Figure 14: The "Material Editor" allows you to edit the surface material properties of an object. Figure shows the "Material Editor" being used along with "Face Builder" to set different materials for each triangle of the object.
The "Material Editor" allows you to edit the color and material properties of selected object(s) in the scene. The "material" of an object refers to the properties of the surface of the object. These properties affect the way the object looks and responds to lights in the scene. Materials may be assigned in one of the following two ways:
1. By selecting a material from a list of materials
2. By creating a new material inside the editor by setting values for material properties like ambient color, specular color etc. (described below).
The material editor comes up as two components: the editor interface, and the control panel.
Material Editor Interface Options
The editor interface has controls to the right, and the WYSIWYG visual display to the left. You can set the "ambient", "diffuse", "specular" and "emissive" colors and their brightnesses (coefficients). There are two toggle buttons to the left of each item. You can edit the color of any one specific attribute by choosing the leftmost toggle. You can edit the colors of two or more attributes together, by choosing the right toggles. See "Attribute - Color" for a description of how the color editor works.
Amb (Ambient)
This option sets the reflected color of the selected object in response to the ambient lighting in the scene.
Diff (Diffuse)
This option sets the base color of the selected object in Ez3d, and has the same effect as setting "Attribute - Color".
Spec (Specular)
This option sets the reflective quality of the selected object's highlights.
Emis (Emissive)
This option sets the light emitted by the selected object.
Note: The emissivity value of an object is ignored by the photo-real rendering module.
You can also set the values of the following "colorless" attributes:
Shininess
This option sets the degree of shininess of an object's surfaces, ranging from 0.0 for a diffuse surface with no shininess to a maximum of 1.0 for a highly polished surface..
Transp (Transparency)
This is the level of transparency of the object selected in Ez3d. A value of 0.0 corresponds to an opaque surface and a value of 1.0 to a completely transparent surface.
Edit Options
The editor also has a pull-down with the following options:
Continuous / Manual
"Continuous" means that any change to the attributes is reflected immediately on the object(s) being edited. "Manual" brings up an "Accept" button that you click on whenever you want to update the object.
Copy / Paste
This offers a buffer you can copy the current material to, and paste at another time.
Material Editor Control Panel
Binding
(not available in Ez3d Junior, Ez3d VR Builder)
By default, the entire object exhibits the current material property. If you want to get more sophisticated control over the object's look, you can set separate materials "per face" or "per vertex" by setting the "Binding" (a power feature in Ez3d), and using the "Face Builder" tool in conjunction.
The following material bindings can be set:
Overall
When this option is set, the object has the same uniform material property throughout (the default)
Face
When this option is set, you can set a different material for each face of an object. The object has to be of type "Faces". When you set this option, Ez3d invokes "Model - Face Builder" tool on the object (if it is not already up). Select one or more faces in "Face Builder" and set the material as you would normally do for the entire object. You can even select groups of faces (see "Model - Face Builder" for details), and set materials.
Hint: Using "per-face" materials for different parts of a single object is more efficient than having many objects each with an "overall" material.
Vertex
When this option is set, you can set a different material for each vertex of an object. The object has to be of type "Faces". When you set this option, Ez3d invokes "Model - Face Builder" tool on the object (if it is not already up). Select one or more vertices in "Face Builder" and set the material (see "Model - Face Builder" for details)
Hint: Use per-vertex materials to create a shading effect without using lights or even textures. This significantly speeds up VR scenes.
Photo-real Properties
(not available in Ez3d Junior, Ez3d VR Builder)
These settings will not affect objects in the main Ez3d scene, but they will affect the photo-real look of the object when rendered using the photo-real "Render" feature (See section on "Scene - Render" for more information).
Reflectivity
This slider sets the specular reflectivity of the surface of the object selected in Ez3d. In other words, it sets how reflective the object will appear when rendered.
Translucency
This slider sets the translucency, diffusely transmitted color, and Phong exponent for transmitted specular highlights for the selected object.
Extinction Coefficient
This slider sets the extinction coefficient value of the interior of the object. This coefficient is raised to a power equal to the distance the transmitted ray travels through the object. The overall intensity of specularly transmitted rays will be proportional to this factor multiplied by the surface's body color multiplied by the transparency of the object.
Index of Refraction
This thumb wheel sets the index of refraction for the object. Index of refraction is a measure of how much a light ray distorts when traveling through the inside of the object. The default value is equal to the index of refraction of the atmosphere surrounding the eye. Move the thumb-wheel clockwise (to the right) if you want to increase the index of refraction. Move it counter-clockwise (to the left) if you want to decrease the index of refraction. If you'd like to enter a precise value, you can do so by entering the value in the refraction value text-field next to the thumb-wheel.
The following are the final material editor control options:
Auto / Update
This toggle turns on the automatic update option for the material editor. When this option is on, Ez3d updates the selected object in the main scene everytime a material setting is changed. When the option is turned off, Ez3d updates just the test sphere. The main scene is updated only when the "Update" button is selected.
Load / Save
These allow you to load pre-defined materials from a file on the disk, and to save your current material to a file, for later use.
