The VrayBlendMtl could be best described as an utility material. It does not have any shading options, it just combines multiple other shaders in different ways.
This is actually a weird problem with 3dsmax (as far as i know). It does not give you any more slots! You will have to export your materials to library or combine multiple materials into one. This material library is meant as a beginners guide for the type of material effects that are possible when using the standardsurface shader. Bear in mind that the values used here are not based on any physical, real-world values and are meant only as a starting point for beginners to explore.
The layout is simple. You have a Base material and 9 Coat materials. In fact, they all function in the same way, very similar to layers in photoshop, so really what you get is 10 layer stack. Each layer after Base has a Blend amount Color and Map.
Blends can be as complex as you want them to be, You're not limited to the 10 slots, you can always add another blend in the last layer slot and keep piling on the layers. However, in the real world, this is not a practical way to do things. Each new layer makes the render slower, since Vray has to calculate all the materials in the blend and then blend them together. This means you could quickly get insanely slow rendertimes if you get too carried away.
Most of the time 4-5 layers should be the absolute maximum to use, with 2-3 being the norm. It's also easier to manage the shader with fewer layers.
Let's see how they work.
We've set up a Red material in Base slot and a Blue material in the first Coat slot. You can see how the Blend amount color affects how much of the second layer is visible. It's a simple opacity scale – black makes the coat invisible, white makes only the coat visible. Everything in between is a mix of the two.
Of course, you can also use a map in the Blend amount slot. The map needs to be grayscale and the the Gamma when loading the image should be set at 1.0 for correct results.
You can also mix the Map with the Blend amount color using this numerical value. At 100 it only uses the map, at 70 it uses 70% of the map and 30% of the color, etc. This is great when you need to fine tune the exact amount of blending, without changing the texture itself.
Okay, but what about adding another coat layer? Once you add another material to the list, everything above it is combined and treated as a single base layer. Exactly like in photoshop, except the layer list is reversed (from the top down).
If I add a Green layer to my Red and Blue, the result is not Red+Blue+Green, it is Purple+Green, since the first two layers get mixed at 50% and the result is mixed at 50% with the next layer.
Lastly, the Additive mode checkbox always needs to be turned OFF for physically correct renderings. It is only there to mimic the functionality of a regular 3ds max blend Mtl, but should not be used if you want believable shaders.
Alright, now we have the basics out of the way and we can look at some fun ways to use VrayBlendMtl.
Typical scenarios where you would need to use Blend are:
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2. When an object has radically different surface properties in large areas. In this example photo it's easier to create two different shaders for galvanized metal and rust and blend them together, instead of trying to do it all in one material.
3. When the shader needs to be easily and quickly modified. Let's say you have a rusty painted metal material with 3 different types of surfaces – metal, paint and rust. Theoretically it would be possible to build elaborate mix maps and custom painted textures to create all these effects in a single material… but imagine if you need to change the rust pattern 'oh yeah, the material looks great, just make it a bit less rusty!' What a nightmare! You have to go through all the maps and adjust them one-by-one to make this 'small' change.
Now imagine that you have 3 layered blend instead (Metal, Paint and Rust layers). Everything is controlled by two simple b&w masks that can be adjusted quickly and easily. Saves a ton of time and is far less frustrating.
4. When the object needs a specific shading effect that is not possible with a simple material. A good example would be worn and/or slightly dirty metal that has glossy and blurred reflections at the same time. No deposit bonus casinos.
3.1 Blending Two Different Materials
This is perhaps the most common use of VrayBlend. Imagine that you have two radically different materials that are assigned to the same object. For example – dirt spots on glass. Glass is refractive and reflective, while dirt has very weak and blurred reflections and it's not refractive at all, so It makes sense to create 2 materials and just blend them with a black and white map.
Now we simply plug them into the Base and Coat slots and assign a texture to the Blend Amount…
That's it! The result looks good and you can always swap the Blend Amount texture for something different to change the dirt distribution.
Most of the time it's fairly easy and intuitive to break down the Blend into multiple simple materials. They look exactly like you think they should look. Metal is metal, wood is wood, etc. The only exception is with Refractive layers. Things like Lacquer, Clear Coat, Epoxy, etc. While they're refractive in the real world, you should not make them refractive in Vray. This simply gives a strange and incorrect result.
Let's say we have a green plastic material and we want to add a clear coat reflection to it (imagine it's been dipped in lacquer).
The way you would approach it is perhaps counter-intuitive, but it works very well. Set up a VrayMtl with black diffuse and 255 white reflections (fresnel off) in the Coat material slot.
For the Blend amount, use a Falloff map set to Fresnel with 1.5 IOR (acrylic). Now lower the white color slightly to something like 215.
And here is how the resulting shader looks. The effect is exactly what we were trying to achieve.
One of the most common problems with VrayBlendMtl is Bump. To look realistic, the same map should be featured in all the layers, especially if the mask is very high-contrast with sharp borders around patterns.
Here is an example. This scratched paint material has bump in white layer only. Not that great, is it?
Now, we've added the same bump map to the Paint material as well.
Looks better, but what if you also want to add some ‘orange peel' effect? If you need additional bump effects, you have to change the map type in that particular layer to composite and instance the common texture in there. Now you can composite other maps on top of it, while still keeping a the common bump as well.
In future VRay versions (v3) this can be made much simpler by using a VRayBumpMtl. This functionality will allow you to add common bump to the whole material, on top of each layers existing bump.
Let's see how we can create an advanced shader that currently is impossible with regular VrayMtl. The effect we're looking for is a ‘tail' for the Reflections.
First of all, I'll set up a basic metal material in the base slot.
Now let's copy the material to the next two coat slots and gradually reduce the Glossiness value like this.
Finally, you just need to adjust the Blend Amount color for both coat slots. Usually the further the reflections are blurred, the less we want the layer to be visible. So reduce the second coat amount more.
To make it more interesting, you can use texture instead of color in the Blend Amount slots. Here we're using a simple scratch-map…
As you can see there are many different ways you can use the VrayBlendMtl. It's not just for blending two different materials, it can be used in much more creative ways as well.
Special thanks to Austris Čingulis from Viscorbel.com for helping us create this material tutorial.
In this final lesson, you will assign a material identification number to each polygon in the model. You can then use these ID numbers to assign materials to specific parts of the model.
Set up the lesson:
- Continue working from the previous lesson or open building2_sloping_roof.max.
Check the default Material ID:
- Select the Tower object, maximize the Front viewport and click (Zoom Extents Selected). Make sure the view is in Wireframe mode.
- On the Modify panel Selection rollout, activate (Polygon), then press Ctrl+A to select all the polygons in the Tower object.
- On the Modify panel, scroll down to the Polygon: Material IDs rollout, and verify that Set ID has a value of 1.
At this point, if you were to assign a material to the Tower Is there a casino near me open today. object, all its polygons would receive the same material, because they all have the same material ID number.
Assign a new Material ID to the glazing:
- Click anywhere outside the Tower object to deselect the polygons.
- Zoom in to the upper section of the tower and begin to Ctrl+click the polygons that represent the glazing in the cylinder, as shown in the next illustration.
Start your selection by clicking outside the tower and dragging right, across all the glazing polygons. Starting your selection outside the tower ensures that all glazing polygons on the other side of the Tower object are also selected.
- Zoom out and continue to Ctrl+click all the glazing in the lower floors, using the same selection technique described in the previous step. Be sure to include the glazing polygons in the bottom cylinder. The result is shown in the next illustration.
- On the Polygon: Material IDs rollout, click the Set ID spinner up-arrow once, to change the value to 2.
Now you can assign the Tower object two different materials.
Apply materials to the tower:
- On the Polygon: Material IDs rollout Select ID spinner, type 1, then click Select ID.
All the material 1 polygons are now selected.
- On the main toolbar, choose the button for the Compact Material Editor.
- In the sample slots, locate the Concrete material. Click the slot to make the material active, and then click (Assign Material To Selection).
3ds Max applies the Concrete material to all polygons that have ID 1 assigned to them.
- On the Polygons: Material IDs rollout, change the Select ID value to 2, then click Select ID.
- In the Material Editor sample slots, locate the Glass material, and click the slot to make the material active. Then click (Assign Material To Selection).
3ds Max applies the Glass material to all polygons that have ID 2 assigned to them.
- Close the Compact Material Editor.
- On the Selection rollout, click (Polygon) to exit the Polygon sub-object level.
Render the scene:
- Adjust the Perspective viewport so that the two tower models are clearly visible, then click (Render Production) to view the result.
Your rendered image should look something like this:
Save your work:
- Save the scene as my_building2_completed.max.
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Okay, but what about adding another coat layer? Once you add another material to the list, everything above it is combined and treated as a single base layer. Exactly like in photoshop, except the layer list is reversed (from the top down).
If I add a Green layer to my Red and Blue, the result is not Red+Blue+Green, it is Purple+Green, since the first two layers get mixed at 50% and the result is mixed at 50% with the next layer.
Lastly, the Additive mode checkbox always needs to be turned OFF for physically correct renderings. It is only there to mimic the functionality of a regular 3ds max blend Mtl, but should not be used if you want believable shaders.
Alright, now we have the basics out of the way and we can look at some fun ways to use VrayBlendMtl.
Typical scenarios where you would need to use Blend are:
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2. When an object has radically different surface properties in large areas. In this example photo it's easier to create two different shaders for galvanized metal and rust and blend them together, instead of trying to do it all in one material.
3. When the shader needs to be easily and quickly modified. Let's say you have a rusty painted metal material with 3 different types of surfaces – metal, paint and rust. Theoretically it would be possible to build elaborate mix maps and custom painted textures to create all these effects in a single material… but imagine if you need to change the rust pattern 'oh yeah, the material looks great, just make it a bit less rusty!' What a nightmare! You have to go through all the maps and adjust them one-by-one to make this 'small' change.
Now imagine that you have 3 layered blend instead (Metal, Paint and Rust layers). Everything is controlled by two simple b&w masks that can be adjusted quickly and easily. Saves a ton of time and is far less frustrating.
4. When the object needs a specific shading effect that is not possible with a simple material. A good example would be worn and/or slightly dirty metal that has glossy and blurred reflections at the same time. No deposit bonus casinos.
3.1 Blending Two Different Materials
This is perhaps the most common use of VrayBlend. Imagine that you have two radically different materials that are assigned to the same object. For example – dirt spots on glass. Glass is refractive and reflective, while dirt has very weak and blurred reflections and it's not refractive at all, so It makes sense to create 2 materials and just blend them with a black and white map.
Now we simply plug them into the Base and Coat slots and assign a texture to the Blend Amount…
That's it! The result looks good and you can always swap the Blend Amount texture for something different to change the dirt distribution.
Most of the time it's fairly easy and intuitive to break down the Blend into multiple simple materials. They look exactly like you think they should look. Metal is metal, wood is wood, etc. The only exception is with Refractive layers. Things like Lacquer, Clear Coat, Epoxy, etc. While they're refractive in the real world, you should not make them refractive in Vray. This simply gives a strange and incorrect result.
Let's say we have a green plastic material and we want to add a clear coat reflection to it (imagine it's been dipped in lacquer).
The way you would approach it is perhaps counter-intuitive, but it works very well. Set up a VrayMtl with black diffuse and 255 white reflections (fresnel off) in the Coat material slot.
For the Blend amount, use a Falloff map set to Fresnel with 1.5 IOR (acrylic). Now lower the white color slightly to something like 215.
And here is how the resulting shader looks. The effect is exactly what we were trying to achieve.
One of the most common problems with VrayBlendMtl is Bump. To look realistic, the same map should be featured in all the layers, especially if the mask is very high-contrast with sharp borders around patterns.
Here is an example. This scratched paint material has bump in white layer only. Not that great, is it?
Now, we've added the same bump map to the Paint material as well.
Looks better, but what if you also want to add some ‘orange peel' effect? If you need additional bump effects, you have to change the map type in that particular layer to composite and instance the common texture in there. Now you can composite other maps on top of it, while still keeping a the common bump as well.
In future VRay versions (v3) this can be made much simpler by using a VRayBumpMtl. This functionality will allow you to add common bump to the whole material, on top of each layers existing bump.
Let's see how we can create an advanced shader that currently is impossible with regular VrayMtl. The effect we're looking for is a ‘tail' for the Reflections.
First of all, I'll set up a basic metal material in the base slot.
Now let's copy the material to the next two coat slots and gradually reduce the Glossiness value like this.
Finally, you just need to adjust the Blend Amount color for both coat slots. Usually the further the reflections are blurred, the less we want the layer to be visible. So reduce the second coat amount more.
To make it more interesting, you can use texture instead of color in the Blend Amount slots. Here we're using a simple scratch-map…
As you can see there are many different ways you can use the VrayBlendMtl. It's not just for blending two different materials, it can be used in much more creative ways as well.
Special thanks to Austris Čingulis from Viscorbel.com for helping us create this material tutorial.
In this final lesson, you will assign a material identification number to each polygon in the model. You can then use these ID numbers to assign materials to specific parts of the model.
Set up the lesson:
- Continue working from the previous lesson or open building2_sloping_roof.max.
Check the default Material ID:
- Select the Tower object, maximize the Front viewport and click (Zoom Extents Selected). Make sure the view is in Wireframe mode.
- On the Modify panel Selection rollout, activate (Polygon), then press Ctrl+A to select all the polygons in the Tower object.
- On the Modify panel, scroll down to the Polygon: Material IDs rollout, and verify that Set ID has a value of 1.
At this point, if you were to assign a material to the Tower Is there a casino near me open today. object, all its polygons would receive the same material, because they all have the same material ID number.
Assign a new Material ID to the glazing:
- Click anywhere outside the Tower object to deselect the polygons.
- Zoom in to the upper section of the tower and begin to Ctrl+click the polygons that represent the glazing in the cylinder, as shown in the next illustration.
Start your selection by clicking outside the tower and dragging right, across all the glazing polygons. Starting your selection outside the tower ensures that all glazing polygons on the other side of the Tower object are also selected.
- Zoom out and continue to Ctrl+click all the glazing in the lower floors, using the same selection technique described in the previous step. Be sure to include the glazing polygons in the bottom cylinder. The result is shown in the next illustration.
- On the Polygon: Material IDs rollout, click the Set ID spinner up-arrow once, to change the value to 2.
Now you can assign the Tower object two different materials.
Apply materials to the tower:
- On the Polygon: Material IDs rollout Select ID spinner, type 1, then click Select ID.
All the material 1 polygons are now selected.
- On the main toolbar, choose the button for the Compact Material Editor.
- In the sample slots, locate the Concrete material. Click the slot to make the material active, and then click (Assign Material To Selection).
3ds Max applies the Concrete material to all polygons that have ID 1 assigned to them.
- On the Polygons: Material IDs rollout, change the Select ID value to 2, then click Select ID.
- In the Material Editor sample slots, locate the Glass material, and click the slot to make the material active. Then click (Assign Material To Selection).
3ds Max applies the Glass material to all polygons that have ID 2 assigned to them.
- Close the Compact Material Editor.
- On the Selection rollout, click (Polygon) to exit the Polygon sub-object level.
Render the scene:
- Adjust the Perspective viewport so that the two tower models are clearly visible, then click (Render Production) to view the result.
Your rendered image should look something like this:
Save your work:
- Save the scene as my_building2_completed.max.
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Summary
Arnold Materials 3ds Max
This tutorial introduced you to the concept of Boolean operations and how they can be used to produce complex shapes from simple geometry. You also learned some polygon editing techniques, and how to apply materials to multiple surfaces by assigning material ID numbers to different sets of polygons.