Anisotropic Highlights

Anisotropic highlights are good for modeling hair, glass, or brushed metal.

Note: For the Raytrace material, the Specular Color component appears in the Specular Highlight group. Also, highlight controls that don’t pertain to the current shader are labeled “N / A.”

Procedures

To increase or decrease the size of a highlight:

To increase or decrease the strength of a highlight:

To adjust the shape (anisotropy) of the highlight:

To adjust the orientation of the highlight:

Interface

Specular Level

Affects the intensity of the specular highlight. As you increase the value, the highlight grows brighter. Default=0 for a Standard material, 50 for a Raytrace material.

Click the map button to assign a Specular Level map. This button is a shortcut: You can also assign a Specular Level map on the Maps rollout.

Glossiness

Affects the size of the specular highlight. As you increase the value, the highlight gets smaller and the material appears shinier. Default=25.

Click the map button to assign a Glossiness map. This button is a shortcut: You can also assign a Glossiness map on the Maps rollout.

Anisotropy

Controls the anisotropy, or shape, of the highlight. At 0, the highlight is round. At 100, the highlight is extremely narrow. One axis of the Highlight graph changes to show changes in this parameter. Default=50.

Click the button to assign an Anisotropy map. This button is a shortcut: You can also assign an Anisotropy map on the Maps rollout.

Orientation

Changes the orientation of the highlight. The sample slot shows changes in orientation. This is a value in degrees that can range from 0 to 9,999. Default=0.

Click the map button to assign an Orientation map. This button is a shortcut: You can also assign an Orientation map on the Maps rollout.

Highlight graph

These two intersecting curves show the effect of adjusting the values of Specular Level, Glossiness, and Anisotropy. As you decrease Glossiness, the curves grow wider; as you increase Specular Level, the curves grow taller. As you adjust Anisotropy, the white curve changes to show how wide or narrow the highlight is.