Materials

[Kevin]

Is there a way to control what colors are used by the materials. For example, if you want make a marble texture that was green with white veins, etc. I've tried playing with different settings, but I haven't figured anything out yet. I've also been reading the quicklinks, but haven't seen this addressed.

I also saw a reference to a material pdf file. Does anyone know where I can find this? Thanks.

[Muvlo]

Most materials don't fully control color, but you might want to try the Diffuse Color selector. Some materials do overide color, for example, Gradient Sky has several color selectors that change the color. And other materials use a texture, such as the Gradient Maps, which usually completely overides color.

[aurick]

The reason that most materials do not control color is that they are meant to interact with color instead. Or to be more specific, they affect the way light plays off of a surface -- whether that surface is colored via a single color choice or by a texture.

This combination of color channel plus material allows for the creation of practically any kind of surface that you can imagine or need. To do what you're talking about with marble, it would possibly be best to use a marble texture and place a material underneath it that you adjust to bring out the qualities of marble -- such as specularity and color bump, along with a bit of reflectivity.




In both of the marble types above, the color all came from texture. However, the texture was dramatically enhanced by the materials applied. Both used the Basic material, with radically different modifiers to get completely different stone-like effects bringing out the natural character of the texture.

[wenna]

ooo thanks for the tips aurick! That really looks nice.

[Kevin]

Thanks for the info. I guess I was confused when people said they no longer painted their textures; they mostly used materials. I thought they were somehow controlling color and everything. But I guess I didn't understand. I kept playing with the controls but I just wasn't getting what I thought they were doing. But at least I've learned alot.

[aurick]

There ARE ways that materials can get some remarkable effects by themselves without a texture.

Just look at the variations available in the MaterialPack or the interesting effects that you can get with Negative Noise. And here's Yet another set.

Also, there is the Colorizer material, which allows you to assign a base color to the material itself, overwriting the canvas color.

So yes, it IS possible to create entire images without usiing any textures. It really depends on your needs, and the time that you spend mastering the material modifiers.

[InvisibleGenie]

Aurick,

Is materialpack designed for 1.51 because whenever I hit the ">" arrow it crashes Zbrush. Any insights?

[Northstarr]

Hi! I read your post with interest because I have been playing with materials for a few months now. And I had basically the same question as you when I started out. The best thing I can suggest is to play with texture maps & the materials themselves. This is an example of one of the materials that I came up with. The material will work on its own without the texture, but it is faint. The lamp here uses both the material and the texture to give it the rich look.

I haven't tried a marble one yet - maybe I will play around with it tomorrow and see what happens.

[aurick]

Invisiblegenie, the MaterialPack and MaterialList have encountered difficulties for many owners of 1.5. We are addressing this in the bonus upgrade.

[Northstarr]

Hi Kevin,
Is this something like what you are wanting to do? If so and you want the material and the texture map, let me know and I can send it to you, or post it if you like.




November 06, 2002 Message edited by: Northstarr

[Kevin]

Yes, Northstarr, that is definitely something I would like to know how you did. And once again, thanks everyone.

[Kevin]

Also, Thanks for the great links, Aurick!

[Northstarr]

OK, well I have never made a zscript before but I will try. If it doesn't work out I will send you a PM describing what I did.
Hope that's OK.

[Northstarr]

Well here is a quick zscript of what I did to create the material & texture in the green marble above. What you won't see in the zscript is that I used Texturemaster to paint the sphere. And I suggest when you play the script that you increase the Replay Delay slider to as far as it will go, cause otherwise this script just whizzes by.

This is so cool! You have provided me with the opportunity to make my first Zscript! Thanks....

making material & texture.txt

Even if this isn't too helpful to you, it has been to me...

[Kevin]

Thanks, Northstarr.

After reading this thread, I did a little of playing of my own. I know it's not much, but I was surprised at how easy it was.

I do have another question though. I downloaded the materials in the thread that Aurick posted. Where do you put the additional materials? I know that ZBrush only loads its default materials, so should I make another directory for any other materials.

Oh, and I used the water shader for a backdrop.