I first tested Vue dEsprit while trying to reproduce the dirt
and stickiness of an oil spill for one of the Renderosity
challenges. The Materials Editor in Vue 4 exceeded my expectations
so much that I have used Vue ever since.
Rather than summarizing the User Manual dedicated to the Material
editor, I will take a pragmatic approach to discussing which
aspects of the Vue Materials are key to creating interesting
textures. Building Blocks The Material Editor is laid-out in
a series of tabs depending on the type of material you are editing.
Each of these tabs allows you to edit certain attributes and view
the result in a preview window. The Material Editor is based on two
building blocks 2D functions and filters. Understand these and
you will be creating rich materials in no time. 2D functions define
a value between 0 and 1 for a certain position in space. Consider
them as a way to create an infinite black and white image. They are
represented in the interface by spheres covered with the black and
white image generated by the 2D function. Try editing one using the
Material Editor. Right click on one of the previews and select Edit
Function. Then make sure Procedural values is selected and expand
the Type in the Details of layers box. You will find a list of more
than 40 procedural functions with exotic names like Noise, Null, or
Chipped. These functions can be blended into multiple layers to
form complex textures, from repetitive patterns to the aspect of
sand or stone. Another alternative is to use a Mapped Layer, which
requires you to provide an image. Watch out for the scale of your
image and how it is repeated. If you dont want seams to show, you
may have to adjust the object. Another often-overlooked aspect of
mapped layers is Over-sampling, which smoothes the image when the
material is enlarged. The second cornerstone of Vues Material
Editor is its system of filters. Filters are a way to control how a
certain parameter of the editor will be expressed in your material.
For example, if a 2D function has black and white stripes, the
default filter will transform black into black, white into white.
The inverse filter will inverse the stripes, transforming black
into white and white into black. Filters are used to control the
expression of colors on a surface or to define the profile of
altitudes in a terrain. With these tools in hand, you are now ready
to use the Material Editor and the three types of materials
available in Vue. Simple Materials Simple materials can be
surprisingly complex. They are simple only because they are
composed of a single material. The number of options they provide
can be intimidating at first, but this material is actually the
easiest to edit. The Color tab defines how the material emits
colors. Procedural colors are a mix of 2D function, gradient of
color and a filter. One end of the gradient corresponds to the
value 0 (black) of the function; the other end corresponds to the
value 1 (white), with shades of grey in between. The filter is used
to modify the behavior of the 2D function. Alternatively, a mapped
picture can be the source of colors. This is particularly useful to
edit materials of objects that have been mapped in advance, as it
is the case of most Poser objects. The Bump tab defines how smooth
the surface looks. The 2D function represents bumps (1) and dimples
(0). The magnitude of the bump is controlled by the Gain. A Gain of
0 makes the surface flat and a value of 1 creates a strong bump
effect. Negative values reverse the effect without having to
reverse the 2D function. If an image is used for the Color tab, try
applying the same image for the bump map. Improved results can be
obtained by editing the bump image to give it a higher contrast or
to add noise. The Highlight tab defines how light bounces away from
the material. It allows you to make an object look wet, shiny or
dull. You can play with the color of highlight to simulate
iridescence (try Red highlights on a Blue surface). Since a surface
is rarely perfectly smooth, use variable highlights for added
realism. The Transparency tab defines how light is allowed to go
through your material. This complex tab gives control over special
effects such as Fuzziness, Murkiness or Refraction and Caustics.
You can use a 2D Function to control how transparency will be
distributed across your material, allowing the creation of lace or
dirty glass. The Reflection tab defines how the material reflects
the environment. Reflectivity can be set to a constant value,
defined by a 2D function or by using a Reflection map, if you want
to impose a particular reflection in a very complex environment.
For example, a multicolored rainbow reflection map can easily
create iridescence on the surface of an oily liquid. Finally, the
Effects tab defines the global properties of your material, such as
brightness and contrast using the Ambient, Diffuse or Luminous
values. This tab also allows you to create a glowing halo around
your material. Image 2 shows two views of the same object with
different values of bump, highlights and reflections.
Mixed Materials Mixed materials are also the key to very
complex effects, blending two simple (or mixed) materials into new
combinations. It is possible to combine as many materials as you
want, although it is rarely necessary to go beyond two or three.
The main controls for this material are located on the Material to
mix tab. The Mixing proportions slider controls the proportion of
each material. The distribution of both sides of a Mixed Material
is a combination of a 2D function and a filter. Values of 0 and 1
refer to the materials on the left and right, respectively. The
Smoothing Strip allows you to set how smoothly one material turns
into the other. The Material Mixing method allows you to control
how the materials are blended together. The Simple blend method
looks flat and only replaces one material by the other. The Full
blend method preserves the bump values of each material, allowing
you to fully benefit from the Mixed material. The Cover method is a
variation that entirely covers the underlying material. The
Influence of environment tab allows you to control the effect of
slope, altitude and orientation on the mixed material. For example,
use Influence of altitude to create a snow covered terrain or
Influence of orientation to add moss on one side of a tree. Image 3
shows an example of mixed material. It also illustrates how
important it is to choose the appropriate material scale for the
object.
Volumetric Materials The last type of material is defined
inside of a volume instead of a surface. This material provides
fewer controls than the other two types, but it is also the most
difficult to use correctly. This type of material is mostly used
for smoke or cloud effects. The Color & Density tab defines the
main properties of the material. A bright color and dense setting
usually work better. The fuzziness of the material defines how
transparent the edges of the material inside the object will be.
The Lighting & Effect tab controls how the light interacts with the
material. Use a shaded lighting model if you want to give volume
and shadows to the material. Unfortunately, volumetric materials
are not used a lot in Vue. There remain some problems with
transparent parts of a volumetric material, especially when used in
a volumetric atmosphere. Also, volumetric materials cannot be
mixed. Now What? Once you create and save your material, the
last step is to apply it to an object. There is always a list of
current materials used in your scene in the Material Summary (under
the Display menu or by pressing F6). The Summary of Materials box
allows you to edit part of an object or all objects (useful for
objects with multiple material groups such as Poser characters). If
you are using Vue Pro, the Material browser will allow you to
manage your materials more efficiently by displaying mixed
materials in a tree structure (enabling direct editing of any
sub-material included in a complex material). The Material browser
also provides a direct access to all texture maps used by imported
objects. Figures 4 and 5 are examples of the flexibility of the
Material Editor. Starting from simple geometric shapes, a good mix
of scale, bump, color and highlights can dramatically transform a
scene.
Conclusion Between the sample scenes provided with the
software, and the libraries of presets available from e-on, you
should have no shortage of useful materials, from rocks and metals
to liquids, clouds, woods and special effects. Dont let yourself
be intimidated by the apparent complexity of the Material Editor.
Just remember to experiment; try different variations of 2D
Functions and Filters and soon, your library of Materials will be
filled with amazing textures.
 agiel is not only an amazing artist, but also a member
of the Renderosity Team, as Moderator of the Vue dEsprit Forum We
invite you to visit agiel's:
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