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Part VII: Advanced Materials
For each template, several rollouts of parameters are available for defining the Diffuse, Reflection,
Refraction, Translucency, Anisotropy, Fresnel Reflections, Bumps, and Self-Illumination properties along
with a full selection of maps. Figure 30.9 shows a sampling of the available materials.
FIGURE 30.9
The materials in the mental ray Arch & Design collection include a broad set of physical properties.

Within the Special Effects rollout are two specialized options that add to the render realism. Ambient
Occlusion lights the scene based on how accessible ambient light is to scene objects. It is a material shader
solution and is not based on lights. Areas that face a wall or are blocked by other objects are recessed in
shadow. Areas facing the lights are highlighted more. Using the Samples and Max Distance, you can control
the contrast of the resulting image. By default, ambient occlusion uses black and gray tones to show
occluded areas, but if you enable the Use Color From Other Materials (Exact AO), then the object’s diffuse
color is reflected into the occluded areas. Figure 30.10 shows an example of Ambient Occlusion.
The other useful special effect option is Round Corners. When you apply this option to a mechanical object,
the object’s edge is rounded so the light source highlights the edge, but no change is made to the object’s
geometry. This creates a realistic soft edge without the time or extra polygons to create it using geometry.
Using the Self Illumination (Glow) rollout, you can make a material act as a light source to the scene. This
rollout includes presets for photometric properties based on real-world values such as degrees Kelvin.

Using the ProMaterials
The ProMaterials are based on the Arch & Design materials and represent a variety of real-world materials
that are commonly used in building projects. ProMaterials are designed to be simpler and easier to use than

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