Jacquelin Vanderwood
October 2004
You can create material without having actual geometry on screen. But for the purposes of this lesson, I'll use geometry and apply the material so that I can easier see what I am doing. Open up the Material Editor. Click on the button that says Standard. Select New in the Material/Map Browser. Select Top/Bottom. Select to discard old material.
Immediately we are faced with the Top/Bottom Basic Parameters dialogue box. Click on Top Material's box.
We are back at the default Material Editor dialogue box. For Shader select Translucent Shader.
For the first level follow the settings in the Translucent Basic Parameters dialogue box as shown below.
Select the up arrow to return to the Top/Bottom dialogue box and select the Bottom Material box.
Create another Translucent shader making changes to the colors and shininess.
Apply it to the geometry.
In the Top/Bottom Basic Parameters dialogue box you'll notice a selection for Blend. Set it to 38.
Apply again. Notice how the look changed.
Let's try clicking on Swap and see what happens. Although we haven't changed any parameters, we have a whole new look.
Click on Swap to revert back. Readjust Position to 20. Quick Render.
Reset Position back to 50. Select Local under Coordinates. Quick Render. I rotated the piece to be able to see more of the change.
Here I've set Blend to 0.
With Local still selected I set Blend to 100 and Position to 76.
Without making any changes from here, select the second button and add a checker material then hit the up arrow to return to the default screen.
Here we have quite another appearance that is interesting and can be using in a multitude of ways.
Finally select Translucent Clr and click the button next to it. Select Dent as the Material. Can you see the potential of the Top/Bottom Material option? It can be never ending I suppose.
Copyright (c) 2004, Jacquelin Vanderwood, All Rights Reserved
