Using the Material Palette

Materials can be viewed as "paint" for 3D objects. A material is made of a number of attributes including color, transparency, specularity (shininess), and a texture (bitmap).

Click to show the Material Palette panel. Or select the Material Tab to show all Material sub-panels.

The Material Palette is made up of three primary sub-panes, the material preview pane, the texture preview pane, and the color preview pane.

As you change material attributes, the material preview is updated to show you how your material will look when applied to an object.

Clicking on the color displays a color selection window. Note that objects with textures applied usually look best with a white background.

A material is applied to an object by using the Paint, Oriented Fill or Fill tools.

flips the texture horizontally.

flips the texture vertically.

applies the texture to the preview object with a cylindrical wrap.

applies the texture to the preview object with a spherical wrap.

applies the texture to the preview object with a flat wrap. Right Click to display flat wrap options.

applies the texture to the preview object with a chrome wrap. This option is only available in Animation Mode and when applied to an object is only updated during animation or snapshot recording.

indicates that the Fill Tool should orient the texture relative to the scene.

indicates that the Fill Tool should orient the texture relative to the point selected with the Fill Tool.

indicates that the Fill Tool and Material Fill Operation should orient the texture relative to the Animation Camera. This option is only available in Animation Mode and when applied to an object is only updated during animation or snapshot recording.

displays a window that allows you to crop the texture.

displays a window that allows you to select an alternate preview object.

resets the material palette defaults.

Ambient, Specular, Emissive and Transparency attributes may also be set.

Click the Texture Library's to show the Texture Library sub-panel. Click to hide the panel.