Autodesk 12812-051462-9011 User Guide 3 - Page 185

Self-Illumination Setting Material Editor > Standard material > Anisotropic, Blinn, Metal, Multi-Layer, Oren-Nayar-Blinn, or Phong Basic Parameters rollout > Self-Illumination group These controls make the material self illuminated on page 8122. Self-illumination creates the illusion of incandescence by replacing shadows on the surface with the diffuse color. As you increase self-illumination, the self-illumination color takes over from the ambient color. At a setting of 100, the material shows no shaded areas, although it can show specular highlights. The self-illumination color appears in viewports. (In releases prior to 3ds Max 5,, viewports showed the self-illumination value but not the color.) NOTE The Strauss shader on page 5431 does not have self-illumination. There are two ways to specify self-illumination. You can turn on the check box and use a self-illumination color, or turn off the check box and use a monochrome spinner, which is comparable to using a gray scale self-illumination color. Self-illuminated materials do not show shadows cast onto them, and they are unaffected by the lights in the scene. The brightness (Value in the HSV color description on page 8105) remains the same regardless of the scene's lighting. To make a visible light source in a scene, you can combine a geometric object with a light object, and give the geometric object a self-illuminating surface. For example, you could create a lofted light bulb shape, assign it a self-illuminating white or yellowish material, and place an omni light in the same location. To make a material both self-illuminating and transparent, use the Additive transparency type in combination with self-illumination. See Extended Parameters on page 5408. 5440 | Chapter 19 Material Editor, Materials, and Maps