Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
6. Back in the shader's Attribute Editor, click the gray swatch for Specular Color. By
changing this color, you control the hue and brightness of the highlights on this sur-
face. Use a bright faded blue with HSV values of H: 208, S: 0.20, and V: 0.90.
7. Increase the spread
of the specular highlights by changing Cosine Power from the
default of 20 to 2.0. Doing so creates a large area for the bright highlights, implying a
polished ref lective surface.
8. To assign the shader to the surfaces,
select both sides of the axe head. In the
Hypershade, right-click the shader node
(in either the upper or lower window),
and choose Assign Material to Selec-
tion from the shortcut menu. Figure 7.14
shows the shader.
9. Make sure your perspective view is active,
and click the Render the Current Frame
button ( ) in the menu bar.
Check out
different angles of the axe, and render
them to see how the metal axe head
responds to the default lights that Maya
inserts into the scene for your render.
Figure 7.14
The Metal shader's
material node, as
shown in the Hyper-
shade window
This procedure creates a simple Metal
shader that works well overall. To create
a more polished look for the axe head,
you can add a reflection to it using an
Environment texture node. This node
creates a 3D texture node in the scene that projects its contents onto the Material
attribute to which it has been connected. As an object animates through the scene,
different parts of the texture are reflected on its surface.
10. In the Metal shader's Attribute Editor, click the Map button next to the Ref lected Color
attribute, as shown in Figure 7.15. Doing so attaches a new node to create a reflection
and opens the Create Render Node win-
dow. Click the Env Textures section, and
select Env Chrome. An environment tex-
ture will provide an interesting ref lection.
11. Move the Ref lectivity slider from 0.50 to 0.85. The higher this number, the more
prominent the Ref lected Color in the surface. Figure 7.16 shows the axe before and
after a ref lection. The Env Chrome ref lection texture makes the axe look polished by
ref lecting a grid representing the ground and a bright blue sky.
Figure 7.15
You can add a tex-
ture to a shader's
attribute by clicking
the checkered Map
button.
