To introduce materials, you will work with a scene that shows two teapots atop podiums.
Open the scene file named materials.max.
This file can be found in the 3ds Max 2020 Tutorials Scene Files\scenes\materials_and_mapping folder.
The scene shows a pair of podiums and two teapots. The teapots are both lacking materials. By the end of this lesson you will assign them both materials.
This is the Material Editor, where you can create new materials and assign them to the objects in your scene.
The Teapot now has color, with a non-reflective exterior. Feel free to adjust the other settings on the Physical Material options to experiment with the other things you can do, like make the teapot transparent, or metallic.
3DS Max contains lots of different presets for materials. For example, the materials for the podiums and the floor are both presets. Feel free to experiment with the presets. You could even have a rough concrete teapot (though I wouldn't recommend drinking from it).
Rendering the scene will display the materials with additional accuracy. To render the scene, position the perspective camera so both teapots are visible and select Render Production.
For additional practice, try different presets and adjust the various material settings to see what they do. You can also try assigning materials to specific faces of objects to give an object multiple materials.