modifier. After you apply the Morpher material to an object and bind it to the Morpher modifier, you use the channel spinners in the Morpher modifier to morph materials and geometry. Empty channels in the Morpher modifier, with no geometry morph data, can be used to morph materials only.

Note: The mental ray renderer does not support the Morpher material.

Note: If even one sub-material has its shading set to Wire, the entire material displays and renders as a wire material.

Applying the Morpher Material

An object must have at least one Morpher modifier in its modifier stack. You can assign the material to an object and bind it to the object's Morpher modifier in either of two ways.

• After the Morpher modifier is applied to an object, use the Assign New Material command in the Global Parameter rollout of the Morpher modifier. This is the simplest way, and applies the Morpher Material to the object and binds the material to the Morpher modifier at the same time.
• Open the Material Editor, select the Morpher material, and click Choose Morph Object in the Parameters rollout, then click the object in the viewports. After clicking the object, a dialog displays in the viewports, select the Morpher modifier from the dialog (an object may have multiple Morpher modifiers). This binds the Morpher material to the Morpher modifier.

Note: You can bind a Morpher material to only one Morpher modifier.

Procedures

Example: To apply and use the Morpher material:

1. Create a sphere in the Perspective viewport.
2. On the Modify panel, right-click the sphere's entry in the modifier stack display, and choose Convert To: Editable Mesh.
3. From the Modifier List, choose Morpher.

This applies the Morpher modifier to the sphere.

4. On the Morpher modifier's Global Parameters rollout, click Assign New Material.

The Morpher material is now applied to the object and bound to the Morpher modifier.

5. Open the Material Editor, and click (Pick Material From Object) (the eyedropper), then click the sphere in the viewports.

The Material Editor displays the Morpher material parameters.

6. On the Morpher Basic Parameters rollout, in the Modifier Connection group, click Choose Morph Object. In the dialog that appears, click Morpher to highlight that modifier, and then click Bind.
7. On the Morpher Material Parameters rollout, click the Mat 1 slot.
8. On the Material/Map Browser choose Standard.
9. On the Basic Parameters rollout, click the Diffuse color swatch.
10. On the Color Selector, choose a bright yellow, and close the color selector. Leave the Material Editor open.
11. Turn on (Auto Key), then move the time slider to frame 50.
12. Select the sphere, and then go to the Modify panel.
13. On the Morpher modifier's Channel List rollout, set the channel 1 spinner to 100.

In the Material Editor, the color of the sample sphere changes to yellow.

14. Turn off (Auto Key).
15. On the main toolbar, click (Render Production).

The sphere is yellow. If you render an animation the sphere changes from a grey color to yellow.

Interface

The Morpher material interface is on a Parameters rollout in the Material Editor.

Modifier Connection group

Choose Morph Object

Click this option, then select an object in the viewports that has a Morpher modifier applied to it. Clicking an object in the viewports displays the Choose Morpher modifier dialog. Choose a Morpher modifier, and click Bind.

[name field]

Displays the name of object to which the Morpher material is applied. If no object has been specified, the field displays "No Target".

Refresh

Updates the channel data.

[marker drop-down list]

This list is identical to the marker list in the Morpher modifier. Markers you save in the Morpher modifier appear here.

Base Material group

Base material button

Click to apply a base material to the object. The base material represents what the model looks like before any channel blending takes place.

Channel Material Setup group

Map #

100 material channels are available. The scroll bar allows you to scroll through all the channels. Double-click a channel to jump to the material parameters for that channel.

There is a one-to-one correspondence between the channels in the Morpher material and the Morpher modifier. A material in channel 1 of the Morpher material is controlled by the channel 1 spinner in the Morpher modifier.

Material on/off toggle

Turns a channel on and off. Channels that are off do not affect the morph result.

Mixing Calculation Options group

3ds Max can slow down if many active materials are being blended. Options in this group allow you to control when the morph result will be computed.

• ConstantlyChoose to compute the material morph result all the time.
• When RenderingChoose to compute the material morph result at render time.
• Never CalculateChoose to bypass material blending.

7.5 Double-sided material (Compound Material)

Double Sided Material

The Double Sided material lets you assign two different materials to the front and back faces of an object.

On the right, a double sided material creates a pattern for the inside of the trash can.

Note: If even one sub-material has its shading set to Wire, the entire material displays and renders as a wire material.

Procedures

To create a Double Sided material, do one of the following:

• In the Slate Material Editor Browser panel Materials Standard group, drag a Double Sided material into the active View.
• In the Compact Material Editor, activate a sample slot, click the Type button, then in the Material/Map Browser, choose Double Sided and then click OK.

3ds Max opens a Replace Map dialog. This dialog asks whether you want to discard the original material in the sample slot, or retain it as a sub-material.

The Double Sided material controls let you choose the two materials, and the translucency of the material overall.

To choose the outer material, do one of the following:

• Click the button labelled Facing Material.

3ds Max displays the parameters for the sub-material. By default, a sub-material is a Standard material with Blinn shading.

• In the Slate Material Editor, the default sub-materials appear as nodes in the active View. You can double-click either of these nodes to see and adjust the material parameters, or you can replace the Standard material nodes with nodes of a different type.

To choose the inner material, do one of the following:

• Go back to the parent material (parameters for the Double Sided material). On the Double Sided Basic Parameters rollout, click the button labelled Back Material.

3ds Max displays the parameters for the sub-material. By default, a sub-material is a Standard material with Blinn shading.

• In the Slate Material Editor, the default sub-materials appear as nodes in the active View. You can double-click either of these nodes to see and adjust the material parameters, or you can replace the Standard material nodes with nodes of a different type.

To control the blending of the two sub-materials:

• Set Translucency to a value greater than 0.

The Translucency control affects the blending of the two materials. When Translucency is 0, there is no blend. When Translucency is 100.0 percent, the outer material is visible on inner faces and the inner material is visible on outer faces. At intermediate values, the specified percentage of the inner material "bleeds through" and is visible on outer faces.

Interface

Translucency

Sets the amount that one material shows through the other. This is a percentage that can range from 0.0 to 100.0. At 100 percent, the outer material is visible on inner faces and the inner material is visible on outer faces. At intermediate values, the specified percentage of the inner material "bleeds through" and is visible on outer faces. Default=0.0.

You can animate this parameter.

Facing Material and Back Material

Click to display the Material/Map Browser and choose a material for one side or the other.

Use the checkboxes to turn the materials on or off.