Create an out of this world material


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Using the 'Material Editor', you can create a wide variety of materials.
In this tutorial, we will create an out of this world material, a Science Fiction material. This material will be a result of two different materials. First, we'll mix materials and then edit the materials' distribution.

Create a new scene and create a sphere (Shift+S).
The sphere will be our pattern.
Press the 'Load material' button and apply the 'Black porcelaine' material from the 'Basic' collection to the sphere.
Right click the sphere in the 'Object properties' window and select 'Edit material'.

In the 'Material Editor', select the 'Reflections' tab and set the 'Global reflectivity' to 45%.

Select the 'Mix material' in the 'Type' section.

In the 'Material 2' box, press the 'Load material' button to load the 'Luminous Glow' material from the 'Glowing' collection.

Right click the 'Luminous Glow' and select 'Edit Material'. Right click the yellow rectangle in the 'Coloring mode' and select 'Load Color Map'.

Select 'Default preview' from the 'Colorful' collection and press OK.

Select the 'Effects' tab'.
In the 'Glowing material' section set the 'Intensity' to 9% and the 'Radius' to 7%.

Press OK.
Now we can load a mixing function.
Right click the sphere in the 'Distribution of materials 1 and 2' and select 'Load Function'.

Load the 'Cracks' from the 'Basic' collection.

In the 'Material Editor' press the 'Swap' button.

Press the 'Load Atmosphere' button and select the 'Moon Light' from the 'Others' collection. Press OK and try to render.

If you like the new material, you can save it. Right click the sphere in the 'Object properties' window and select 'Save Material'.

Right click in the 'Object properties' window again and select 'Edit Material'.
Press the 'Swap' button and here is another nice material.

 


Let's add to a little glow to our material. This will make our material more intricate.
Open the 'Material Editor' and press the 'Swap' button again (now, the 'Material 1' is the light one).
Also, we can add more lines on our material. To do this we need to edit the 'Distribution of material 1 and 2' function. Right click the function cube and select 'Edit Function'.
Decrease the 'Scale' parameters to 0,5 and press OK.

Right click the 'Material 2' pattern and select 'Edit material'.
Select the 'Transparency' tab and set 'Global transparency' to 70%.
Check the 'Variable transparency' in the 'Transparency production' box and load the 'Aggregated' function from the 'Bumps' collection.
Decrease the 'Global reflectivity' in the 'Reflections' tab to 36%.
Select the 'Effects' tab and check the 'Glowing material', make sure the 'Glow behind objects' is checked. Set the 'Intensity' and the 'Radius' to 40%. Press OK.


Now, let's edit 'Material 1'. Right click the pattern and select 'Edit Material'. Select the 'Effects tab' and set the glow 'Intensity' to 61% and the 'Radius' to 62%. Press OK.
Below you can see the rendering of our material: