You always have 24 slots in the Material Editor, even if you can only see 6. If you place your cursor between the sample slots’ borders, you get a hand cursor that allows you to pan around the samples. You can also use the scroll bars located to the right and below the sample slots.

FIGURE 8.2  Objects and the Material Editor

FIGURE 8.3  6×4 Material Editor

	TIP To enlarge a sample slot, double-click it. The sample slot becomes a floating window. Drag out a corner to enlarge the window.

	WARNING It takes forever to render a really large “floating” sample slot on a complex material, so only enlarge it to a reasonable size.

Now that you know how to change the number of sample slots, let’s change the actual sample. By default all the sample slots are spheres. You can change that using the Sample Type button, located in top-right corner of the Editor.

Notice that the Sample Type button has a flyout symbol. Click and hold the button. You have three choices: Box, Cylinder and Sphere. Try the other buttons. Notice that your sphere changes to the selected shape. These can be very useful when you want to see your particular material on a specific shape.

For example, let’s change a sample slot to a box and look at a couple more options in the shortcut (or “right-click”) menu:

1.  Click the Material # 3 slot to activate it, and change it to a Box sample type using the Sample Type button.

2.  Right-click the sample slot to bring up the shortcut menu (shown in Figure 8.4). This is the same menu that you used to change the number of sample slots. Notice the first three selections in the menu (Drag/Copy, Drag/Rotate and Reset Rotation).

FIGURE 8.4  The Material Editor shortcut menu

3.  Select Drag/Rotate.

4.  Rotate the box sample around.

By default, Drag/Copy is checked. This allows you to drag and drop a material to another sample slot (creating a copy of the material) or to an object in your scene (applying the material to the object). When Drag/Rotate is checked, dragging a sample rotates it so you can view it from various angles. Reset Rotation returns the sample slot’s rotation to its original state.

	WARNING When you drag-copy a material from one slot to another, MAX names the copy the same as the original. You must rename one of the materials, or you risk accidentally changing the wrong one.

	TIP When Drag/Copy is selected, holding the middle mouse button on a three-button mouse will switch you to Drag/Rotate.

Sample rotation is different when you drag your cursor from the middle of the sample and from the corners (similar to the Arc Rotate tool). This is very helpful when you want to see the opposite side of a material.

	TIP Holding the Shift key while dragging a sample will constrain the rotational axis to left–right or up–down.

We talked earlier about double-clicking a sample sphere to enlarge it. You can also enlarge a sample slot by using the Magnify command in the shortcut menu.

Toolbars are located to the right of and below the sample slots (see Figure 8.5). This chapter will concentrate on the more frequently used features in these toolbars. Table 8.1 takes a look at the buttons arranged vertically on the right side of the window; Table 8.2 describes the buttons on the horizontal toolbar.

FIGURE 8.5  Material Editor toolbars

© 2000, Frol (selection, edition, publication)