Introduction
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The five main areas of the material editor are:
1. Layers Tree
Maxwell Render’s materials are made up of different “components” which are organized into folders (Layers). Each Layer can hold one or more BSDF components (BSDF is the main material definition), plus one Coating (varnish), one Emitter and/or one Displacement component.
Each folder represents a Layer, which are stacked vertically one on top of the other, similar to layers in a 2D image editing application. Please see the Stacking Layers section for more information about this.
The Layers tree
2. Material Preview
This window allows you to get a quick preview of the material while you are editing it. When you are changing your material parameters, double-click in the preview sample image to refresh the preview with the new parameters, or click on the Refresh Preview button (green double-arrow icon), and Maxwell Render will compute a preview of your material. During the preview, the green icon will be replaced by a red square icon, to indicate that it is calculating your preview.
The Preview window
Right-click in the Preview to show a menu with the following options:
- Scene selections: You can choose a different preview scene from the list, load the Next/Previous scenes in the list or load an MXS to use as a preview scene. The list is populated from the MXS files found in the "preview" folder found in the Maxwell Render install folder. To learn how to create your own preview scenes, see Creating your own preview scenes.
- Previews: While experimenting with different material settings, the Previews option allows you to store a material "snapshot" of your current settings. Use Store to store the current settings and Remove to remove the currently displayed preview. You can use the white back/forward arrows beneath the preview window to quickly jump between different stored previews.
- Export...: Allows you to export your current settings to an MXM file.
- Options: Set the different preview options - Sampling Level, Time, Scale and Quality.
Real-time material editing
Pressing the lock icon in the lower right of the Preview will enable real-time editing of all material settings - the preview will update as soon as you change a setting. Unlock it to return to normal mode - you have to double-click the Refresh Preview button for the preview to refresh.
3. BSDF Properties
Contains the parameters to control the main physical behavior for each material component.
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The BSDF properties of a material
4. Surface Properties
Parameters to control the surface properties of a material (mainly the physical roughness or smoothness of the surface itself).
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The Surface properties of a material
5. Subsurface Properties
Parameters to control the internal behavior in case of a translucent material, what is known commonly referred to as Sub-Surface Scattering (SSS).
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The Subsurface properties of a material