This article is intended to guide you through the process of creating basic materials from scratch in 3ds Max. These can be developed further to give you an even more realistic look towards your renders. Please note that the values given below are subject to change and have been used as ''artistic interpretation''. Feel free to play around with these settings to suit your needs.
Additionally, the Corona Physical material does include a list of ''pre-made'' materials that one can use and expand on. These materials can be accessed within the Corona Physical Material by navigating to the “Basic options” tab and selecting the desired material properties from the ''Apply preset'' drop-down menu.
And with that said, let's make some materials!
Glass - Clear
- Create a Corona Physical material and set the roughness amount to "0".
- Use the default IOR value of 1.5 and set the Refraction Amount to "1".
Note: For windows or glass found in picture frames, the ''Thin shell (no inside)'' option can be enabled in the Basic Options tab of the Physical material.
Glass - Tinted
- Create a new Corona Physical material and reduce the roughness amount to "0".
- Set the Refraction amount value to "1" and leave other settings to default values.
- Goto the "Volumetric Scattering" section and add color to the Absorption. In this example, the HSV values are 150, 171, and 185.
- You can Increase or decrease the value of "Distance" in Volumetric Scattering. A smaller distance will make the glass darker and a higher amount will make the glass more clear.
Water - Clear/Still
- Create a new Corona Physical material and reduce the roughness amount to 0.
- Decrease the IOR value to 1.33 for water. A list of IOR values can be found here: IOR List
Metal - Chrome
- Create a Corona Physical material and change the ''Metalness'' mode to "Metal" within the Corona Physical Material.
- Set the roughness amount to 0.
Note: For colored metal such as Brass, Gold, Copper etc, you can change the color of the base layer.
Plastic
- Create a new Corona Physical material and give the base a color of your liking.
- Reduce the roughness amount to suit the kind of plastic you wish to create. In this case, we used a value of ".4".
- Set the IOR value to 1.35
Ceramics - Porcelain
- Create a new Corona Physical material and give the base layer an HSV colour value of 13, 204, 240 (or another to your liking).
- Reduce the roughness amount to suit the kind of ceramic you wish to create. In this case we used a value of 0.1.
- Assign a noise map to the bump slot and set bump amount to around 0.2. You can adjust the noise map size or bump amount to suit your scene.
Wax - Candle
- Create a new Corona Physical material and change the roughness amount to ".3".
- Give the base layer a color. In this example, the HSV values are 48, 25, and 255.
- Set the IOR value to 1.3.
- Set the SSS amount to "1" and change the radius to 5cm (the amount will vary from scene to scene. Working to scale is always recommended).
- Change the scatter color to a darker version of what was used in the base layer. In this case, the HSV values are 47, 47, and 181.
Wood - Walnut
- Create a new Corona Physical material and Advanced wood map.
- Assign an "Advanced wood" map to the base color texture slot of Corona's Physical material. Within the Advance Wood map setting, choose the "3D Walnut - Unfinished" preset to achieve a natural wood appearance. (See settings image below).
- Leave the IOR value to 1.5.
- Assign roughness from the "Advanced wood" map to the "Base roughness" slot in Corona Physical material.
- Assign bump from the "Advanced wood" map to the "Base bump" slot in Corona Physical material.
If you are looking for more ''advanced'' materials or a certain type of material, please keep in mind that there is also the Corona Material Library and the Cosmos Browser which come included with the Corona installer for both Cinema 4D and 3ds Max.