Materials

Materials differ from textures in that they do not affect what the objects or surfaces will look like, but rather how they interact with light. The result of applying a material is only apparent in renderings and in Shaded view. Below is an example of a rendering with materials included:

Objects and surfaces can be assigned both a texture and a material. You apply materials using the Appearance tab in the Properties dialog box. You can choose your preferred material from the list of materials provided with WYSIWYG.

To toggle materials in shaded view

1. In Shaded view, from the Options menu, choose View Options.
2. In the Simulation tab, select the Enable checkbox in the Materials section to display materials in Shaded view.

To apply a material to an object (surface, object, or venue)

1. Right-click the object which you want to apply the material to, and then choose Properties.

Result: The Properties window appears.

2. In the Properties window, click the Appearance tab.
3. From the Elements list box, choose the elements to which you want to apply the material. To choose a custom material for the selected elements (such as metal, paper, plastic, or fabric) click the ellipsis button (...) beside the Material box.

Result: The Material Select window appears.

Tip: When a material is highlighted in the Material Select window, a preview of the material applied to objects is displayed.

4. In the Material Select window, navigate to and highlight the desired material, and then click Select.

Result: The settings of the element will be configured so that it simulates the material.

5. If desired, you can edit the default properties of the selected element. The element options vary as follows:

• Transparency: This setting controls the proportion of light that passes through the material.
• Specular Level: This setting controls how prominent other specular effects appear on the material.
• Specular Gloss: This settings controls the level of gloss the material will project.
• Specular Color Source: This setting controls the color of light projected on the material.
• Light Reflection: This setting controls the amount of light that is reflected off the material.

Note: From the drop-down lists, you can change any of the material properties. Use the Reset button to revert back to defaults.

6. Click Apply.
7. Click OK.

Material reflections

The reflective properties of a material can be toggled to enable true reflections in Shaded view. When enabled, the material will produce a detailed and faithful representation of everything reflected on its surface.

Attention:

• The number of reflective material surfaces that WYSIWYG can support is 10. When enabling reflections on an object, note the number of surfaces that make up the object. For example, a cube has 6 sides. If an entire cube was to be reflective, it would use 6 reflective surfaces.
• This limit of 10 reflective elements is in effect to prevent the Shaded view performance from degrading to unacceptable levels. Reflections work by rendering each frame for the Shaded view (to the screen, this has no connection with Rendering in the Render Wizard) over and over within each reflective element.
• The Shaded view will be rendered twice per frame if you add one reflective element; three renderings per Shaded view frame if you add a second reflective element; four renderings per Shaded view frame if you add a third reflective element; and so on, up to the maximum of 10 reflections which require eleven renderings for each frame displayed.
• We recommend to enable Reflections sparingly, or in most cases, disable for live simulation/pre-cueing.

Note: Objects that have reflections enabled will be displayed with a blue bounding box in the Shaded view.

To apply reflections to an object (surface object or venue)

Note: The quality of reflection is based on the material properties of the object. Dull or unreflective materials will reflect poorly.

1. In CAD mode, Wireframe view, right-click the object which you want to apply the reflection to, and then choose Properties.

Result: The Properties window appears.

2. In the Properties window, click the Appearance tab.
3. From the Elements list box, choose the elements of the object which you want to apply the reflection.

Note: Remember WYSIWYG limits the number of reflective surfaces to 10.

4. In the Material Properties section, select the Display Reflection in Shaded Views checkbox.
5. Click Apply.
6. Click OK.
7. Go to LIVE mode, Shaded view.
8. Go to Options > View Options....

Result: The View Options window appears.

9. In the View Options window, click the Simulation tab.
10. Under the Materials section, select the Reflections checkbox.
11. Click OK.

Result: Reflective materials are enabled and demonstrate true reflections.