9.5.2

810 • CHAPTER 18
MATERIAL EDITOR • 811
The Material Editor enables you to edit the properties of the materials used in your scene. To open the
Material Editor, double-click a thumbnail in the Material manager. The Material Editor is ‘non-modal’.
In other words, there is no need to close it before you can edit another material. Simply click once on
another material in the Material manager and its settings will appear in the Material Editor.
Materials can also be edited in the Attribute manager.
For details on how to use the interface — such as how to navigate, create keys
and so on — see Chapter 21, ‘Attribute Manager’.
The Material Editor is divided into panes. A preview of the material is displayed in the top left corner.
There are also 15 pages of parameters, the settings of which are combined to form the material. You’ll
nd a list of these parameter pages — known as channels — in the left part of the dialog. Most of
the time you won’t need to use all the channels. Use the option boxes next to the channel names to
choose which channels (i.e. properties) are used by the material. To access a parameter page, click
the desired channel’s name. Each page operates in a similar way and the control elements are in the
same place.
Material Preview
To toggle the material preview on or off, click the triangle next to the preview. To rotate the preview,
right-drag (Windows) or Command-drag (Mac OS) or Shift-drag the preview.