Making Materials Use Material Channels in 3DS MAX - Part 2 of a Free Tutorial

In this lesson you modify simple materials to make them capable of throwing sparks. To do this, you assign a Material Effects Channel to them. You associate this channel value with an effect in Video Post. This is how MAX knows which objects should have the effect.

Prior to proceeding with this project unpack the source files from the m0706a.exe self-extracting executable. To do this transfer the .exe file to a folder on your local hard disk. From the Windows Start menu choose Run. Select the .exe file. Choose OK, then specify where the source files should be places.

1. Open the 0706a.max file. You will see two ball and coil assembles. If you select the Play Animation icon in the lower right corner of the screen you can watch the two objects, which represent Tesla coils, move toward and away from each other. Between the two objects you will see particle systems that fire particles at one another.

   

2. Type M to display the Material Editor.
3. Select the upper left sample sphere that contains the yellow material.
4. Select the Material Effects Channel icon, then choose 1. This material has already been assigned to the coils and spheres in the scene.

   

5. Use the techniques just demonstrated to assign the Material Effects Channel 2 to the metallic Particle Spark material located in the upper middle sample sphere.

   

6. Close the Material Editor.

You will find our version of the model to this point in 0706b.max unpacked from the m0706a.exe self-extracting executable.

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