Material Parameters

Define the color, reflectivity, roughness, transparency, and more.

Color

To define the color, choose from the following options:

Select a color.
Select a texture. The texture overrides the color.
To blend the color with the texture, click the plus symbol (+). You can tell if the blend option is turned on by looking at the image preview.

To define the shade, enter a value of 0-100, where 100 is the true color and 0 is black.

Reflectivity

Define the strength of the reflections.

Enter a value of 0-100, where 100 produces perfect mirror reflections and 0 produces the weakest reflections.

Roughness

Roughness adds texture to the material at a microscopic level. When you modify the roughness, the surface texture still looks the same; however, tiny changes invisible to the naked eye have occurred, affecting reflectivity.

0 can produce a perfect mirror reflection.

Lower values produce crisper and brighter reflections.

Higher values produce blurrier, dimmer reflections. Increasing the roughness spreads and distributes reflections over the surface and creates a more matte surface.

At values approaching 100, light becomes so scattered that reflections are barely visible, if at all.

Note: Roughness and Reflectivity are interdependent properties; smoother surfaces produce crisper reflections, while rougher surfaces produce blurrier reflections. For example, set roughness to 0 and reflectivity to 100 to produce a perfect mirror reflection. To make the reflection blurrier, increase the roughness.

Transparency

Define the level of the material transparency. 100 = completely transparent, 0 = fully opaque.

Bump

Bump adds texture to the material at a macroscopic level. Because it visibly affects the surface texture, Bump is useful for simulating irregular surfaces.

A bump map gives the illusion of texture without physically distorting the geometry, minimizing rendering time. The grayscale map tells Inspire Studio how to change the surface normals as if the surface had been displaced; the modified normals are used in lighting calculations. A bump map looks like the inverse of what you might expect: black represents the highest extreme and white represents the flattest extreme, while shades of gray represent grades in between.

Coating

Create varnishes and paints on a layered material.

The coating will reflect some light, while the rest of the light will be absorbed by the layer of material underneath; the extent to which this happens affects how the final material looks.

Several coatings may be applied one after the other, simulating multiple varnishes and paints.

Scratches

Add scratches to a material.

Wear

Add wear to a material.

Trimming

Add cut-out patterns to a material.

Texture

Select or upload a texture to apply to the object.

Anisotropy

Stretch and blur highlights. Anisotropic reflections are like regular reflections, except they are stretched and blurred against the grain of the material. They are often used to simulate finely brushed metals.

Brushed

Add a brushed finish to a material.

Glow Color

Define the color of the glow.

Glow Intensity

Define the intensity of the glow. Increase this value for a brighter glow; decrease it for a softer glow.