Create a Simple Material

Create a simple material with limited parameters.

Turn on the Materials display mode, so you can see the changes as they are applied.
  1. Select one or more objects.
  2. On the ribbon, click the Rendering tab.
  3. Click the Material icon.
  4. Click .
  5. In the Control Panel, select Simple.
  6. Define the parameters.
  7. Right-click and mouse through the check mark to exit, or double-right-click.

Simple Material Parameters

Define the color, reflectivity, and roughness.

Note: The layer type is displayed in parenthesis next to the layer number.
Color
To define the color, choose from the following options:
  • Select a color.
  • Select a texture. The texture overrides the color.
  • To blend the color with the texture, click the plus symbol (+). You can tell if the blend option is turned on by looking at the image preview.

To define the shade, enter a value of 0-100, where 100 is the true color and 0 is black.

Reflectivity
Define the strength of the reflections.

Enter a value of 0-100, where 100 produces perfect mirror reflections and 0 produces the weakest reflections.

Roughness
Roughness adds texture to the material at a microscopic level. When you modify the roughness, the surface texture still looks the same; however, tiny changes invisible to the naked eye have occurred, affecting reflectivity.

0 can produce a perfect mirror reflection.

Lower values produce crisper and brighter reflections.

Higher values produce blurrier, dimmer reflections. Increasing the roughness spreads and distributes reflections over the surface and creates a more matte surface.

At values approaching 100, light becomes so scattered that reflections are barely visible, if at all.

Bump
Bump adds texture to the material at a macroscopic level. Because it visibly affects the surface texture, Bump is useful for simulating irregular surfaces.
Note: Not all materials have the Bump parameter.
Note: Roughness and Reflectivity are interdependent properties; smoother surfaces produce crisper reflections, while rougher surfaces produce blurrier reflections. For example, set roughness to 0 and reflectivity to 100 to produce a perfect mirror reflection. To make the reflection blurrier, increase the roughness.