9

Sample Slots 1421
Hot a nd Cool M ater ia ls
Asampleslotis"hot" (page 3–953) when the
material in the slot is assigned to one or more
surfaces in the scene. When you use the Material
Editor to adjust a hot sample slot, the material in
the scene changes at the same time.
The corners of a sample slot indicate whether the
material is a hot material:
• No t riangle: The material is not used in the
scene.
• Outlined w hite triangle: The material is hot.
In other words, it’s instanced in the scene.
Changes you make to the material in the sample
slot will change the material displayed in the
scene.
• Solid w hite triang le: The material is not only
hot, but is applied to the c urrently selec ted
object.
Left: "Hot" material applied to currently selec ted object.
Middle: "Hot" material assigned to scene but not to currently
selected object.
Right: "Cool" material: active but not assigned to scene.
Amaterialis"cool" (page 3–924) if it is not applied
to any object in the scene.
To make a hot sample slot cool, click Make
Material Copy (page 2–1442). Thiscopiesthe
materialinthesampleslotontopofitselfsothat
it’s no longer used in the scene.
You can have the same materia l (with the same
name)inmorethanonesampleslot,butonlyone
slot containing that material can be hot. You can
havemorethanonehotsampleslot,aslongaseach
has a different materia l.
If you drag to copy a material from a hot slot to
another slot, the destination slot is cool, and the
original slot remains hot.
See also
Sample Slot Right-Click Menu (page 2–1422)
DraggingandDroppingMapsandMaterials(page
2–1423)
Creating a Custom S ample Object (page 2–1425)
Procedures
To use a sample slot:
• Clickthesampleslottomakeitactive.
Theactivesampleslotisdisplayedwithawhite
border around it.
Thesampleslotshowsasampleobjectshaded
with a material. (By default, the sample object
is a sphere.) The sample object is lit by a light
sourceaboveitandslightlytowardtheviewer.
For the sphere, the highlight is in the upper-left
quadrant. The diffuse color shows most clearly
aboveandtotheleftofthehighlight,shading
toward the ambien t color at the sphere’s lower
right.
To change the prev iew shape:
1.
Make sure the sample slot of the material you
want to vie w is active.
2. Use the Sample Type flyout (page 2–1432) to
choosetheshapeyouwanttoview.Theflyout
gives you three options: sphere (the default),
cylinder, or box.
Thenewshapeisdisplayedinthesampleslot,
w ith the material mapped to it.
To r ender the current ma pping l evel:
1.
Move to the level of the map hierarchy that you
want to render.