The Material Mixer sub-palette has enhanced mixing operators, making it possible for you to mix several shaders on a surface, creating dynamic materials and effects.
As an example, these operators can let you use the model’s PolyPaint information to define where the first or second shader will be visible on the model. Another example would be to simply remove specularity from parts of the surface that are in shadow.
Most of these mixer sliders are combined with an exponential slider which will affect the way any shader is spread across the surface.
Fresnel
The strength of the Fresnel blending effect. Shader mixing is calculated based on the normals of the mesh. Higher values give a stronger effect.
F Exp
The Fresnel exponent slider. Set this slider to adjust the falloff of the fresnel effect.
Sss
The strength of the Sub-surface Scattering blending effect. Shader mixing is based on the thickness of the mesh. Higher values give a stronger effect.
Front
Front Sub-surface Scattering. Subsurface scattering will be rendered for the front of the object.
S Exp
The SSS exponent slider. Set this slider to adjust the falloff of the subsurface scattering effect.
Shader Blend mode – default is >Replace(Normal)
Click to select the way the shader is blended with the other shaders in the material. Modes include Normal (the default mode), Lighten, Darken, Multiply, etc.
Black
Switch on Black to see the current shader’s effect without input from the other shaders. When this is off, shader blending is cumulative.
By Shadow
The By Shadow slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based solely on the shadow being rendered on the model’s surface. This effect will only be noticeable after performing a BPR render.
Shadow Exp
The Shadow exponent slider.
By AO
The By Ambient Occlusion slider is very similar to the By Shadow slider except that it lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the rendered surface’s ambient occlusion information. This effect will be visible after a BPR render.
AO Exp
The Ambient Occlusion exponent slider.
Color picker
You can use the Color picker to sample a color from the model which will then act as a modulator for the selected shader. Simply click and drag from this over your model to select the desired color. This color picker ignores specular and shadow information and so will only sample the surface’s base color. By adjusting the associated sliders, this sampled color can be used based on any combination of its Intensity, Hue or Saturation.
By Int
The By Intensity slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the intensity of the PolyPaint color that has been sampled using the Color Picker.
By Hue
The By Hue slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the hue of the PolyPaint color that has been sampled using the Color Picker.
By Sat
The By Saturation slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the saturation of the PolyPaint color that has been sampled using the Color Picker.
By Depth
The By Depth slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the depth of the surface relative to the camera.
Depth Exp
The Depth exponent slider.
Depth A and B
If using a MatCap material with two channels, the Depth A & B sliders allow you to mix the current shader with the previous one based upon the dominance of the material’s A & B channels on the rendered surface.
MinOpacity
Subsurface minimum opacity. Set this slider to adjust the minimum opacity for the subsurface scattering blend colors.
MaxOpacity
Subsurface maximum opacity. Set this slider to adjust the maximum opacity for the subsurface scattering blend colors.
PreviewOpacity
Adjust this slider to change the look of the material in Preview render mode when adjusting the SSS parameters. Setting the slider to show the approximate effect of SSS can be useful when balancing with other materials and effects. This slider has no effect on a BPR or Best Render.