Note: just because a material is in a scene doesn’t mean it is in the material editor! Materials imported or merged into the scene will not show up in the Material editor until you use the “Get Material” button and choose the “From Scene” radio button on the left. To import a blank or pre-fab material into the editor from either a Material Library or the scene itself, you press the “Get Material” button, the left-most button below the material display rows. Changing from a black background to a checked colored one is useful for transparent, semi-transparent, or translucent materials in order to see the effect against different colors. Other options to the right (the string of buttons) are mainly preferences as well as changing the background for material display. This can be changed to 2 other settings, 5x3 and 6x4, for 15 or 24 materials.

In a reset Max scene, the material editor by default displays 6 materials (3x2). In this write-up I’ll discuss the material viewer, how to apply materials to objects, the basic and extended parameters, as well as the Maps roll-out.įirst, the viewer. The material editor in 3D Studio Max, while not made to Renderman specifications (the industry standard) is never less a very powerful tool for creating materials to apply to objects.

3ds max material editor