Advanced Highlight Controls for Appearance Assets

For an appearance asset, define properties that change its appearance depending on the direction from which you are viewing the material. For example, the appearance of velvet changes as you rotate around the fabric.

Use the appearance asset to define how a material renders in an image or a view. For instructions, see Edit an Asset.

Anisotropy

This property controls the shape of highlights on the surface by making them elliptical rather than circular.

Used together with Roughness, Anisotropy can simulate highlights seen on brushed materials.

To define the property, use the slider or enter a value between 0 and 1, or select Image from the drop-down menu and specify an image.

To change settings for the image, click the image, or click Edit Image from the drop-down menu. In the Texture Editor, you can change the sample size, position, rotation, and more.

Orientation

This property determines the orientation of highlights. It has no effect if Anisotropy is set to 0.

You can use this property with a texture map. For example, you can recreate woven materials where the direction of the highlights are perpendicular to each other.

To define the property, use the slider or enter a value between 0 and 180°, or select Image from the drop-down menu and specify an image.

To change settings for the image, click the image, or click Edit Image from the drop-down menu. In the Texture Editor, you can change the sample size, position, rotation, and more.

Color or Image

This property determines the color (or the weight) of the specular highlights of the material. Generally, this property should be set to a white color for physical correctness, but you can change it for artistic purposes.

From the drop-down menu, do one of the following:

Shape

This property determines the underlying equation used to calculate reflections and highlights on the material.