need tut (create material)

# 1 21-08-2005 , 05:13 PM

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Join Date: May 2005

Location: canada

Posts: 914

is trhere a good tut that show how to create a good material and explain a lot of way to create material.i dont care if i have to pay for that tut.

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# 2 21-08-2005 , 06:00 PM

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Join Date: Aug 2004

Posts: 408

okayy... you mean shaders correct? Its quite complicated depending on what you're trying to create a shader for.

Personally a "shader" generally does not work for each and every part of a model which is why most people need to create a "map" for each effect.

For most cases you're really going to be using Ambient Color, Alpha, (obviously color), Specular, and Bumpmapping. (But that really depends on what you're making)

Here's a skin I made for some guy's gun model --

user added image

Note the shinyness of the model -- over the barrel it was quite shiny, over the rest of the gun it was slight, and over the hole where the clip is inserted into there was no shine (why would a hole shine? Honestly)

That's specular mapping... higher value makes the section "shine" more... Metal shines more than plastic which shines more than nothing. You'll also need to play with the specular hardpoint and other values to make the shine more widespread or pointy. (Don't have a picture to illustrate what I mean) -- edit: Think of giving more Specular value as adding more varnish to the model.

Not the sides of the gun where it appears to indent in -- that's not bumpmapping (the game didn't support animated objects with bumpmaps) but its faked using burn and dodge tools on the textures. For a more realistic view though -- its good to create a bumpmap... basically what that means is the higher or lower the value (more white or more black) each point is on the texture, the higher or lower it will appear which Maya then fakes with lighting effects to make it look bumped.

Now there's something called normal mapping which basically shifts around fake vertexes making a low poly object look high poly -- that's "Next-Gen" though and is all automated (Maya builds it for you if you have 2 versions, one high poly and one low poly of the same model)

Alpha basically just makes a part of a model more or less see-through.

Hope that helps a bit.

(If your problem's with UV Mapping -- that's a different story)

My basic tip for you is to "fake" whatever you can to save rendering time and also to give you more control over what it will look like -- some things you can't fake at times but it works more often than people try:

user added image

The optical sight of the model actually was made to have some light blue, some darker blue, and actually even some purple to give a glassy effect. This will not change with orientation but it still works.

Last edited by Phopojijo; 21-08-2005 at 06:08 PM.

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# 3 21-08-2005 , 09:51 PM

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Join Date: May 2005

Location: canada

Posts: 914

ok thanx a lot to take time answer to my question but my real question was (it wasnt clear)how can i create a shader. do you create your own specular ramp, diffue ramp... and then connect that to your "premade" material.. i know a lot about bump mapping uv mapping, texture.now i want to learn more about refletivity , specular , diffuse. how you create these attribute for object to give it a metal look. plastic look...

how do you start to make your shader.
finaly whats these attribute make to an objetc.
if you create a specular, difuse or reflectivity ramp for your shader,what are they going to do on your object.
ex: if your reflective ramp color is red what is going to do on your object.

what these attribute are going to do on your object and is there many way you can create it.

diffuse
reflectivity(color)
specular.

i want to know how you create a metal look plastice look ...

if you have a tut about how to create your own shader,can you give it to me please.

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# 4 22-08-2005 , 06:26 AM

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Join Date: Dec 2004

Location: Melbourne, Australia

Posts: 36

Okay you want to know the actual phyical results produced by the modification of these attributes.

Well diffuse is your color if you assign a texture to it, it will show the specific color at the specific UV that it is located at so diffuse is your color map.

Reflectivity(color specific) Okay if you assign a specific color to your reflectivity you will only reflect that color.

Specular. Specular is the highlight where a surface normal is directly facing you.

As for materials I know that 3d total has a good car paint tutorial as well digital tutors will have some tutorials on Mental ray and other materials. And I am guessing Simply Maya will also have some otherwise go to alias website download some of the free materials that you want you object to look like and have a look at what their attribute settings are.

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