Simple Materials

The Simple materials tab in the Material room provides an interface for creating basic materials for Poser. The Simple materials are handled separately from Advanced materials. If you want to use the simple room to edit a material you can import advanced materials. When an advanced material is imported there will likely be functions that are not supported in the Simple tab. Importing an existing material to the Simple tab leaves the existing advanced material intact. The process is non-destructive to the Advanced material in the Edit tab until the Simple material is exported to the Edit tab.

The simple room is intended to provide an easy way to import Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials. The texture maps supported in the Simple Tab are those generally used in PBR materials. The Simple Tab can not handle any complex shaders. It only works with texture maps. Anything more complex than that should be done with Advanced materials in the Edit Tab.

While editing in the Simple Material Tab the advanced tab will be locked. To return to editing in the advanced tab you can click the Reset Material button to discard changes or click Advanced Material to replace the Advanced material in the edit tab.

1.Simple Tab: This is where you can select the simple materials tab.

1.Create Simple Material: This activates the simple material.

2.Material Preview: This displays a preview of the texture to be applied to the surface.

3.Texture Tiles: This is where image maps and colors are selected for the material.

4.Object and material selections: Click the down arrow to select one of the objects or materials in your scene.

5.Import Advanced Material: This simplifies the current advanced material and copies it into the Simple tab.

6.Reset Simple Material: This will remove the simple material for this material zone from your scene.

7.Create Advanced Material: This copies the simple material into the Edit tab as an advanced material. With the edit tab you can make more complex materials.

To enable the simple material mode for a material zone click the Create Simple Material button (2).

When the simple material mode is enabled the Edit Tab is locked for that material. The complexity of the Edit Tab materials can't be represented in the simple room. Locking the tab prevents confusing the two material modes. To return to using the Edit Tab you can either Create Advanced Material (7) or Reset Material (8).
 

 

Create Advanced Material will replace the existing Edit Tab material with a shader created by the simple tab. This shader will use the Physical Surface and create a Photo Based Render (PBR) material. This is intended for maximum compatibility with material created using tools like Substance Designer.
 

Reset Material deletes the simple material and unlocks the Edit Tab.

The Simple Material Tiles are where you can add and adjust image maps and material colors in the simple materials tab.

 

1.Image thumbnail: Click in this blank area to add an image to the material. You can also drag and drop an image from file explorer.

2.Base Color (Some tiles): The base color will be used if there is no texture map loaded. If there is a texture map loaded the texture map will be multiplied by the base color. Set the color to pure white for the texture to be unchanged.

3.Delete image: This deletes the texture map from the scene.

4.Strength Dial (Some tiles): Use this to adjust the strength of the texture map.
 

To create a new Simple Material

 

1.Activate the Eyedropper tool.

1.Using the eyedropper tool, click on the material to be edited.

2.Click the Create Simple material button to switch to simple mode.

3.Click on the texture tile where you want to add a texture map.

4.On the texture manager click Browse.

5.Choose the image map to use in the file chooser.

Pro Tip: An easier and faster way to add texture maps to a material is to drag and drop them from File Explorer.

 

Creating a simple material doesn't destroy the existing Edit Tab material until you click the Create Advanced Material button. If you change your mind about using a simple material you can Reset Material without affecting the Edit Tab.

 

Import and Advanced Material

 

If you want to modify an existing material you can import it into the simple tab for editing. The simple material tab is designed to represent a modern Physically Based Rendering (PBR) material. If you use an application like Substance Painter you can load the texture maps from there into the Simple Material tab.

Editing an imported material is the same as with a newly created simple material.

Exporting a simple material to the Edit tab as an advanced material

 

Click on the "Create Advanced Material" button to export the Simple Material for advanced editing in the Edit Tab. This will replace the existing material in the Edit tab with a the material shader generated by the simple tab.

This is not necessary export the material if you intend to leave the simple material as it is. It's only needed if the shader needs nodes that are not supported in the Simple Tab.

Exported Simple materials will be created In the Edit Tab using the Physical Root node. The Physical root is compatible with FireFly and SuperFly.