Object Color Shader (mental ray)

The Object Color shader lets you use the object’s wireframe color as a map or shader in any material. You can use the color or a single channel of it (red, green, or blue) as is, or modify the color with two other colors or maps depending on its intensity.

• Material Editor > Any material > Click a map button > Material/Map Browser > Maps > mental ray > Object Color
Note: mental ray shaders appear in the Browser only if the active renderer supports them.

As with the Multi/Sub-Map shader, you can assign a single material containing the Object Color shader in a map slot (typically Diffuse) to any number of objects, with the result that each object’s final appearance varies, depending, in this case, on its wireframe color.

Note: The Object Color shader does not display correctly in shaded viewports. In general, it is recommended that you leave Show Map In Viewport off for materials that use the shader as the Diffuse map.

Object Color shader used for ink color in Ink ‘n Paint material

Interface

Use Channel(s)

Choose to extract the actual color (RGB) of the object’s wireframe color, or an individual component of the color: red, green, or blue.

White/Black

These two colors (or maps) are blended based on the intensity (value) of the channel. With lighter intensities, more of the White color is used, and with darker intensities, more of the Black color is used.

At their default values, these settings leave the object color or channel intact. However, if you change them, the result is a range of colors based on the mixture of the two and the intensities of the extracted channels. For example, if you set Use Channel(s) to RGB (the default), and set the White color to red and the Black color to blue, then the resulting output would range from red to purple to blue, depending on the original object-color intensity.

Top: Spheres in viewport showing object colors

Inset: Object Color parameters

Bottom: Rendered spheres with same material