The Material Editor provides functions to create and edit materials and maps.
Click the Material Editor icon on the Main toolbar or press M. Click and hold the icon to show the flyout.
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Main toolbar > Material Editor flyout > (Material Editor): Compact
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Main toolbar > Material Editor flyout > (Material Editor): Slate
Materials create greater realism in a scene. A material describes how an object reflects or transmits light. Material properties work hand-in-hand with light properties; shading or rendering combine the two, simulating how the object would look in a real-world setting.
You apply materials to individual objects or selection sets; a single scene can contain many different materials.
There are two interfaces to the Material Editor:
- Compact Material Editor: If you have used 3ds Max prior to the release of 3ds Max 2011, the Compact Material Editor is the interface you are familiar with. It is a comparatively small dialog with quick previews of various materials. If you are assigning materials that have already been designed, the Compact Material Editor is still a convenient interface.
- Slate Material Editor: The Slate Material Editor is a larger dialog in which materials and maps appear as nodes that you can wire together to create material trees. If you are designing new materials, the Slate Material Editor is especially powerful, and it includes search tools to help you manage scenes that have a large number of materials.