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Using the soft_material Shader

Any scene imported from SOFTIMAGE|3D uses the soft_material surface shader to define its materials and how they interact with any associated textures. The shader retains the name it was given prior to importing but, for our purposes, it is referred to as the “soft_material” shader.

The soft_material shader combines texturing capabilities within one monolithic shader so you can set parameters for blending 2D textures with a material from within the soft_material shader.

You cannot build a render tree from the soft_material shader; that is, you cannot add additional texture nodes or tool nodes to augment the effect. If you wish to do this, replace soft_material with one of the new surface shaders (Get > Material) and build from there as described in Applying and Editing Shaders.

The picture file and the current material on an object are blended together. One picture can be used to create several texture maps at the same time and different picture files used for different textures can be applied to the same object’s material both globally and locally. The texture image editing options of the soft_material shader are found in the property editor under the tab named after the image you wish to edit.

Blending the Material with a Picture File

Using the color sliders in the property editor, you can control the amount of blending between the picture file and the object’s current material. Values range from 0 to 1: if the value is set to 0, only the material is visible; if set to 1, only the picture file is visible.

• The Ambient slider controls the intensity of the picture file on the object’s ambient area of illumination. Values range from above 0 to 1. If the value is set to 0, the picture file is replaced by the object’s material (global or current local).

• The Diffuse slider controls the intensity of the picture file on the object’s diffuse area of illumination. Values range from above 0 to 1. If the value is set to 0, the picture file is replaced by the object’s material (global or current local).

• The Specular slider controls the intensity of the picture file on the object’s specular area of illumination. Values range from above 0 to 1; the value may be set higher to compensate for reflectivity or transparency. If the value is set at 0, the picture file is replaced by the object’s material (global or current local).

Blending Materials and Textures

The alpha channel and RGB intensity values of the picture file’s pixels can also be used as a mask to further control the various texture-mapping effects. You can mask using either the RGB values or the alpha channel (transparency) of the picture file as a blending factor. The blending parameters are found on the Map tab of the soft_material shader’s property editor.

The Mask parameter uses the SOFTIMAGE|3D mask blending method:

The Component parameter defines which component of the texture is used to blend.

Autodesk Softimage v.7.5     <     >