On the top, the command bar provides tools for applying materials, such as creating, duplicating, or deleting materials, as well as tools for managing material libraries. See Material Manager Command Bar.
3
The middle right is a shelf with shaderballs for the materials in your scene. Multiple libraries appear on separate tabs. See Material Manager Shelf.
4
Click a shaderball to select the material, or drag a shaderball onto an object or cluster in the scene to apply it. See Using Shaderballs.
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The tabs on the bottom of the material manager can display one of several views:
• The selected material in the render tree (default view). See The Render Tree.
• The selected material in the texture layer editor. See Texture Layering.
• A list of image clips used by the selected material. Right-click on a clip’s thumbnail for a context menu that allows you to edit a clip’s properties and other options. See Clips & Sources.
• A list of objects and clusters that use the selected material (Who Uses?).
Material Manager Command Bar
The command bar provides tools for creating, applying, and managing materials, as well as material libraries.
The cluster and image clip explorer is on the right side of the material manager.
• Scene displays the objectsselected in the scene, together with their clusters and materials.
• Image Clips displays a list of all image clips in the scene.
If you don’t use this pane, you can hide it by clicking the triangle on the splitter bar.
1
Select the thumnail size for the clips displayed in this list.
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Filters clips displayed by scene layer.
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Filter clips by user keywords.
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Filters clips by All, Used, Unused, and Highlighted clips.
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Filters clips by name.
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Right-click a clip to display a context menu.
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Drag and drop one or more image into the image clip explorer to create sources and clips.
Filtering Image Clips Displayed in the Image Clips Explorer
You can filter your image clips by using the Layer and Keywords filters on the image clips explorer. This helps you to organize and find certain clips in large scenes.
Keywords are simply tags that you give to objects, materials, and image clips to classify them in your own way. You can easily add and change keywords to image clips in the by right-clicking on of their thumbnails and choosing Set User Keyword from the menu that appears. For information on keywords, see User Keywords.
If you use the Layers and Keywords filters in combination with the Used and Unused filters, you can significantly narrow down the selection of image clips.
You can also use these controls to filter the clips displayed on the Image Clips tab.
Finding Materials that Use a Clip
To see all materials that use a clip
1. Select a clip in the cluster and clip explorer.
2. Click the Highlight Materials From Selected Objects icon in the material manager’s command bar, or choose Materials > Get Material From Selected Objects.
All materials that use the clip are highlighted in the material manager’s shelf area.
3. If desired, set the material manager’s display filter to Highlighted Materials to display only those materials.
Filtering the Materials Displayed in the Material Manager
You can filter your materials by using the Layer and Keywords filters on the command bar. This helps you to organize and find certain materials in large scenes.
Keywords are simply tags that you give to objects, materials, and image clips to classify them in your own way. You can easily add and change keywords to materials in the by right-clicking on their thumbnails and choosing Set User Keyword from the menu that appears. For information on keywords, see User Keywords.
If you use the Layers and Keywords filters in combination with the Used and Unused filters, you can significantly narrow down the selection of materials.
You can also use these controls in the command bar to filter the materials displayed in the material manager.
Finding and Getting Materials
Finding and Selecting Elements that Use a Material
To find and select all objects and clusters that use a material
Do one of the following:
• Right-click on a material’s shaderball and choose Select Objects with this Material.
or
• Select one or more materials, and choose Materials > Select Objects from Material.
or
• Select one or more materials, and click the Who Uses? tab at the bottom of the shelf. Doing this doesn’t select the objects that use the material, but simply lists them in the panel below the shelf. You can then easily select the objects from this list.
Highlighting Materials Used by Selected Objects
You can quickly find out which materials are being used by selected objects in a scene.
To highlight materials used by selected objects
1. Select the objects in the scene.
2. Click the Highlight Materials From Selected Objects icon in the material manager’s command bar, or choose Materials > Get Material From Selected Objects.
All materials that are used by those objects are highlighted in the material manager’s shelf area.
3. If desired, set the material manager’s display filter to Highlighted Materials to display only those materials.
Picking Materials from an Element
You can also select materials on a scene element by using the Pick Material from Object tool.
To select a material from an object or cluster
1. Select the object in the scene.
2. Click the Pick Material from Object Tool icon or choose Materials >PickMaterial from Object Tool.
3. Click on an object. The material applied to the object or cluster (as appropriate) is highlighted and selected in the material shelf.
4. The tool stays active. Click on another part of the object, or select another object using supra mode.
To exit the tool, activate another tool in sticky mode or press Esc.
To select materials from multiple objects or clusters
You can also use the Pick Material from Object tool to select materials from multiple objects or clusters (such as having different materials on several polygon clusters on one object) in your scene. For example, if you had a character in your scene with multiple materials, you could find out the name of the material for the arm, the one for the torso, and so on.
1. Select multiple objects or select an object that has multiple materials on its clusters.
2. Activate the Pick Material from Object Tool.
3. Click and drag the mouse across the objects.
The name of the material for the object that is currently under the cursor is displayed in the viewport as you do this.
4. When you find the material that you want, release the mouse. The material is selected in the material manager.
Setting Material Manager Preferences
You can set up the material manager’s different options as you like to help you work faster. These preferences include various display options for the shelf, image clips, and the explorer on the left.
The settings you make are stored in the material manager’s preferences and are reused the next time you open it.
To set the material manager preferences
1. Choose Materials > Material Manager Preferences from the material manager command bar, or choose File > Preferences from the Softimage main menu.
2. If you chose File > Preferences, select the Editors > Material Manager icon or name in the property editor that appears.
3. Set the display options as you like for your working environment.
For information on each option, see Material Manager Preferences or click the help icon (?) in the property editor.
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