Material settings and presets

Every object except an emitter carries its own material, and the MATERIAL BROWSER holds its settings and the presets. Press M to open the browser, or click BROWSE at the end of the MATERIALS strip, the MATERIAL row of the INSPECTOR or EDIT MATERIAL in an object's right-click menu. Presets take up the left side of the panel, and the settings sit on the right under a preview. Apply and edit materials has the steps for applying and changing a material.

A change in the browser reaches every selected object as soon as it is made, and the object's material is saved in the scene file. A click or a slider drag is one step for ⌘Z. While one of your own preset cards is selected, each change also rewrites that preset's file, as described in Save your own presets. The defaults in the tables are the settings of a new object's material, which match the Chrome preset. A terrain starts with Landscape and water with Water, and applying a preset replaces all of these settings.

A setting that has no effect under the current material stays in its place but is dimmed. Some dimmed settings show a short line under them saying what brings them into play. A few are hidden instead, and the tables say which.

#The MATERIAL row in the INSPECTOR

The INSPECTOR shows the MATERIAL row below TRANSFORM while one object is selected. It is absent for an emitter, which has no surface, and with two or more objects selected.

#The preset list

The left side of the browser lists the 71 built-in presets under ten headings, then your own presets under USER PRESETS. Opening the browser, or changing the selection while it is open, loads the selected object's material into the settings. With nothing selected, a strip reads NO OBJECT SELECTED · SELECT ONE TO APPLY, and clicks and changes reach no object.

Clicking a preset card while a roll is still unsaved asks Replace the rolled material? first. DISCARD ROLL applies the card and CANCEL keeps the roll.

#The preview

The top of the settings shows the material on a sphere in a fixed studio scene, with warm and cool lights and a reflective floor, and stays in view while the settings below it scroll. It renders again a moment after each change. The preview and the card thumbnails use Orbit's starting render settings whatever look is chosen, so they do not show the effect of GLIDE '99 or RAY '95.

While a preset card is selected, its name appears under the preview. For one of your own presets the name is a field, limited to 20 characters, where the preset can be renamed.

#Color source

The first time a material switches to IMAGE, with no picture yet in either image slot, PROJECTION changes to TRIPLANAR and SPACE to OBJECT. A material that already has a picture keeps its placement.

#Material

The chrome material of a new object has REFLECTION at 0.90 and DIFFUSE at 0.08, so a new COLOR or picture shows only faintly until REFLECTION goes down or DIFFUSE goes up.

#Anisotropy

#Transparency

In renders, light passing through a surface counts against REFL DEPTH in RENDER SETTINGS, and a closed object such as a ball needs 2, one for each side. Glass renders solid explains the limit. Only water bends light, through the settings described in Refraction, depth color and foam.

#Texture placement

These settings come first in the TEXTURE section. They place a picture on the object and appear only while COLOR SOURCE or BUMP SOURCE is IMAGE, even before a file is chosen. Both image slots share them. Patterns from NOISE and CELLULAR ignore them, because Orbit works those out from each point's position in the scene. PLANET ignores them too and works out its bands from the direction each point faces. Put an image on an object covers choosing and fitting a picture.

With nothing selected, an amber line at the top of the section reads NO OBJECT SELECTED · EDITS APPLY TO NOTHING, or NO OBJECT SELECTED · EDITING THE PRESET ONLY while one of your preset cards is selected.

#Diffuse map

Below the placement settings, DIFFUSE MAP names the current COLOR SOURCE and a line under it says what that source does. SOLID has no settings here.

#IMAGE

Saving the scene or a preset stores a copy of the picture, at most 1024 pixels on its longer side. When the original file cannot be found, the slot shows EMBEDDED and the copy is used. With no stored copy, the slot shows FILE NOT FOUND · USING BASE COLOR, and a file that cannot be read as a picture gets a similar warning. The object then shows its plain COLOR. When the image file moves or goes missing has more.

#NOISE and CELLULAR

The pattern stays fixed in the scene, so a moving object slides through it. SPACE does not apply.

#BLEND and OPACITY

#PLANET

PLANET BANDS & DETAIL shows and hides the planet settings. It is open each time the browser opens.

#Bump source

Bump shades the surface as if it had raised and sunken detail, and the shape itself stays as it is. It is set apart from COLOR SOURCE, so a material can carry a noise bump under a picture, or a bump under a planet.

#Incidence glow

#Growth zoning

Grow plants describes the plants these colors apply to.

#The footer

The browser has no apply button. It closes with the X at the right of its title bar or with M.

#Settings that the view or render look ignores

The dimming above depends on the material alone. Separately, the viewport's view mode and the render look in RENDER SETTINGS can hide what some settings do, although the settings stay available.

#Built-in presets

The browser lists the built-in presets by heading, in this order. The MATERIALS strip at the bottom of the window shows the same presets in a different order, followed by your own presets outside folders. Built-in presets cannot be renamed, moved or deleted. Clicking one and then SAVE AS PRESET gives a copy that can be.

Related: Apply and edit materials, Put an image on an object, Save your own presets and Choose a render look.