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Combine multiple materials with a mask.
Type:
Tutorial
Length:
7 min.
Tutorial resources
These downloadable resources will be used to complete this tutorial:
Transcript
00:03
OK, we're ready to create our layered shader.
00:06
We want to select just one of these buttons
00:09
and open up the material editor.
00:13
And in the material editor menus choose material
00:16
get from selected.
00:19
We have a material here which is called
00:21
plastic hard black.
00:23
Let's make a clone of that.
00:25
Select just that material note and nothing else
00:28
hold down, shift and drag to create a copy,
00:31
disconnect the normal input,
00:34
select that new node and rename it.
00:36
We'll call it label white,
00:39
then assign it to the selected button,
00:41
click the button to assign the material to the selection
00:45
and we'll make some changes.
00:46
Click on the base color swatch, bring that all the way up to a value of one
00:51
and likewise, we'll bring the roughness up to one, the specular roughness.
00:55
We're temporarily making this an ideal diffuse material
00:58
because we want to check our exposure.
00:60
Once again,
01:01
I've changed the environment here. I've got a black floor instead of a white floor
01:06
and that's actually going to change the exposure.
01:09
So in order to get proper exposure,
01:11
let's do an Arnold ran view again.
01:14
So with focus on the perspective, you
01:16
go back to Arnold Arnold red view
01:20
and reinitiate that
01:23
once again, if we display the pixel information by clicking on the gear
01:27
and going to the pixel tab,
01:29
we can hover our mouse here.
01:31
And it's showing us that even though this is an ideal diffuse,
01:34
it's kind of underexposed.
01:37
So because we've changed our environment, we have less bounce light.
01:40
And in order to get a properly exposed preview,
01:43
we should increase the light from the sky dome. So let's select that sky dome
01:49
back in the modified panel.
01:51
We've got the color intensity roll out.
01:53
Let's bring the exposure up to 2.3.
01:57
And once again, give focus to that perspective view.
01:60
And as we move our mouse around,
02:02
we're getting better exposure here,
02:04
the R GB values are never going above one.
02:07
All right. So we can close that.
02:09
And now we're ready to go back to our material editor. I've got that minimized
02:14
and we've got two materials here.
02:15
We've got our label white and our plastic hard black.
02:19
Let's bring our label white down.
02:22
You've got it at an ideal diffuse, but we'll bring our base color down to 0.9
02:28
and also bring the roughness down to 0.9 as well.
02:32
That's a bit more realistic.
02:34
Now, let's create the layered shader
02:36
and we can do that in the material map browser
02:38
under materials, arnold surface
02:42
layer shader
02:44
drag that over,
02:46
select it
02:47
and we'll rename it.
02:48
We'll call it buttons, label black,
02:51
we can connect up to eight inputs
02:54
and eight mix
02:56
inputs, which will create a mask.
02:59
So we want to connect our label white and our plastic black,
03:03
the stacking of the inputs is such that a higher numbered input
03:08
is going to be in front of a lower numbered input.
03:12
So it's the opposite of the modifier stack.
03:14
Things that are higher in the interface here
03:18
are actually lower
03:20
in the stack
03:21
or it's behind whatever is below it.
03:25
So that's a little bit strange.
03:26
But once we know that we can set this up the way we want it,
03:30
we're going to connect
03:31
the label white
03:33
to input one.
03:36
And you might wonder why because you might think that the label would be on top of
03:41
the plastic.
03:43
But it's because the map that I'm going to use has a white background
03:47
and black lettering
03:49
and black is transparent,
03:51
whereas white is opaque.
03:53
So we actually want to reverse
03:56
the front and back relationship here
03:58
because the image that I'm using is actually reversed or inverted.
04:03
OK. So we also want to connect the plastic hard black
04:07
to input two
04:08
that's going to be on top or in front.
04:11
Let's go ahead and assign this,
04:13
I can reselect that button.
04:15
And with that layered shader selected,
04:17
assign the material to the selection
04:20
and it turns black
04:21
and that's what we expect
04:22
because plastic black is in front
04:26
and it has a mixed value of one.
04:29
If we reduce that mixed value will make it transparent
04:32
and reveal the layer below it.
04:35
OK? We'll bring that mix two back up to its maximum of one.
04:39
Now, we need a map to create the mask between these two materials.
04:43
I've got that prepared.
04:45
And in this case, it's a vector map
04:47
and vector maps are legacy three DS max maps.
04:50
And even if you have legacy three Ds max map support enabled
04:56
and the render set up under system,
04:58
even if this is turned on
05:00
many of the legacy maps may be hidden
05:04
and the material map browser.
05:06
So even though you can apply it, it may be invisible,
05:10
we can work around that
05:11
by going up to the material map browser menu,
05:14
which is this down facing arrow,
05:18
click on that
05:20
and enable show incompatible.
05:23
Let's create a vector map
05:25
and that's going to be under maps general
05:29
and near the bottom
05:31
vector map drag that over into the view,
05:34
select it
05:35
and rename it graphics,
05:38
then browse for the vector file
05:41
that's going to be in the current projects scene assets images.
05:44
So I'll navigate to that folder
05:47
and it's called graphics
05:49
buttons
05:50
dot SVG
05:52
click open
05:54
and then we can assign that to the mix to input,
05:59
connect that to mix two.
06:01
And there you go. Now we've got a mask between these two materials
06:05
if we go to our label white material and for example, change its color,
06:10
we can see that update in the Arnold render view.
06:13
OK. I'll cancel that change.
06:15
Now, I can just select all the other buttons and assign that material to all of them.
06:20
So we can back out in the perspective you control alt and middle mouse.
06:24
And I want to select all these buttons
06:27
including this one up here,
06:29
just control, select all of those.
06:33
And with all those buttons selected back in our material editor,
06:37
we can select that layered shader
06:39
and choose assign material to selection.
06:43
And in the arnold of interview,
06:44
we see that now we've successfully applied a masked
06:48
layered shader
06:49
to all those objects.
Video transcript
00:03
OK, we're ready to create our layered shader.
00:06
We want to select just one of these buttons
00:09
and open up the material editor.
00:13
And in the material editor menus choose material
00:16
get from selected.
00:19
We have a material here which is called
00:21
plastic hard black.
00:23
Let's make a clone of that.
00:25
Select just that material note and nothing else
00:28
hold down, shift and drag to create a copy,
00:31
disconnect the normal input,
00:34
select that new node and rename it.
00:36
We'll call it label white,
00:39
then assign it to the selected button,
00:41
click the button to assign the material to the selection
00:45
and we'll make some changes.
00:46
Click on the base color swatch, bring that all the way up to a value of one
00:51
and likewise, we'll bring the roughness up to one, the specular roughness.
00:55
We're temporarily making this an ideal diffuse material
00:58
because we want to check our exposure.
00:60
Once again,
01:01
I've changed the environment here. I've got a black floor instead of a white floor
01:06
and that's actually going to change the exposure.
01:09
So in order to get proper exposure,
01:11
let's do an Arnold ran view again.
01:14
So with focus on the perspective, you
01:16
go back to Arnold Arnold red view
01:20
and reinitiate that
01:23
once again, if we display the pixel information by clicking on the gear
01:27
and going to the pixel tab,
01:29
we can hover our mouse here.
01:31
And it's showing us that even though this is an ideal diffuse,
01:34
it's kind of underexposed.
01:37
So because we've changed our environment, we have less bounce light.
01:40
And in order to get a properly exposed preview,
01:43
we should increase the light from the sky dome. So let's select that sky dome
01:49
back in the modified panel.
01:51
We've got the color intensity roll out.
01:53
Let's bring the exposure up to 2.3.
01:57
And once again, give focus to that perspective view.
01:60
And as we move our mouse around,
02:02
we're getting better exposure here,
02:04
the R GB values are never going above one.
02:07
All right. So we can close that.
02:09
And now we're ready to go back to our material editor. I've got that minimized
02:14
and we've got two materials here.
02:15
We've got our label white and our plastic hard black.
02:19
Let's bring our label white down.
02:22
You've got it at an ideal diffuse, but we'll bring our base color down to 0.9
02:28
and also bring the roughness down to 0.9 as well.
02:32
That's a bit more realistic.
02:34
Now, let's create the layered shader
02:36
and we can do that in the material map browser
02:38
under materials, arnold surface
02:42
layer shader
02:44
drag that over,
02:46
select it
02:47
and we'll rename it.
02:48
We'll call it buttons, label black,
02:51
we can connect up to eight inputs
02:54
and eight mix
02:56
inputs, which will create a mask.
02:59
So we want to connect our label white and our plastic black,
03:03
the stacking of the inputs is such that a higher numbered input
03:08
is going to be in front of a lower numbered input.
03:12
So it's the opposite of the modifier stack.
03:14
Things that are higher in the interface here
03:18
are actually lower
03:20
in the stack
03:21
or it's behind whatever is below it.
03:25
So that's a little bit strange.
03:26
But once we know that we can set this up the way we want it,
03:30
we're going to connect
03:31
the label white
03:33
to input one.
03:36
And you might wonder why because you might think that the label would be on top of
03:41
the plastic.
03:43
But it's because the map that I'm going to use has a white background
03:47
and black lettering
03:49
and black is transparent,
03:51
whereas white is opaque.
03:53
So we actually want to reverse
03:56
the front and back relationship here
03:58
because the image that I'm using is actually reversed or inverted.
04:03
OK. So we also want to connect the plastic hard black
04:07
to input two
04:08
that's going to be on top or in front.
04:11
Let's go ahead and assign this,
04:13
I can reselect that button.
04:15
And with that layered shader selected,
04:17
assign the material to the selection
04:20
and it turns black
04:21
and that's what we expect
04:22
because plastic black is in front
04:26
and it has a mixed value of one.
04:29
If we reduce that mixed value will make it transparent
04:32
and reveal the layer below it.
04:35
OK? We'll bring that mix two back up to its maximum of one.
04:39
Now, we need a map to create the mask between these two materials.
04:43
I've got that prepared.
04:45
And in this case, it's a vector map
04:47
and vector maps are legacy three DS max maps.
04:50
And even if you have legacy three Ds max map support enabled
04:56
and the render set up under system,
04:58
even if this is turned on
05:00
many of the legacy maps may be hidden
05:04
and the material map browser.
05:06
So even though you can apply it, it may be invisible,
05:10
we can work around that
05:11
by going up to the material map browser menu,
05:14
which is this down facing arrow,
05:18
click on that
05:20
and enable show incompatible.
05:23
Let's create a vector map
05:25
and that's going to be under maps general
05:29
and near the bottom
05:31
vector map drag that over into the view,
05:34
select it
05:35
and rename it graphics,
05:38
then browse for the vector file
05:41
that's going to be in the current projects scene assets images.
05:44
So I'll navigate to that folder
05:47
and it's called graphics
05:49
buttons
05:50
dot SVG
05:52
click open
05:54
and then we can assign that to the mix to input,
05:59
connect that to mix two.
06:01
And there you go. Now we've got a mask between these two materials
06:05
if we go to our label white material and for example, change its color,
06:10
we can see that update in the Arnold render view.
06:13
OK. I'll cancel that change.
06:15
Now, I can just select all the other buttons and assign that material to all of them.
06:20
So we can back out in the perspective you control alt and middle mouse.
06:24
And I want to select all these buttons
06:27
including this one up here,
06:29
just control, select all of those.
06:33
And with all those buttons selected back in our material editor,
06:37
we can select that layered shader
06:39
and choose assign material to selection.
06:43
And in the arnold of interview,
06:44
we see that now we've successfully applied a masked
06:48
layered shader
06:49
to all those objects.
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