Modifying Material Settings

Diffuse, Ambient and Specular Colors

A. Diffuse Color: The Diffuse color defines the overall color that is reflected from an object when the light hits it.

B. Ambient Color: The Ambient color refers to the illumination surrounding a subject or scene.

C. Specular Color: The Specular color only defines the color of the highlighted area of an object. Therefore, you must decrease the Diffuse color to see the effect.


Diffuse Color = Ambient Color =	Diffuse Color = Ambient Color =	Diffuse Color = Ambient Color =


Diffuse Color = Specular Color =	Diffuse Color = Specular Color =

Specular and Glossiness

A. Specular: The Specular value defines the strength of the highlighted area of an object.

B. Glossiness: The Glossiness value defines the range of the specular to simulate the type of the material.

You may utilize the two sliders, Specular and Glossiness, to create surfaces with lower or higher reflectivity.


Silk: Specular Value = 65 Glossiness Value = 10	Metal: Specular Value = 500 Glossiness Value = 30

Opacity

Both Opacity and Refraction can turn an object transparent; however there is still something different between them.

The scene behind the transparent object distorts when Refraction is on, but no such real life distortion appears when using Opacity.


Transparency by Refraction	Transparency by Opacity

Self-illumination

Increasing the Self-illumination value of an object will decrease the ambient lighting or ambient color effects. The shadow effect on the object will decrease as well thus flattening out the shading. You may use this feature to create a cartoon-like 3D models.


Initial appearance	Self-illumination = 100

Refraction and Reflection

These two settings allow users to have the environment reflected by the objects. Please be advised that darker base colors provide clearer Reflection and Refraction effects.


Refraction = 0 Reflection = 0	Refraction = 50 Reflection = 0

Refraction = 0 Reflection = 50	Refraction = 50 Reflection = 50

Effect of Bump to Refraction/Reflection

Combining Bump maps with Refraction brings high levels of realism.


Refraction without Bump	Refraction with Bump

Reflection without Bump	Reflection with Bump

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