(Newbie Q) Run out of materials slots?

[Bobo]

Originally posted by TheCaptn
I feel like a total newbie now, but I've never modelled anything other than characters and weapons for Half-Life.

I'm working on my first still scene, and I've run out of material slots (y'know the little balls?)... I've gone through all 24 of them, and I'm going to need probably twice that before the scene is done.

I can't work out how to add more... Please help. :(


Oh! This is FAQ #1 :)
At least you know it is a Newbie Q :thumbsup:

Ok. The 24 sample slots are not directly linked to the scene. This means that you don't have to keep a material on a sample slot in Material Editor in order to have the material used in the scene. Actually, a max scene can have AS MANY MATERIALS as you want!
A material is an object (in Object Oriented programming meaning of the word) which is "attached" to the scene object, and you can have unlimited number of materials.

This means that changing properties of a Medit material slot will affect the scene instances of this material (as long it is "hot", denoted by white brackets), BUT REMOVING the material from the sample slot will NOT automatically remove the material from the scene!

Just hit the X icon in the Material Editor and tell max not to affect the scene. The sample will get a default grey material and you can start working with it. Or you could use the "material picker" next to the material name to get a material from the scene - replacing a material sample in the Editor with another one will again have no destructive effect on the scene. Or you could use the Get Material icon to get a new material from the scene, library, selection, create a new one etc.

Hope this helps.

[TheCaptn]

Indeed... That's exactly what I was after.

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