This
is a presentation of mapping in max,
Material ID and the materials Sub-Multi
Object.
How to assign several textures to an
object, how to place the mapping coordinates,
how to apply them, improve them and
finally how to Unwrap the texture for
use in a 2d paint package.
To
illustrate all this, we will use a simple
cube with three divisions and some extruded
faces as you can see opposite.
By
default during its creation, an object
does not have a true material, it just
has a color chosen by chance.
To
apply a particular material we use
the Material Editor.
Material
Editor is a relatively powerful editor.
In
top of the unused material slots (in
gray) on which we come to apply and
visualize materials.
To
apply just select a slot and change
the color Ambient, Diffuse etc.
Make the same changes for the others
slots opposite, just use different colors.
To
apply a material to the object, just
select a Material as shown. Now Select
your object then click on the Assign
Material to Selection icon.
Note that the framework of the slot
changes and 4 white bevels appear indicating
that this material is currently assigned
with an object in the scene.
We can also Drag and Drop a material
directly onto an object in the viewport
to assign it.
Select
your red material and assign it to the
object, note that bevels of blue material
disappear because it is no longer assigned
in the scene anymore.
How
to apply several materials to the same
object?
For that we need to use sub-object mode.
We work in Poly Edit or Mesh Edit mode
using polygons or elements.
Select
the faces you want, choose another
material and assign it.
This
time the material applies only to
the selection.
Repeat this operation until you have
assigned all 5 materials.
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The
object with 5 materials applied. Note
that all 5 slots have their corners
beveled.
Deselect all the faces of the object
then go back into object mode.
In
Material Editor, select a free slot,
click on the Get Material Icon, Select
from Scene.
This makes it possible to recover the
Material applied to an object.
Here
we find ourselves with not a material
of the Standard type as by default
but one of the Multi/Sub-Object type.
With
this type of material we make it possible
to apply several textures to an object.
So
you see we can create it as we did,
by assigning Standard materials with
a selection of faces.
Or we can create a Multi/Sub-Material,
from scratch (setting a number) and
then applying each Sub-Material as
we did with our sample material.
Note
that if we change a material in a slot,
the Multi/Sub-Object material is also
updated because they are dependent on
each other (an Instance).
Before
going further, let us clean the slots
of Material Editor.
For that we right click on a slot and
in the menu which appears select 5x3
Samples.
We now have more smaller slots.
Select the Original color slots and
click on the Reset Map icon.
A Dialogue Box appears, select Affect
Only in Editor Slot because we do not
wish to erase material already assigned
with the object.
This
procedure makes it possible to release
the slots for later use, and because
we cannot see all 24 Material Editor
Slots on screen at once we may from
time to time wish to clear these slots.
(3DSmax
is not limited to 24 materials fortunately:))
Erase
all the slots and find the material
of the object, use the Get Material
Icon, Select from Scene as we did
previously.
Name
this material in the field designed
for this purpose.
