Mastering Autodesk 3ds Max 2013

Chapter 8

Enhancing Models with Materials

The material and mapping features of the Autodesk^® 3ds Max 2013^® platform let you simulate surface qualities such as color, texture, transparency, reflectance, roughness, and bumpiness. The Material Editor in 3ds Max lets you create and modify materials that you can then apply to objects to achieve realistic effects.

This chapter will introduce you to both forms of the Material Editor (the Compact Material Editor and the Slate Material Editor) and show how to design, edit, and use materials. You'll see how you can use materials to add color, texture, and realism to your models.

In this chapter, you will learn to

• Create and edit materials
• Select shaders
• Use bump maps
• Create a material with sub-materials ...