Assigning a Viewer Material Shader

The Viewer is OpenGL based, so for materials to display in the Viewer, they must have an OpenGL Viewer shader. It is this Viewer shader, not a renderer's shader that the Viewer shows when in Shaded (raw) or Shaded (filmlook) modes.

For example, create a primitive, assign a 3Delight shader, and observe the Viewer output in Shaded (raw) mode.

1.

Create a primitive using a Primitive Create node.

2.

Create a 3Delight material using a Material node.

3.

Change the Diffuse Color in the Base Layer section.

4.

Assign the material to the primitive using a MaterialAssign node.

5.

Add a Spotlight using a GafferThree node, then position it.

6.

Change the Viewer to Options > Shaded (raw) mode.

Without a Viewer shader assigned, the primitive in the Viewer defaults to a gray Lambert.

Add a Viewer shader to your material, and observe the Viewer output in Shaded (raw) mode.

1.

Open the recipe described above.

2.

Edit the parameters of the Material node.

3.

Click Add shader, and select Surface from the dropdown list.

4.

Select KatanaPhong as the Viewer shader type.

5.

Edit the diffuse color of the KatanaPhong shader.

6.

Change the viewer to Options > Shaded (raw) mode.

The viewer displays the Viewer shader added to the material node.

Note:  To have Viewer shaders mirror production shaders, it’s advisable to link by expression common parameters, such as diffuse and specular color, or texture file path.