Post by Anthony on Aug 11, 2015 15:54:30 GMT
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.
If the object is an editable mesh, you can drag and drop materials to different selections of faces, building a Multi/Sub-Object material on the fly. See Drag and Drop Sub-Object Material Assignment.
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 Make Unique button in the Material Editor 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.
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:
Activate a sample slot in the Material Editor.
Click the Type button.
In the Material/Map Browser, choose Multi/Sub-Object and then click OK.
A Replace Map dialog is displayed. This dialog asks whether you want to discard the original material in the 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:
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.
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:
Select the object, and assign a Multi/Sub-Object material to it.
On the Modify panel, apply Mesh Select to the object.
Click Sub-Object and choose Face as the sub-object category.
Select the faces to which you will assign a sub-material.
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:
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.
Click Delete.
The sub-material is removed.
Deleting a sub-material is an undoable operation
If the object is an editable mesh, you can drag and drop materials to different selections of faces, building a Multi/Sub-Object material on the fly. See Drag and Drop Sub-Object Material Assignment.
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 Make Unique button in the Material Editor 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.
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:
Activate a sample slot in the Material Editor.
Click the Type button.
In the Material/Map Browser, choose Multi/Sub-Object and then click OK.
A Replace Map dialog is displayed. This dialog asks whether you want to discard the original material in the 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:
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.
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:
Select the object, and assign a Multi/Sub-Object material to it.
On the Modify panel, apply Mesh Select to the object.
Click Sub-Object and choose Face as the sub-object category.
Select the faces to which you will assign a sub-material.
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:
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.
Click Delete.
The sub-material is removed.
Deleting a sub-material is an undoable operation