Material

The Material Editor still exists in which materials’ properties can be displayed and modified. The Material Editor can be opened by double-clicking on the material in the Material Manager. In the Material Editor, channels are displayed at the left as opposed to being displayed in the Basic tab in the Attribute Manager. Otherwise the functions of both Managers are identical.

Color and Brightness have been animated.

The Material Editor enables you to edit the properties of the materials used in your scene. To open the Material Editor, double-click a thumbnail in the Material Manager.

The Material Editor is divided into panes. A preview of the material is displayed in the top left corner. There are also numerous pages of parameters, the settings of which are combined to form the material. You will find a list of these parameter pages — known as channels — in the left part of the dialog (or in the Attribute Manager’s Basic tab). Most of the time you will not need to use all the channels. Use the option boxes next to the channel names to choose which channels (i.e. properties) are used by the material. To access a parameter page, click the desired channel's name or on the corresponding tab. Each page operates in a similar way and the control elements are in the same place.

Properties and what they control:

Luminescent color (light-independent color)

Color	Surface color
Diffusion	Irregularities in surface color (works by brightening and darkening the color channel)
Luminance
Transparency	Transparency (including refraction index)
Reflectance	Ability to reflect other objects/specular highlights
Environment	Environment reflection (simulates reflection)
Fog	Fog effect
Bump	Virtual bumps on a surface
Normal	Virtual surface irregularity that is lit realistically.
Alpha	Localized texture invisibility
Glow	Halo around an object
Displacement	Realistic bumps on a surface
Editor	Material display in Viewport
Illumination	Global illumination, caustics, illumination model
Assignment	List of all objects that use the material

Tip

Textures (bitmaps / shaders) can be easily copied between materials and/or channels by dragging the preview image onto any of The targets, as shown in the above image.