In the Material Editor, copy one of the bitmaps from any of the other channels into the Self illumination channel.

Note: By copying the maps into other channels we save ourselves the step of having to choose Bitmap, and then choosing the specific images.

Next, load up the SlimyMetal_selfIllum image in that channel.

Currently the effect is not going to be that dramatic.

What I want you to do is go back to the top level of the material, scroll up to the Blinn Basic Parameters rollout, and check the box next to Self illumination. Upon doing this you will notice that now the effect has really taken hold (Fig.47).


And here's the render (Fig.48). Imagine this for a spaceship's onboard lights.


Next let's look at the Opacity channel, here's your image (Fig.49 – SlimyMetal_opacity.jpg).


Now repeat the copy of the bitmap into the Opacity channel and load this new image.

Here's the render (Fig.50).


What's important to note here are the shadows; the only reason our shadows show up is because our key light is set to Raytrace shadows. You could also check the 2-sided box under the Shader Basic Parameters rollout and get something like this (Fig.51).



Now we can see through to the inside of the sphere.

The last channel we will look at is going to be the Reflection channel. With this we are going to introduce a new Map Type: the Mask map.

Find your Reflection channel in the Material Editor and again copy into it one of the bitmaps from another channel. Now go into that channel by pressing the channel button (Fig.52).


Now in here, press the Bitmap button at the top right corner (Fig.53).