Materials |
This week we were introduced to the use of materials in 3DS Max. Materials are a vital aspect when 3D modeling as they help to bring objects within a scene to life via the use of realistic colours/textures and lighting effects.
Shaders
Shaders are technical graphical effects that are basically responsible for calculating the colours of objects and therefore how they are rendered in a scene.
3DS Max has 8 standard shader types each which can be fully customised in order to alter the way in which and object is rendered.
Anistropic: This shader focuses on the specular level of a material and creates elongated highlighting which is suitable for simulating shiny surfaces such as metal and hair.
Blinn: Blinn is one of the most commonly used shaders and creates solid colours which are useful when creating plastic like materials.
Metal: The metal shader is very similar to the Ansiotropic shader, however it has more of a matte look, suitable for representing brushed metal for example. The reason for this matte look is due to the bump/dent that the glossiness creates in the specular highlights level.
Multi-Layer: This is by far the most complex shader as it has the ability to combine multiple materials to separate parts of an object. This is achieved by assigning selected polygons specific material ID's which can then by configured using the multi-layer shader settings. Due to the nature of this shader it is most suited to more complex models that consist of numerous parts that are typically rendered differently e.g. characters, vehicles, metallic objects etc.
Oren-Nayar Blinn: This shader is similar to the standard blinn however it applies a softer looking effect that is useful when modeling skin for example. Consequently it produces a relatively matte appearance which can be used to portray a more organic look ideal for human skin and fruit.
Plong & Strauss: These shaders can also be used to produce a plastic like appearance however they are rarely used, as the blinn shader can be used to create more complex and specific effects.
Translucent Shader: This is a particularly specialist shader used for creating opaque and ultra shiny materials such as glass and extreme lighting effects. It can also be used to manually light custom bitmaps via adding highlights to certain areas, rather than leaving them flat and lacking in shading/detail.
Maps
Maps are essentially pre made materials that consist of various elements rather than just a solid/plain colour of standard materials. 3DS Max contains a library of pre made bitmaps such as wood, stone, marble however these are rather limited and the main feature available is the ability to import custom bitmap textures.
Once a map has been applied to an object its position can manipulated in a variety of ways ranging from offsetting, rotation, tiling etc. Maps can be altered further via applying a UVW Map modifier which simply grants the ability to change numerous parameters concerning how the map is applied to an object.
Maps can add an extra level of depth to a scene by making objects look more realistic and 3D. A great example in my opinion would be the bump map which gives the appearance of a dented surface via complexly placed combination of shadows and highlights. Speckle is another example of a convenient map which creates a spotted/mottled surface ideal for the texture of an orange skin.
Practice Examples
The teapot below was created using the pre made teapot tool under standard primitives in the create panel. I then applied a metal shader to the body, spout and lid of the teapot using a light grey colour. I specifically increased the specular level to create a highly shiny metal look, seen in the material preview.
Metal Shader Properties:
Metal Material Preview: Textured Plastic MaterialPreview:
I also created a black textured plastic material for use on the teapot's handles, this was achieved by selecting the speckle map and giving it a black diffuse colour. The scale of the speckle effect was also adjusted to produce the material seen above.
The Final Rendered Teapot:
In addition to customising the existing materials in 3DS Max for the teapot I also imported custom textures that I acquired from http://www.3dplace.net to render a set of stairs.
The two textures below were saved as jpeg's from internet and were then imported as bitmaps using the material/map browser.
Wood Texture Concrete Texture
Both of these textures were adjusted in scale, rotation and tiling settings to produce the materials below:
Wood Material Preview: Concrete Material Preview:
I created a set of stairs using the pre made model: "Straight Stair" under "Stairs" on the create panel. The materials were then applied to the required parts of the object by converting the stairs into an editable poly, consequently allowing the required sections to be selected using the polygon selection tool in sub-object level. The same technique was used for the teapot by applying materials the selected elements and polygons.
The Final Rendered Stairs:
Close-Up in The Perspective Viewport:
Note: In the image above the detail of the materials can be seen in greater definition (especially the concrete) than the rendered view which tends to smooth off the materials.
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