Custom Shader Materials

Custom materials are surfaces defined by their own drawing program rather than by a fixed finish like metal or wood. Where the other material families give you a ready-made look with a few settings, this family is the starting point for looks that are yours: a surface that shows an image exactly as it is, or a surface whose behavior you create in the studio.

What is in the family

The built-in member is the 3dRise Mesh Shader Material. It is an unlit surface: it shows a solid color, or an image you add, exactly as given, without being shaded by the scene's lights. Shadows, highlights and the angle of the light do not change it. That is the opposite of a realistic material, and it is what you want whenever the picture itself is the point.

Next to it, the custom surfaces you create in the studio are saved as materials of your own. Once saved, they are applied to objects like any other material, with their own settings in the panel.

Lit versus unlit

Most materials in the library react to light: a metal surface gets brighter where the light hits it and darker on the far side, which is what makes it look solid. An unlit surface ignores all that. A photo on an unlit plane looks like the photo; on a lit plane it looks like a printed photo in a room, darker on one side. Neither is better. Unlit is right for screens, posters, UI panels, logos, flat illustration and graphic scenes where colors must match a brand exactly; lit is right for physical objects.

How to choose

• Showing an image, a screenshot or a brand graphic on a plane or a model, with its colors untouched: the built-in unlit surface with a texture.
• A flat graphic color that should never change with lighting: the same unlit surface with just a Color.
• A realistic finish: a material from the lit families instead, such as basic materials, glass or metal.
• A look nobody else has: a custom surface you create in the studio.

Settings to know

On the built-in unlit surface, Color sets the surface color, and also tints the image when one is applied (white leaves the image unchanged). Opacity fades the surface out, from fully solid to invisible. Texture holds the image. Because the surface is unlit, the color you pick is the color you see on screen, apart from the scene's overall tone mapping.