Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Materials and Mapping Tutorials > Materials for Interior Scenes > 
Using an Architectural Material on the Wall
 
 
 

The Architectural Material in 3ds Max provides heightened realism when used with photometric lights and radiosity, because its settings are based on physical properties.

The Architectural material lets you choose from a series of templates of preset parameters for the material. These templates approximate the general characteristics of the kind of materials you're creating, such as masonry, glass, or painted surfaces, for example.

NoteThe Architectural material is not meant to be used with standard 3ds Max lights or with the Light Tracer.

In this lesson, you'll explore the Architectural material and its application to a scene. You'll be using the material to create a texture for the wall of the kitchen.

Set up the scene:

  1. Continue from the previous lesson, or choose File menu > Open and browse to the \tutorials\designviz folder. Open kitchen_with_wood.max.
    NoteIf you see the File Load: Units Mismatch dialog , choose the option Adopt The File's Unit Scale. This will change your system unit, so be sure to reset your system unit after completing this tutorial .
  2. If the geometry is not visible in the viewport, click the Zoom Extents All button twice to correct the display.

The next material you'll create for this kitchen is a brick material for the wall.

Setting Texture Coordinates Preferences:

  1. From the Customize menu, choose Preferences.
  2. In the General tab, under the Texture Coordinates group, make sure the Use Real-World Texture Coordinates option is turned off.

  3. Click OK to exit the Preferences dialog.

Creating a brick material for the wall:

  1. On the toolbar, click the Material Editor button.
  2. In the Material Editor, click an unused sample slot to make it active.
  3. Click the Standard button to open the Material/Map Browser and choose Architectural. Click OK.
  4. In the Templates rollout, open the Templates list and choose some of the different material presets and watch the Physical Qualities rollout. You'll see how the material presets fill in the physical characteristics for Shininess, Luminance, and so forth.
  5. Choose Masonry before you continue.
  6. In the Physical Qualities rollout, click the Diffuse Map button.

    It currently says None.

  7. Choose Tiles from the list of map types and click OK.

  8. From the Standard Controls rollout, open the Preset Type list and choose Running Bond.

    A typical, staggered placement of bricks

  9. Open the Advanced Controls rollout and click the Texture map button in the Tiles Setup group.

    The Material/Map Browser reopens.

  10. Choose Noise and click OK.

    The Material Editor shows you the Noise Parameters.

  11. In the Noise Parameters rollout, set the Noise Type to Fractal and the Size to 10.
  12. Click the Color #1 swatch and set a deep red color in the Color Selector. Some good settings are Red: 112, Green: 5, and Blue: 0.
  13. Click the Color #2 swatch and set a lighter red color in the Color Selector: 180, Green: 106, and Blue: 106. Close the Color Selector dialog.
  14. Click the Go To Parent button.
  15. In the Tiles Setup group of the Advanced Controls rollout, set the Horiz. Count to 6.0, Vert. Count to 14.0, and Color Variance to 0.63.

  16. In the Grout Setup group, click the Texture swatch to re-open the Color Selector.
  17. Set the Value setting to 90, then close the dialog.
    TipIf you know a color needs to be black, white or any shade of gray in between, the Red, Green and Blue values must be the same. Adjusting the Value setting automatically assigns the same value to Red, Green and Blue.
  18. Set the Rough value to 5.0 to give the mortar joints a little irregularity.
  19. Click the Go To Parent button.

    This puts you at the top level of your material.

    The primary brick mapping is complete.

    To make the material more realistic, you're now going to add a bump map.

Adding realism with a bump map:

  1. Open the Special Effects rollout and make sure the size of the Materials Editor dialog lets you see both the Physical Qualities and Special Effects rollouts.
  2. In the Physical Qualities rollout, click the Diffuse Map button and drag it down onto the Bump map button.

    The Instance (Copy) Map dialog is displayed.

  3. Choose Copy and click OK.

    You're using Copy for this example because you want to make unique settings for the bump map. If you chose Instance, any change you make to the bump map would propagate to the diffuse map.

  4. Click the Bump map button to begin working on the bump map for the bricks.
  5. Click the Noise map on the Tiles Setup group in the Advanced Controls rollout.
  6. In the Noise Parameters rollout, leave the Noise Type set to Fractal and set the Size to 15.0.
  7. Click the Color #1 swatch to open the Color Selector, and drag the Whiteness slider all that way to the bottom to give you a solid white.
  8. Click the Color #2 swatch and set the Red value to 126 and Green and Blue values to 0. Close the Color Selector.
    TipTo quickly set spinner values to zero, right-click the spinner arrows.
  9. Click the Go To Parent button.
  10. Click the Texture map button in the Grout Setup group.

    The Material/Map Browser is displayed.

  11. Click the Tiles map and click OK.
  12. In the Standard Controls rollout, set the Preset Type to Running Bond.

    You want to duplicate most of the Tiles map settings you used for the Diffuse map. These settings will ensure that the grout lines for the Bump map align properly with the Diffuse map.

  13. In the Advanced Controls rollout, in the Tiles Setup group, set the Horiz. Count to 6.0 and Vert. Count to 14.0.
  14. Click the Texture swatch for the Tiles Setup and set it to black.

    Dark colors are embossed when used with a Bump map.

  15. In the Grout Setup group, click the Texture swatch and set it to white.

    Lighter colors, on a Bump map, are recessed. These will form the depressions along the mortar joints.

  16. Close the Color Selector and enter a Rough value of 5.0 for the Grout Setup.
  17. Click the Go To Parent button twice to get back to the top level of your material.
  18. In the Special Effects rollout, set the Bump amount to 50.0, then rename the material MyRedBricks.

    Now your material is done and ready to apply to the wall.

Assigning texture coordinates:

  1. Activate the Camera01 viewport and select the wall object named VC Wall.

    The wall is selected.

    Before you can apply the brick material to the wall, the wall needs texture coordinates.

    Without texture coordinates, the texture map will not show up and you will receive a Missing Map Coordinates message when you render the scene.

  2. Open the Modify panel and click the down arrow of the Modifier List.
  3. Scroll down the list and choose MapScaler from the Object Space Modifiers grouping.

    Texture coordinates (UVWs) are assigned to the object when the modifier is applied.

Applying the bricks to the wall:

  1. In the Material Editor, click your brick material and drag it onto the wall.
  2. In the Material Editor, click the Show Map In Viewport button.

    The scale of the texture is way too small. The default scale of the MapScaler modifier is 1”.

  3. In the Parameters rollout, set the Scale to 2'6”.

    The bricks are more proportional now.

    NoteIf the bricks appear crooked, right-click the Camera01 viewport label and turn on Texture Correction if 3ds Max is configured to use the Software display driver. Next you deal with the brick size.
  4. Save the scene as mykitchen_brick.max.
  5. Click Quick Render.

    The kitchen of your trendy loft.

Next

Material Combinations: Using Blend to Create a Floor Material

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