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Materials

There are several types of materials in OctaneRender^® that can apply to surfaces to achieve a variety of appearances and rendering effects.

• Clipping MaterialThe representation of the surface or volume properties of an object. - Allows one object to become a clipping volume for other objects in a scene.
• Composite - Mixes several materials using masks.
• 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.
• Hair - Designed for hair and fur objects.
• Layered - Constructs complex materials that consist of a base layer and several material layers.
• Metallic - Similar to the Glossy materialUsed for shiny materials such as plastics or metals., except by default it exhibits more metal-like characteristics.
• Mix - Mixes any two Material types.
• Null - Used for mesh objects that should be invisible but contain a medium.
• 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. - Designates openings in scenes to allow the render kernel to better sample light from those areas.
• Shadow CatcherThe Shadow Catcher can be used to create shadows cast by objects onto the surrounding background imagery. The shadows cast are not limited to simply a ground plane but can be cast onto other surfaces of varying shapes. - Captures shadows.
• 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.
• Standard Surface - A material that closely aligns with the Autodesk Standard Surface shader specification.
• Toon - Designs 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.

You can access OctaneRender materials 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 material to an OctaneRender scene. Once added, you can connect it to a Mesh node and edit it to simulate the desired surface quality.

Figure 1: Adding Material nodes to the Nodegraph from the Materials section of the context menu

Select A Material In An OctaneRender Scene

There are several ways to select a Material node in an OctaneRender scene. Once selected, you can edit the material parameters in the Node Inspector window.

One way to select a material in the OctaneRender scene is by clicking on the Material node in the Scene Outliner as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Select Material nodes in the Outliner

Another way to select a Material node is to select the Mesh node in the Nodegraph Editor window, then locate the Material in the Node Inspector (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Access a material's parameters by selecting the associated Mesh and opening the Node Inspector

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

Figure 4: Use the Material Picker to select materials in the Render Viewport

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