Creating Refractive Materials in 3DS MAX

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Now that you have created the jewel geometry, you must create the refractive raytraced material that that will make it look like a jewel.

This material will be highly reflective, transparent and have a refraction index. These are the characteristics of jewels in the real world. Raytraced materials are useful because they more accurately reflect the way light and materials work together. They are particularly useful when you are creating objects with optical effects, like mirrors, glass objects, jewels, water, and so forth.

1. Type M to display the Material Editor.
2. Select an unused sample sphere.
3. Select the word Standard to the right of the word Type. This lets you specify the kind of material you want to create.



4. Double-click Raytrace from the list of material types.



5. Select the rectangular color swatch just to the right of the word Diffuse.
6. Use the Color Selector to create a dark green color. This specifies the color of the object in the unshiny areas.



7. In the Specular Level spinner, type 150. This makes the object have small specular highlights.
8. In the Glossiness spinner, type 60. This makes the specular highlights very bright.

   

9. Select the Transparency color swatch and make this color a lighter green.



10. Choose Close to exit this window.
11. In the Index of Ref. spinner, type 2.149. A high index of refraction makes it look as if light were bouncing around a great deal inside the object. Check out the MAX help system, under the topic Raytrace Material, for a list of refraction index values associated with various kinds of materials.



12. In the Material Editor, select the 2-Sided checkbox. This makes the faces inside the object reflect and refract light as well as the outside faces.



13. In the scene, select the cross, if it's not already selected.
14. Select the Assign Material to Selection icon in the Material Editor. You can drag and drop the sample sphere onto the cross, if you prefer.
15. Close the Material Editor.
16. Select the Display tab.
17. Choose Unhide All.
18. Adjust the position of the cross, if desired.
19. Render the Perspective view.

You will find our version of the project to this point in 0631c.max in the self-extracting executable m0431a.exe.

This tutorial continues . . .