TOPIC TITLE: MATERIALS

Materials
The artistic qualities of the substance that an object is made
of is defined as material. In its simplest form, materials are
used to present the substance an object is made of, or to
"paint" the object with different colors. Usually, the
substance is represented by its surface qualities (color,
shininess, reflectance, etc.) but it can also exhibit more
complicated effects such as transparency, diffraction, and
sub-surface scattering. Some of the typical materials might
be brass, skin, glass, or linen.

Materials can have associated textures. These textures

describe the substance – example, embroidered linen,
polished brass, or dirty glass.

Figure 6.1 Basic Materials

how materials work.

A deep understanding on how simulated light and surfaces

interact in rendering engine and how material settings
control those interactions is a must before you can
effectively design with materials.

The rendered image you create is a projection of the scene

onto an imaginary surface called viewing plane. To render an
image, you must first determine what light from the scene is
incoming at each point on the viewing plane. The best way
to do this is to follow the straight line (simulated light ray)
backwards through that point on the viewing plane and the
focal point (location of the camera) until it hits the rendered
surface in the scene, at which you can determine what light
would strike that point.

The surface properties and incident light angle tells the

amount of light would be reflected back along the incident
viewing angle.
 Figure 6.2 Rendering Engine Basic Principle
The two basic types of phenomena that take place at any
point on a surface when a light ray strikes are diffusion and
specular reflection. Diffusion and specular reflection are
distinguished from each other mainly by the relationship
between the incident light angle and the reflected light
angle.

assigning a material.

Available materials in the currently-open file can be viewed

by clicking the Material button ( ) in the Properties
Window Header.

New created object does not contain material linked to it. To

create a new material for the object follow the steps below:

1. Select the object.

2. Click the Object button from the Properties window.

3. Click on the Materials button in the Properties panel

Header (1).

4. The Shading context window appears. It contains the

following:

a. Context – Currently selected scene and

object.

b. Object Material Slot (3) – This shows the slot

for the material that this object data contain.

c. Active Material (2) – Initially empty, asking

for “New”.
 Figure 6.3 Material Window (Shading context)

To add a new material click (+) in the Active Material box.

Doing so will have the following effects:

 Opens a new material in the Active Material box

 Show up additional buttons in the immediate panel

 Adds new material to the Available Material list

 Add new material to the Object Material slots list for

the active object

 Bring up a preview of the new material

 Provides you with a range of panels allowing you to

select the properties of a new material

Figure 6.4 Material Window (Active Material Box)

Material Properties.

Materials can consist large array of properties. These are

the combination of number of things that define the way a
material looks, and how the objects using material will
appear when rendered. These properties are set using
various properties panels.

Note that the appearance of the materials are affected by the

way that they are rendered (surface, wire, volume, or halo),
and by the rendering engine used.
The table below sets out the various properties panels
available, which render engine they are available for, and
brief details of their scope. Details of their controls and
settings are given on the relevant pages

Table 6.1 sets out the various properties panels available and
its description.

Panel Description

Preview Previews the current material mapped on

to one of several basic objects

Diffuse The basic color of the material, together

with different models for dispersion
 Specular The reflected highlights: color, strength,
and different models for dispersion

Color Ramps How to vary the base color over a surface

in both Diffuse and Specular shaders

Shading Properties of various characteristics of

the shading model for the material

Transparency Provides transparency to the object

Mirror Reflective properties of the material

Subsurface Simulates semi-translucent objects in

Scattering which light enters, bounces around, then
exits in a different place

Strand For use when surfaces are covered with

hair, fur, etc

Option Various options for shading and coloring

the object

Shadow Controls how objects using this material

cast and receive shadows

Custom Sets custom properties for the object

Properties

Table 6.1 Material Property Panel

Node Materials.

In addition to creating materials, Blender allows creating

material by routing basic materials through a set of nodes.
Each node performs some operation on the material,
changing how it will appear when applied to the mesh, and
passes it on to the next node.

Types of material nodes:

 Input – Presents a material or components to the

node map.

 Output – Shows the result in progress.

 Color – Manipulates the color of the material.

 Vector – Changes the way light is reflected off to the

material.

 Convertors – Convert colors to other material colors.

  Groups – User-defined group of nodes.

 Dynamics – Custom nodes defined by Python.

Vertex Paint.

Another simplest way to apply color onto an object is Vertex

Painting, by manipulating the color of the vertices, rather
than textures, and is fairly direct.

When a vertex is painted, the color of the vertex is modified

according to the rules of the brush. The color of all visible
planes and edges attached to the vertex are then modified
with a gradient to the color of the other connected vertices.

Figure 6.5 Vertex Painting Mode

To activate the Vertex Paint, go to Edit or Object Mode, then

click on Vertex Paint. Then, check the “Vertex Color Paint” in
the Materials Options Panel.

The Tool Shelf (T) contains most of the options for vertex
painting. The following describe the controls in each of the
available panel:

Brush

 Brush Datablock – Image, name panel, and color

selector on top allows you to select brush presets,
rename brushes, as well as add custom brushes, and
delete them.

 Radius – Sets the radius of the brush.

 Strength – Sets the strength of the brush’s effect.

 Blend menu

o Mix – Mixes RGB values.

o Add – Adds RGB values.

o Subtract – Subtracts the RGB values.

 o Multiply – Multiplies brush colors by the
vertex colors.

o Blur – Blurs vertex colors.

o Lighten – Lightens the color of the vertices.

o Darken – Darkens the color of the vertices.

Stroke

 Airbrush – The flow of the brush continues as long as

the mouse click is held, determined by the rate
settings.

 Smooth stroke – Brush lags behind mouse and

follows a smoother path. When activated the
following become active:

o Radius – Sets the minimum distance from

the last point before stroke continuous.

o Factor – Sets the amount of smoothing.

 Space – Creates brush stroke as a series of dots,

whose spacing is determined by the spacing setting.

Spacing represents the percentage of the brush

diameter.

Curves

Brush curves affect how strongly the color is applied

depending on distance from the center of the brush.

Appearance

Allows to customize the color of the brush radius outline, as

well as specify a custom icon. Contains the following options:

 All Faces

 Normals

 Spray

 Size

 Strength