Using Displacement Mapping with Surface Properties

Introduction to Materials and Mapping

Creating a Skin Material

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Materials and Mapping Tutorials > Introduction to Materials and Mapping > 

Adding Stars to the Sky

Vincent van Gogh is not the only one who gets to have fun painting the night sky. In this lesson you'll create your own starry night using a Noise map in the environment background.

• The files for this lesson can be found in the tutorials/intro_to_materials folder.

Apply a Noise material:

1. Open moon.max.
2. Press 8 on the keyboard to open the Environment dialog.
3. Click the Environment Map button.
4. In the Material/Map Browser, choose Noise then OK. The Noise map appears in the Environment map component.
5. Open the Material Editor.
6. Drag the Noise map from the Environment dialog to an unused sample sphere. Choose Instance and click OK.

   The sample sphere disappears and is replaced with the Noise map. The map is displayed as a square, since this is a map, not a material.

   

7. Scroll down to the Noise Parameters rollout and set the Noise Size to 0.2.
8. In the Noise Threshold settings, set the low threshold to 0.6 and the high threshold to 0.7. This narrows the range between white and black so the noise will display as dots or pinpoints.
9. Activate the Camera viewport and press F9 render the scene. Hundreds of stars appear in the sky.

   

   Stars created with Noise material

10. Reduce the number of stars by increasing the low threshold to 0.65. Then tone down the brightness of the stars by changing the white Noise color to pale gray.
11. Render the scene again. The stars fade into the background.

    

    After adjusting the Noise material

Create a nebula field:

To add drama, create a nebula field by mapping the black areas of the Noise material with a Gradient Ramp.

1. On the Noise Parameters rollout, click the Color #1 map button.
2. Choose Gradient Ramp from the Material Map Browser then OK.
3. The Material Editor moves down a level in the material tree. The sample sphere is replaced by a grayscale gradient. Scroll to the Gradient Ramp Parameters rollout. The Gradient ramp has three flags: one on the right, one in the middle, and one on the left.

   

4. Double-click the flag on the right to display the color selector. Change the color to black.
5. Without closing the color selector, click the middle flag and change it to blue. Then close the color selector.
6. In the Noise group, set Amount to 1.0. Choose the Fractal option and set Size to 9.0.

   

7. Render the scene. A diffuse blue nebula appears in the sky.

   

Add a streak to the nebula field:

1. Click twice near the center of the gradient, on either side of the middle flag. Two more flags appear. (If you make too many flags, right-click a flag and choose Delete.)
2. Double-click the middle flag and change its color to a lighter blue.

   

3. Set the Noise Levels parameter to 6 to add more details to the streak.
4. Render the scene.

   

   Nebula background with a streak

5. Experiment with the gradient color, type and noise parameters until you master the effect.
6. Save your work as mymoonandstars.max.

Create a starry sky with a large sphere:

Another way to make stars is to create a large sphere, invert its normals, then apply a starfield bitmap to it.

1. Using the keyboard entry method, create a very large sphere with a radius of about 1200. (If you're not familiar with this method, open the Create panel and click Sphere. Open the Keyboard Entry rollout and set Radius to 1200. Then click Create.)
2. Name the sphere skydome.
3. Open the Modifier panel. From the Modifier drop-down list, choose Object Space Modifiers > Normal.
4. In the Parameters rollout, turn on Flip Normals, if it is not already on.
5. Open the Material Editor and click an unused sample slot. Name the material starry sky.
6. Click the Diffuse map button. In the Material/Map Browser, choose Bitmap and click OK.
7. In the Select Bitmap Image File dialog, choose stars10.jpg and click OK. This is a large and detailed map, so it may take a moment to load.
   NoteYou'll find this bitmap in the tutorials/space folder.
8. Turn on Show Map In Viewport.
9. Click Go to Parent. On the Blinn Basic Parameters rollout, set Self-Illumination to 100.
10. Drag the material onto the skydome object and press F9 to render the scene. The stars from the map appear in the sky, replacing the environment background map.

Brighten the stars:

1. Open the Maps rollout and click the Diffuse Color map.
2. Open the Output rollout and set RGB Level to 2.0. To filter out the dimmer stars, set the Output Amount to 1.2.
3. Press F9 to render the scene.

   

Save your work:

• Save your work as mymoonandstars2.max.