Understanding Materials in Model Builder

Materials play a crucial role in defining the appearance and behavior of 3D objects in Model Builder. This guide will comprehensively cover all material settings, including their purpose and customization options.

1. Basic Material Properties

Color

• Purpose: Defines the base color of the material.
• Settings: Choose a solid color or apply a texture for variation.

Emissive

• Purpose: Adds a glow to the material, simulating light emission.
• Settings:
  • Color: Choose the glow color.
  • Intensity: Adjust the brightness of the glow.

Roughness

• Purpose: Controls how rough or smooth the surface appears.
• Settings: Values range from 0 (smooth) to 1 (rough).

Metalness

• Purpose: Determines how metallic the material looks.
• Settings: Values range from 0 (non-metallic) to 1 (fully metallic).

Vertex Colors

• Purpose: Enables coloring based on vertex data, useful for gradient effects.
• Settings: Toggle on or off.

2. Texture Maps

Maps allow you to add intricate details to materials.

Map

• Purpose: Defines the base texture of the material.
• Settings: Upload an image file as the texture.

Emissive Map

• Purpose: Controls areas of the material that emit light.
• Settings: Use a black-and-white texture where white areas emit light.

Alpha Map

• Purpose: Manages transparency.
• Settings: Apply a grayscale texture where black is fully transparent and white is opaque.

Bump Map

• Purpose: Simulates surface details like scratches and grooves without altering geometry.
• Settings: Use a grayscale image to define height variations.

Normal Map

• Purpose: Adds fine surface detail by manipulating lighting.
• Settings: Use an RGB texture for directional light data.

Displace Map

• Purpose: Actually modifies the geometry of the surface.
• Settings: Requires a grayscale image for height variations.

Roughness Map

• Purpose: Controls surface roughness on a per-pixel basis.
• Settings: Use a grayscale texture where white is rough and black is smooth.

Metalness Map

• Purpose: Defines metallic properties on a per-pixel basis.
• Settings: Use a grayscale texture where white is metallic and black is non-metallic.

Env Map (Environment Map)

• Purpose: Simulates reflections from the environment.
• Settings: Add a cubemap or spherical image.

Light Map

• Purpose: Pre-baked lighting for static scenes.
• Settings: Apply a light texture to simulate lighting effects.

AO Map (Ambient Occlusion)

• Purpose: Enhances shadows in crevices and corners.
• Settings: Use a grayscale texture where white areas are fully lit and black areas are shadowed.

3. Rendering Settings

Side

• Options:
  • Front: Renders only the front-facing polygons.
  • Back: Renders only the back-facing polygons.
  • Double: Renders both sides of the polygons.

Flat Shading

• Purpose: Renders surfaces with flat shading instead of smooth shading.
• Settings: Toggle on or off.

Blending

• Purpose: Defines how the material blends with the background.
• Options:
  • None: No blending.
  • Normal: Default blending.
  • Additive: Adds pixel values to the background.
  • Subtractive: Subtracts pixel values from the background.
  • Multiply: Multiplies pixel values with the background.
  • Custom: User-defined blending mode.

Opacity

• Purpose: Controls the transparency of the material.
• Settings: Values range from 0 (fully transparent) to 1 (fully opaque).

Transparent

• Purpose: Enables transparency.
• Settings: Toggle on or off.

Force Single Pass

• Purpose: Optimizes rendering by forcing single-pass rendering.
• Settings: Toggle on or off.

Alpha Test

• Purpose: Sets a threshold for alpha transparency.
• Settings: Values range from 0 to 1. Pixels with alpha below this value are discarded.

Depth Test

• Purpose: Ensures proper depth sorting of objects.
• Settings: Toggle on or off.

Depth Write

• Purpose: Determines whether the material writes to the depth buffer.
• Settings: Toggle on or off.

Wireframe

• Purpose: Renders the object in wireframe mode.
• Settings: Toggle on or off.

4. User Data

• Purpose: Allows for custom metadata to be associated with materials.
• Settings: Enter JSON-like key-value pairs for additional information.
• Example: { "category": "metal", "durability": "high" }

By understanding these material settings, you can create realistic, visually appealing, and highly detailed 3D models in Model Builder. Experiment with different combinations to achieve the desired look and feel for your project.