Worrying Too Much About Materials? Start with a Clean Slate

No matter how good the modeled geometry in 3ds Max® software is, without the application of good materials, the final rendered images and animations look subpar. Throughout the development of 3ds Max and prior to the 2011 release, the only way to manage materials was through the Compact Material Editor. This relatively small interface could be very cumbersome when trying to understand how a material needs to be developed. The introduction of the Slate Material Editor made a larger dialog for materials and associated maps available, implementing a very intuitive node-based graphic display process that can create hierarchical wired material trees. Using 3ds Max and 3ds Max® Design software, you can learn the principles of node-based material creation, its flexibility, and ease of use.