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# 6 20-08-2004 , 05:45 AM
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Ahh, good logic indeed, Dann. I suppose maybe I should add that even though materials in the real world do have different feels to them, Maya only simulates the lighting effect of different real world materials. (guess I shouldn't have really mentioned the "feel" materials have in my description...)

From the Help files in Maya: A material is a collection of attributes that control how a surface appears, including its color and shininess.

So that goes along with my deffinition of a material I guess. Also, you have the fact that the shader library consists only of "shading networks comprised of different node types such as materials, textures, and utilities" as the Maya Help files state.

But meh... I don't want to endlessly debate this topic... in real-world usage, both "shader" and "material" are nearly used interchangebly. People pretty much know what you're talking about if you say either or, so I suppose it's nothing to worry about that much. lol.

Really though, you are correct in your description. The problem here is that Alias really shouldn't have used the term "material" to classify the catagory that consists of blinn, phong, lambert, etc. (in my opinion at least...)


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Last edited by Darkware; 20-08-2004 at 05:48 AM.