Cinema 4D Basic Features Object Manager Tags Menu Various Tags
Function available in CINEMA 4D Prime, Visualize, Broadcast, Studio & BodyPaint 3D

Material Tag

Basic Tag Coordinates

Material Tag

This command creates a new material. Initially, no material is assigned. To assign a material, drag the material’s preview from the Material Manager and drop it into the tag’s Material box on the tag page of the Attribute Manager (The normal workflow, however, is as follows: Drag a material from the Material Manager onto an object. A properly linked Material tag will automatically be created).

You can also select multiple Material tags and assign a material to all of them at the same time.

You can assign as many Material tags as you like to an object. This allows you to apply multiple texture layers to the same object. The material priority increases to the right in the Object Manager. In other words, the right-most material is the top layer, the left-most material is the bottom layer and the other textures are between these. The top layer will cover the object completely unless it is limited in size or has an alpha channel enabled.

If a child object has no Material tags applied to it, it uses the Material tag(s) of its parent. However, there is an exception: If a light has no Material tag and is a child of another light, it will not inherit its parent’s Material tags. This is to prevent child lights receiving gels automatically.

To apply a material to an object, do one of the following:

When you assign a material to an object, a Material tag is created and the tag’s settings appear in the Attribute Manager. These texture settings define how the texture is mapped (i.e. placed) onto the object’s surface. For example, you may want the texture to be tiled (i.e. repeated) or you may want to place the texture on a specific part of the object. You can also have the texture mapped to one side only (decal mapping).

Tip:
Double-click on the Material tag to display the settings for the corresponding material in the Attribute Manager or the Material Manager.