Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
With a basic material, you can adjust uniform settings on any surface. The control over these attributes is
broken into two main categories: Material Ref and Material Trans. Material Ref refers to reflective attributes
or settings that return light to the viewer. Material Trans deals with settings for light that goes into or passes
through the surface of the material. There are some additional settings in each of these categories that you
will look at now.
Material Ref Settings
The Material Ref panel is broken into two sections: BRDF and Surface Normal, as shown in
Figure 3-5
.
The upper section of the panel is the BRDF section.
BRDF
stands for
Brightness Reflective Diffuse
Fresnel
. The Diffuse Amount and Diffuse Color options work together in their effect. The Diffuse Color
sets the basic color of the material. The Diffuse Amount is a multiplier of the Color, so setting this field to
100% will make it so a pure white light on the object will return the actual Diffuse Color. Setting the Dif-
fuse Amount to 0% makes the object appear black. The settings between 0% and 100% mix black with the
Diffuse color for the final output. The Conserve Energy option acts as a check for all of the material set-
tings to ensure that exactly 100% of the light rays that hit the surface are reflected, absorbed, or transmitted.
Generally, this effect can be achieved by balancing the amounts manually, and that way you can compensate
slightly to better customize the look of the material.
Figure 3-5:
Material Ref properties panel
