🏽 Material Editor
Welcome to the material editor of the illust. creator studio. The material editor is where you can embelish the 3D experience, providing a unique set of properties to make your AR scene pop!
Last updated
Welcome to the material editor of the illust. creator studio. The material editor is where you can embelish the 3D experience, providing a unique set of properties to make your AR scene pop!
Last updated
Following a Physically Based Rendering or PBR Flow, the material editor gives creators extra dimensionality to their AR creations. It also gives creators more flexibility in the size of the AR scene so that file sizes are optimized and more economical when being rendered.
Reset Materials: brings the model back to its original state, prior to editing materials/textures
Save Materials: saves the materials after they've been manipulated for the object
This provides a list of different channels in the 3D scene which can be edited as provided by the UV map of the model.
[Insert picture of the dropdown menu]
It represents the diffuser based material of the color outside of any other color such as shadows or reflections. It only maintains only the surfaces color and texture. It so that we don't have baked shadows or reflections in the material since we only want to display texture and shadows from the light source in our scene.
Color Map: a texture uploader that sets the color map for the 3D experience. It comes with a color picker as well.
Emissive Color: a map that provides a sense of glow for the object. This "glow" is it's own light source and separate from the main light source in the scene.
Emissive Intensity: on a scale of 0 to 1, the emissive intensity the strength of the light
[Provide examples of a good color map, show a video of these being changed via screenshare]
Different surfaces such as metal and glass provide different levels of reflection given its surface.
Roughness Map: it shows how rough or smooth the surface is and dictates how intense the reflections are on the surface. Rough substances scatters light on the surface in multiple directions resulting in softer reflections and diffused highlights. While a smooth surface reflects light more directly creating sharp highlights and glossy reflections. The texture uploader is used to define the roughness of the specific channel being manipulated. The roughness map scale is from 0 to 1 with 0 being a perflectly smooth surface with crisp reflections and 1 with a surface with diffused reflections.
[Provide a good example of a roughness map and how it effects the model]
Metalness Map: a texture uploader used to define how metallic the surface channel being manipulated. When the metallic value is set to maximum it appears darker and reflects its environment.
[Provide a good example of a metalness map and how it effects the model]
Ambient Occlusion Map: serve to emphasise more shadows and details on the surface of the 3D channel being manipulated. It's used to emphasise color or diffuse
[Provide a good example of an ambient occlusion map and how it effects the model]
Normal maps: are useful for providing fake depth without the cost of additional geometry. They simulate the way light interacts with the surface using complicated computations simulating smaller bumps and bends. This way you can simulate rough substances with real time light interactions by only using one single image texture.
Normal X:
Normal Y:
[Provide a good example of a normal map and how it effects the model] [also provide links to where someone can grab some open source examples and have a go in the studio]
The level of transparency of the object. To use simple transparency, turn "Transparent" on and set the opacity to the desired value, then set "Transmission" to 0.
Opacity: with the transparent selection on, it provides a level of "tranparency" for the 3D experience. 1 being visible, 0 being invisible.
[Provide a good example of a normal map and how it effects the model]
Blending Mode - Normal: In the Normal blending mode, transparency allows the underlying layer to be partially visible through the opaque portions of the top layer. This is achieved by reducing the opacity of the top layer, causing the colors below to "bleed" through where the top layer is less opaque. In essence, Normal mode with transparency is a simple form of blending, where the top layer's opacity dictates how much of the bottom layer is visible.
[Provide a good example of a normal map and how it effects the model]
Blending Mode - Additive: "Additive" (also known as "Linear Dodge" or "Add") means that the color values of the two layers are added together, resulting in a brighter appearance. Transparency is handled by making black values transparent, as adding black to any color will not change it. This makes additive blending useful for effects like fire or highlights, where light and color need to combine to create a visual effect.
[Provide a good example of a normal map and how it effects the model]
Blending Mode - Subtractive: the "subtractive" mode refers to a mode that makes the resulting channel darker by subtracting color values or light from the base layer. When used with transparency, this means that transparent areas in the blending layer (the layer above) will effectively make the corresponding areas of the base layer darker, as the transparent areas allow the base layer's colors to be seen more intensely.
[Provide a good example of a normal map and how it effects the model]
Blending Mode - Multiply: the "Multiply" blending mode effectively darkens the underlying layer where there are colors in the blending layer. Any white pixels on the blending layer will have no effect, while black pixels will act as a full dark, transparent overlay. The result is a darkening effect, where the luminosity of the base color is multiplied by the blend color.
[Provide a good example of a normal map and how it effects the model]
Transmission: "transmission" refers to the amount of light that passes through a material. It's a key parameter for controlling how light interacts with a material, especially when creating effects like refraction, translucency, or even transparency. When a material has a high transmission value, it means more light can pass through it, making it appear more see-through or transparent. (note: to use complex transparency, turn transparent off and set transmission to 1, then set Thickness and Index of Reflections.)
[Provide a good example of transmission and how it effects the model]
Thickness: determines how much light travels through the material before exiting. It's a measure of how much material is present, influencing how light interacts with the material. Thicker materials transmit less light, leading to darker colors or reduced visibility of objects behind them.
[Provide a good example of thickness and how it effects the model]
Index of Refraction (IoR): IOR dictates how much light bends when passing through the material.
A higher IOR means the light bends more when entering the material.
Different materials have different IOR values, with air having an IOR of 1.0.
Examples of materials with increasing IOR include water (1.33), glass (1.54), and diamond (2.419).
IOR is a physical property, and it can be looked up for specific materials.
[Provide a good example of IoR and how it effects the model]
Sides - Double: For "double-sided" materials, thickness/IoR affects both the front and back of the object
[Provide a good example of a double sided effect and how it effects the model]
Sides - Front: For "front" materials, thickness/IoR affects the front of the object
[Provide a good example of a front side and how it effects the model]
Sides - Back: For "back" materials, thickness/IoR affects the front of the object
[Provide a good example of a back side and how it effects the model]
Helpful information for newbies: