Material properties

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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:

<drive>:\Program Files\Mudbox\Mudbox<version number>\effects