3rd Lecture - Material editor & Material selection ID

In this lecture I learnt how to add materials to objects by using the material editor.I spent time playing around with the different options that I can create and use within this editor. I then used Adobe Photoshop to create my own bitmap image to use as a material in 3ds max.


Once I had saved the image I then selected ‘get material’ from the material editor(found in the ‘rendering’ tab) and this allowed me to import the bitmap that I had just created.


I also learnt how to break up one object into different sections so that I could create different effects with different parts of an object, for example on side could be one colour and the other side could have a material effect on it. I done this by using the material ID.


For this I chose a teapot to select sections of, the four sections I wanted to select from the teapot were; the lid, the body, the spout and the handle.
To do this I had to create my teapot from the shapes menu, I then converted it to editable poly by right clicking on it and selecting ‘convert to editable poly.’

Then using the right hand side tool bar of 3ds max I used the element selection, then scrolled down to polygon material ID’s, and labelled the selections of the teapot different numbers from 1 to 4.


I then selected the ‘rendering’ tab at the top of the page then I selected material editor.
Once the material editor window had opened I then selected ‘get material’ from the material tab then from the material/map browser I selected mulit/sub-object.



I could then select the material ID and chose which colour, material or map I wanted to use on this object. I chose a different colour for each of my 4 sections of the teapot.


Here is my multi-coloured teapot.