Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Adjusting Basic Material Settings
Basic material settings can be used to massage a material into a more appropriate look. In this case, you will
make the material a little more polished and vibrant. The default colors are a bit dull, the reflections are flat,
and the material lacks the depth of real marble. You will need to use several material settings and the marble
image map to properly adjust the material.
Let's start by looking at the reflective properties of the material (in the Material Ref section). Notice that
the specular and reflective values are the same, which is good. However, as changes are made to the spec-
ular value, it would be much easier to have the reflective value update automatically, so select the Match
Specular option. With a value of 60% for the Fresnel option, the material has some nice reflections at glan-
cing angles, but it looks a bit dull on the rest of the object. Setting the Specular Amount (and the Reflective
Amount) to 6% will add a lot to the reflections, but this may cause them to look a little too shiny and strong.
This is where adding additional image layers can really come in handy:
1.
Right-click on the marble beige image layer.
2.
Choose Create Instance.
3.
Right-click on Diffuse Color for the instance (the one that is italicized under the Effect heading).
4.
Choose Reflection Color from the Basic Channels heading. This knocks back the reflections a bit
and makes them blend a bit better. At this point, your material will look something like
Figure 6-11
.
Figure 6-11:
The extra reflections help add polish to the surface.
