Autodesk 12812-051462-9011 User Guide 3 - Page 255

Blending Map Amounts for Opacity and Other Material Components The Specular Level, Glossiness, Self-Illumination, and Opacity values in the four spinners in the Basic Parameters rollout are blended with their associated map Amount values in the Maps rollout. When the Opacity spinner is set to 0, the map Amount spinner completely controls Opacity. That is, reducing the Amount value increases the transparency of the entire surface. On the other hand, when Opacity is 100, reducing the map Amount value increases the opacity of the areas where the Opacity map is less than 1. For example, you can now adjust a Checker Opacity map so that the solid areas remain solid, while the clear areas are semi-transparent. The Specular Level, Glossiness, and Self-Illumination channels all behave in the same way. A setting of 100 applies all of the map; a setting of 0 is the equivalent of turning the map off. When you load old 3ds Max files or bring earlier materials from the Browser into the Materials Editor, the spinner values for Opacity, Specular Level, Glossiness, and Self-illumination are altered, where necessary, to maintain the equivalent material effect. Procedures To assign a map: 1 Click a map button. A modal Material/Map Browser on page 5290 is displayed. 2 Use the Browse From buttons to choose where you want to look. If you choose Material Library and the dialog's display area is blank, you need to open a library file. Click the Open button and then choose the library to browse. 3 Use the display buttons to choose how you view maps. ■ View List shows each map by name. ■ View List + Icons shows a small preview and each map's name. ■ View Small Icons shows a small preview for each map. ■ View Large Icons shows a large preview for each map, along with the map's name. 5510 | Chapter 19 Material Editor, Materials, and Maps