Materials

There are nine types of materials in OctaneRender that can be applied to surfaces to achieve a variety of surface appearances and rendering effects.

DiffuseAmount of diffusion, or the reflection of light photons at different angles from an uneven or granular surface. Used for dull, non-reflecting materials or mesh emitters. - Used for rough, non-reflecting materials, as well as light emitting meshes.
GlossyThe measure of how well light is reflected from a surface in the specular direction, the amount and way in which the light is spread around the specular direction, and the change in specular reflection as the specular angle changes. Used for shiny materials such as plastics or metals. - Used for shiny materials such as plastics or metals.
Metallic - Similar to the Glossy materialUsed for shiny materials such as plastics or metals. except, by default, it exhibits more metal-like characteristics.
Mix - Used to mix any two material types.
PortalA technique that assists the render kernel with exterior light sources that illuminate interiors. In interior renderings with windows, it is difficult for the path tracer to find light from the outside environment and optimally render the scene. Portals are planes that are added to the scene with the Portal material applied to them. - Used to designate openings in scenes to allow the render kernel to better sample light from those areas.
SpecularAmount of specular reflection, or the mirror-like reflection of light photons at the same angle. Used for transparent materials such as glass and water. - Used for transparent materials such as glass and water.
Toon - Used to design hand-drawn looking surfaces.
Toon Ramp - Controls shading on the model. To use this material, you also need to use Toon lighting in the scene.
Universal - Brings substance maps and PBRA contemporary shading and rendering process that seeks to simplify shading characteristics while providing a more accurate representation of lighting in the real world. outputs into OctaneRender.

OctaneRender materials can be accessed by right-clicking in the Nodegraph editor and navigating to the MaterialsA set of attributes or parameters that describe surface characteristics. category (Figure 1). Choose one of the materials and click in the graph to add the materiel to an OctaneRender scene. Once added, it can be connected to a Mesh node and edited to simulate the desired surface quality.

Materials Figure 01 — **Figure 1: MaterialThe representation of the surface or volume properties of an object. nodes can be added directly to the node graph from the Materials section of the pop-up menu**

Select a Material in an OctaneRender scene

There are several ways to select a material node to an OctaneRender scene. Once selected, the parameters of the material can be edited in the Node inspector window.

A material in the OctaneRender scene can be selected by clicking on the material node in the Scene Outliner as shown in Figure 2.

Materials Figure 02 — **Figure 2: Material nodes can be selected in the Outliner**

Another way to select a material is to select the Mesh Node and then locate the material in the Node Inspector (Figure 3).

Materials Figure 03 — *Figure 3: Access a material's parameters by selecting the associated mesh and opening the Node Editor*

You can also select a material by choosing the Material Picker and selecting the associated mesh in the Render Viewport (Figure 4).

Materials Figure 04 — **Figure 4: Use the Material Picker to select materials directly in the Render Viewport**

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