Reference > Properties >
Material properties

The following sections describe the properties for the material types provided with Mudbox.

Mudbox Material

Diffuse

  Specifies the diffuse color of the material. This is the material’s base color.

  Click the box to change the Diffuse color and edit it using the Select Color window.

  Alternately, this property uses the image and file path for the Diffuse channel you specify when painting on a model.

Specular

  Specifies the color of the specular highlight on the material.

  Click the box to change the Specular color and edit it using the Select Color window.

  Alternately, this property uses the image and file path for the Specular channel you specify when painting on a model.

Gloss

  Specifies the size of the specular reflection. The lower the value, the smaller the size of the specular highlight.

  Click the box to change the Gloss property and edit it using the Select Color window.

  Alternately, this property uses the image and file path for the Gloss channel you specify when painting on a model.

Incandescence

  Specifies the brightness of the color on a material independent of the scene lighting. This property is used to simulate the emission of color from an object independently of any existing lighting in the scene.

  For example, when the Incandescence property is set to RGB (255, 255, 255), the material appears to emit white light such as occurs from a light bulb (even if there are no lights in the scene). The material does not affect or illuminate any other models or contribute any light to the scene.

  Alternately, this property uses the image and file path for the Incandescence channel you specify when painting on a model.

Bump Map

  Specifies the file path for the image to be used for the bump map. This map should be based on gray scale values.

  This property uses the image and file path for the Bump Value channel you specify when painting on a model.

Normal Map

  Specifies the file path for the image to be used for the normal map. This map should be based on RGB values.

  This property uses the image and file path for the Normal Value channel you specify when painting on a model.

Reflection Mask

  Specifies the file path for the image to be used for the reflection mask. This property uses the image and file path for the Reflection Mask channel you specify when painting on a model.

Bump Depth

  Controls how high or low the appearance of bumps display on the surface when a bump map is applied. Increase the value to make the surface bumpier. Decrease the value to make the surface smoother.

Bump Filter Width

  Specifies the level of filtering performed on a texture used as a bump map. Values greater than 1.0 produce more filtering, making the bumps smoother. Values less than 1.0 produce less filtering, making the bumps appear sharper.

Reflection Map

  Specifies the file path for the image used as a reflection map. An environment is simulated around the model which appears in the material’s reflection component depending on the value of the Reflection Strength property.

  NoteWhenever an image-based light is specified in the scene, the reflection map image is replaced with the image specified by the image-based light source.
Reflection Strength

  Controls the visibility of the reflection map. A value of 1 causes the image to be fully visible and overrides any of the diffuse color on the model. A value of 0 causes the reflection map to be invisible.

Fresnel Scattering Strength

  Specifies the intensity of the Fresnel glow effect.

Fresnel Refractive Index

  Specifies the surface area of the model that is affected by the Fresnel glow effect. A higher number specifies that only the edges get illuminated. A lower number indicates that more of the model is illuminated by the glow effect.

Receive Shadows

  Turns on shadows for the material. At least one scene light must also have its Cast Shadows property turned on for shadows to appear on a model.

Blur Shadow Edges

  Specifies the softness of shadow edges. The softness of shadow edges is also influenced by the Depth Map Resolution property for the shadow casting light. Keep these two properties in mind if shadow edge artifacts appear.

Shadow Color

  Controls the shadow color. Colored shadows help to simulate reflected light when self shadowing of colored surfaces occurs or in simulating the shadow produced by transparent, colored surfaces (for example, colored glass). The default setting is black.

Coordinate Space

  Specifies the normal map’s coordinate space based on how it was originally extracted. This setting must match the setting used when the map was originally extracted for the normal map to display properly on the model. (If you are unsure, try each option in turn and view the results in the 3D View). Options include:

  - Tangent - The coordinate space on a face defined by the normal, tangent, and the binormal.
  - Object - Local coordinate space for the model.
  - World - Coordinate space for the 3D scene.
Compatibility

  When the Normal Map option is turned on set this property to match how the Compatibility setting was set during the original map extraction so the normal map previews correctly. This ensures that the tangent space is set correctly (left-handed or right-handed). Options are:

  - Maya
  - 3ds Max

Mudbox Material (2009)

This section describes the properties for the Mudbox Material that was used as the default material for Mudbox 2009 and Mudbox 2010 versions. It can still be used and is maintained to ensure compatibility purposes with later versions.

Diffuse

  Specifies the diffuse color of the material. This is the material’s base color.

  Click the box to change the Diffuse color and edit it using the Select Color window.

  Alternately, this property uses the image and file path for the Diffuse channel you specify when painting on a model.

Specular

  Specifies the color of the specular highlight on the material.

  Click the box to change the Specular color and edit it using the Select Color window.

  Alternately, this property uses the image and file path for the Specular channel you specify when painting on a model.

Gloss

  Specifies the size of the specular reflection. The lower the value, the smaller the size of the specular highlight.

  Click the box to change the Gloss property and edit it using the Select Color window.

  Alternately, this property uses the image and file path for the Gloss channel you specify when painting on a model.

Specular 2

  A second specular color component that affects the fringes of the specular highlight. This setting is useful in low/oblique lighting situations.

  This property uses the image and file path for the Specular 2 channel you specify when painting on a model.

Gloss 2

  A second gloss component that affects the size of the outer regions of specular highlight. This setting is useful in low/oblique lighting situations.

  This property uses the image and file path for the Gloss 2 channel you specify when painting on a model.

Bump Value

  Specifies the file path for the image to be used for the bump map. This property uses the image and file path for the Bump Value channel you specify when painting on a model.

Reflection Mask

  Specifies the file path for the image to be used for the reflection mask. This property uses the image and file path for the Reflection Mask channel you specify when painting on a model.

Bump Depth

  Controls how high or low the appearance of bumps display on the surface when a bump map is applied. Increase the value to make the surface bumpier. Decrease the value to make the surface smoother.

Bump Filter Width

  Specifies the level of filtering performed on a texture used as a bump map. Values greater than 1.0 produce more filtering, making the bumps smoother. Values less than 1.0 produce less filtering, making the bumps appear sharper.

Reflection Map

  Specifies the file path for the image used as a reflection map. An environment is simulated around the model which appears in the material’s reflection component depending on the value of the Reflection Strengthproperty.

  Whenever an image-based light is specified in the scene, the reflection map image is replaced with the image specified by the image-based light source.

Reflection Strength

  Controls the visibility of the reflection map. A value of 1 causes the image to be fully visible and overrides any of the diffuse color on the model. A value of 0 causes the reflection map to be invisible.

Fresnel Scattering Strength

  Specifies the intensity of the Fresnel glow effect.

Fresnel Refractive Index

  Specifies the surface area of the model that is affected by the Fresnel glow effect. A higher number specifies that only the edges get illuminated. A lower number indicates that more of the model is illuminated by the glow effect.

Receive Shadows

  Turns on shadows for the material. At least one scene light must also have its Cast Shadows property turned on for shadows to appear on a model.

Blur Shadow Edges

  Specifies the softness of shadow edges. The softness of shadow edges is also influenced by the Depth Map Resolution property for the shadow casting light. Keep these two properties in mind if shadow edge artifacts appear.

Shadow Color

  Controls the shadow color. Colored shadows help to simulate reflected light when self shadowing of colored surfaces occurs or in simulating the shadow produced by transparent, colored surfaces (for example, colored glass). The default setting is black.

Display Bump as Normal Map

  This property changes the display of the material’s bump channel to display normal maps. To preview a normal map on a model you must import the normal map as a layer into a bump channel on the assigned material and turn on this property. The default is off. In addition, the Coordinate Space and Compatibility properties must be correctly set to view a normal map.

Coordinate Space

  Specifies the normal map’s coordinate space based on how it was originally extracted. This setting must match the setting used when the map was originally extracted for the normal map to display properly on the model. (If you are unsure, try each option in turn and view the results in the 3D View). Options include:

  - Tangent - The coordinate space on a face defined by the normal, tangent, and the binormal.
  - Object - Local coordinate space for the model.
  - World - Coordinate space for the 3D scene.
Compatibility

  When the Normal Map option is turned on set this property to match how the Compatibility setting was set during the original map extraction so the normal map previews correctly. This ensures that the tangent space is set correctly (left-handed or right-handed). Options are:

  - Maya
  - 3ds Max

Simple Blinn Material

Diffuse

  Specifies the diffuse color of the material. This is the base color for the material.

Specular

  Specifies the color for specular highlights for the material.

Ambient

  Specifies the minimum darkness (ambient RGBA reflectance) of the material.

Shininess

  Specifies the size of the specular reflection. The lower the value, the broader the highlight.

Lit Sphere Material

Lit Sphere Image

  Specifies the image to be used for the lighting environment for the lit sphere material type. An image is used to calculate the light source and works with any existing scene lights.

Bump Value

  Specifies the file path for the image to be used for the bump map. This item uses the image and file path for the Bump Value channel you specify when painting a bump image on a model.

Bump Depth

  Controls how high or low the appearance of bumps display on the surface when a bump map is applied. Increase the value to make the surface bumpier. Decrease the value to make the surface smoother.

Bump Filter Width

  Specifies the level of filtering performed on a texture used as a bump map. Values greater than 1.0 produce more filtering, making the bumps smoother. Values less than 1.0 produce less filtering, making the bumps appear sharper.

Reflection Map

  Specifies the image to be used as a reflection map. An environment is simulated around the model which appears in the material’s reflection component depending on the value of the Reflection Strength property.

  NoteWhenever an image-based light is specified in the scene, the reflection map image is replaced with the image specified by the image-based light source.
Reflection Strength

  Controls the visibility of the reflection map. A value of 1 causes the image to be fully visible and overrides any of the diffuse color on the model. A value of 0 causes the reflection map to be invisible.

Reflection Mask

  Specifies the file path for the image to be used for the reflection mask.

  This item uses the file path for the Reflection Mask channel you specify when painting on a model.

Fresnel Scattering Strength

  Specifies the intensity of the Fresnel glow effect.

Fresnel Refractive Index

  Specifies the surface area of the model that is affected by the Fresnel glow effect. A low number specifies that only the edges get illuminated. A higher number indicates that more of the model is illuminated by the glow effect.

CgFX-based Material

The CgFX-based Material is an example CgFX material you can copy and use as an example for creating your own custom materials in Mudbox. A README file containing information on how this material is constructed is provided in the effects directory with the Mudbox application folder as follows:

- (Windows) <drive>:\Program Files\Mudbox\Mudbox<version number>\effects
- (Mac OS X)/Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Autodesk/Mudbox<version number>\effects

Related topics

Create and apply materials