Assigning Materials

[craiggorton]

Assigning Materials

Flipside,

I see where you're coming from and I was waiting for just such an explanation. I think I could learn to work with that system- i.e. import materials from my saved materials and tweak within the scene. (Although I prefer not to tweak- why shouldn't my green tinted glass be green tinted glass wherever I call for it?- but I know that that just not the case.)

To make it less confusing, there just has to be a simpler way of naming (like the imported material name = filename of the original vismat).
I think what has hampered my learning curve here is just the current wording and layout. Maybe there should be a "load" button instead of "create<import." The whole import/export feature took help just to find.
The other thing I was doing was importing the material each time I did an assignment, which meant I got multiple versions of the same material (I think).

I'm open to the Max system so long as I'm clear as to where the materials are coming from and whether they've been modified. I also have to re-render projects months after the initial rendering and I can't keep track of what materials are still original and which ones I fiddled with.

Thanks,
Craig

[joe_b]

Assigning Materials

(Although I prefer not to tweak- why shouldn't my green tinted glass be green tinted glass wherever I call for it?- but I know that that just not the case.)

Our materials are not file linked, so sorry if thats how you thought it works. It just makes a material with the properties in the file at that very moment. It doesn't check a file prior to rendering to then decide how to make the material. If you want to apply the same material to multiple things, select multiple things at once and import, or simply use the browse button to apply the same scene material to multiple items. (The problem with instances becoming multiple copies of materials when you load a file will be fixed in today's release )

Maybe there should be a "load" button instead of "create<import." The whole import/export feature took help just to find.

Our documentation is non-existant at the moment but once it is it should be much easier to realize that there are pop up menus to be found. We chose pop-ups because the pop up menu style is much cleaner rather than cluttering our dialog with buttons.

I'm open to the Max system so long as I'm clear as to where the materials are coming from and whether they've been modified. I also have to re-render projects months after the initial rendering and I can't keep track of what materials are still original and which ones I fiddled with.

To be honest with you, this isn't really the Max system for material creation. Its a hybrid of several ideas (unfortunately we never really used Flamingo )

[broozee]

Assigning Materials

IMO the material editor needs to be visual. Perhaps seeing 6 to 9 materials at one time. For me, this would be much more helpful than the naming system.

Copying the material should do just that, but once copied the material is unique and unassigned to any object. For example:

1) Create White Diffuse and assign to Object 1 of 3
2) Copy White Diffuse and it's automatically renamed and unassigned to any object. Edit material and name if applicable, assign to Object 2.
3) Create New Material, edit appropriately and assign to Object 3 etc.

I think an "instance" of a material should be optional, such as a check box saying "Instance Materials when copying" or something like that. By default,
all materials when created or copied should be unique unless told otherwise.

Just my opinion.

Bill

[Micha_cg]

Assigning Materials

From my usage I would say, I need following commands at the simple current library:
- create
- delete
- duplicate
- rename
- reorder (or reorder per automatic)

The text based library is good for my usage now, a visual would be nice for the future.

[broozee]

Assigning Materials

The text based library is good for my usage now, a visual would be nice for the future.

Text is fine as long as the naming system can be controlled. It seems I end up with 4,204 Default Materials with no option to delete. A more visual library should be an imperative as soon as possible.

Deleting a material or all materials minus a true default material would be helpful.

Bill

[joe_b]

Assigning Materials

The text based library is good for my usage now, a visual would be nice for the future.

Text is fine as long as the naming system can be controlled. It seems I end up with 4,204 Default Materials with no option to delete. A more visual library should be an imperative as soon as possible.

Deleting a material or all materials minus a true default material would be helpful.

Bill

Well it is up to the user to name their materials. Also the problem where instances get loaded as copies is fixed in RC1. If you have a bunch of materials floating around you should save -plugindata no to strip out the plugin data and start over if you chose. Or simply apply new materials to the objects (any materials not applied to something will not be saved out)

We will be moving toward a more visual approach. For those of you who have been on board from our first beta you realize the huge amount we've added in a relatively short time. However, we need to get to a final release so too many changes or additions to our material editor are probably not going to make it for 1.0. However, we will try to make it as user friendly as possible in the time we have left. Thanks for all of your input

[Micha_cg]

Assigning Materials

From my usage I would say, I need following commands at the simple current library:
- create
- delete
- duplicate
- rename
- reorder (or reorder per automatic)
...

... I would like to use this additional commands:
- edit (sometimes it is difficult to find an object in a big scene and it could be easier to edit the material without a selection of the object)
- select object - this command could help to select object of the same material

[joe_b]

Assigning Materials

Right now I'm about done reworking the material editor so the material editing is done completely separate from the object itself. The reason I haven't been around much in the last few days is that I've been working on this revamping. Its not much more visual now, but I think its a lot more easy to use. We should have something together for testing in the coming days. Thanks for all your suggestions and patience