User interface

Overview

Material Maker mainly consists of 5 panes:

• The Project pane (located in the center) contains the graph editors where materials are described for current projects

• The Library pane (by default in the top left corner) contains all available nodes that can be used to create materials. Library items are shown in a tree view

• The Hierarchy pane (by default in the bottom left corner) shows the hierarchy of node groups of the current material graph

• The 2D preview pane (by default in the top right corner) shows the first texture generated by the currently selected node

• The 3D preview pane (by default in the bottom right corner) shows the current material applied to a sample mesh in a sample environment

The 4 panes on the sides of the user interface can be moved around by dragging their title to their desired location and hidden using the View -> Panes

First steps with the user interface

When opening Material Maker, a new empty project is created and shown in the center pane. An empty project simply consists of a material node where textures for all elements of the material should be connected.

To create a new node, simply choose one (for example “bricks”) from the library (the top left pane) and drag it into the graph editor. Depending on the selected library item, a preview or a simple description will be displayed while dragging.

An alternate method to create a node is to show the library menu using the space bar in the Project pane, and select a node from the list. The library menu will also be shown when connecting a node output into an empty space in the graph (in this case, the newly created node will be connected automatically).

Selecting this new node (by clicking on it) shows it in the 2D preview pane.

To connect a node output to an input of another node, simply drag one to the other. For example we can drag the first output of the Bricks node to the albedo input of the Materials node. This will automatically assign the simple Bricks texture to the albedo element of the material, and the 3D preview will immediately be updated.

Nodes can also be disconnected by dragging a connected input away from its node.

Nodes can easily be configured by modifying their parameters, and previews are updated automatically.

Since each input can be connected to a single output, reconnecting an input will automatically remove the previous connection.

Graph pane

The graph pane is where materials can be edited, by adding and configuring nodes, and connecting them.

Grid and zoom

In the top left corner of the graph pane, the following buttons can be used to modify the zoom level and configure the grid:

• the button zooms out.

• the button resets the zoom factor.

• the button zooms in.

• the button toggles the grid. When moved, nodes will stick to the grid when it is active. The grid size can be modified using the spinbox next to the grid button

The view can be centered using the View -> Center view menu item or the C shortcut, and the zoom factor can be reset using the View -> Reset zoom menu item or the Alt-0 shortcut.

Material navigation

In the top right corner of the graph pane, the graph navigation button can be used to show a tree view of the material (this is only useful when the Hierarchy pane is not visible). Double clicking on an item in this tree will show it in the graph view.

When a subgraph is shown in the graph pane, additional items are visible in the top right corner:

• a text entry shows the name of the subgraph and can be used to modify it.

• a button to decide if the current subgraph transmits its random seed to its children.

• a button to move to the parent of the currently shown subgraph.

Selecting and copying nodes

Clicking on the title bar of a node will select it. Selecting a node will show its first output (if any) in the 2D preview. It is possible to select several nodes by holding the Control key while selecting.

Selected nodes can be copied using the Edit -> Copy menu or the Control+C keyboard shortcut. They can also be cut using the Edit -> Cut menu entry or the Control+X shortcut. Both operations store the selected nodes and their interconnections in the clipboard. Note that the format used is JSON, and nodes or group of nodes can easily be shared using this format.

The contents of the clipboard can be pasted into a graph using the Edit -> Paste menu or the Control+V keyboard shortcut.

Selected items can also be duplicated using the Edit -> Duplicate menu or the Control+D keyboard shortcut. This operation does not affect the clipboard.

Background 2D preview

The bottom left “bricks” button can be used to show a 2D preview in the background of the graph view.

Background 3D preview

The bottom left “cube” button can be used to show a 3D preview in the background of the graph view. The blue/red arrows icon is used to rotate the object or the view, and other controls are similar to the 3D preview.

Library pane

The library pane shows all nodes defined in both base and user libraries in a tree view. The base library is provided with Material Maker and the nodes it contains are documented in this manual. The user library contains all nodes that were added using the Tools -> Add selected node to user library menu item.

The filter field above the library tree can be used to quickly find a specific node. The tree will be updated whenever the filter string is modified. It is possible to give focus to the search field using the Control+F keyboard shortcut.

Hierarchy pane

The hierarchy pane shows the hierarchy of groups of the current material graph. It shows the name as well as a preview of a number of outputs (for 0 to 3), that can be configured by right clicking on the pane.

Double clicking on a group in the hierarchy shows the contents of the corresponding group in the Graph pane.

2D Preview pane

The 2D preview pane shows a tiled preview of the first output of the selected node. The animated dashed lines show the bounds of the texture, so it is easy to check that the texture wraps correctly.

Depending on the selected node, controls can be shown and they can me moved around to modify the associated parameters.

3D Preview pane

The 3D preview pane shows a 3D preview of the current material.

The left select button can be used to select a model for the 3D preview, and the second one provides different environments. The R button can be used to start and stop the object’s rotation animation.

In the 3D view, the object can be rotated about the yaw and the pitch axes (from the camera’s point of view) by holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse horizontally or vertically. The object can also be rotated about the roll axis by holding Shift and and the right mouse button and moving the mouse horizontally.

Holding the left mouse button will rotate the camera while the object remains static.

Rotating the object or the camera will automatically disable the object’s rotate animation.

The mouse wheel can be used to move the camera along its longitudinal axis (hense zooming forward or backward).

Main menu

The main menu bar is organized in 5 menus:

• the File menu contains actions to create, load, save and export materials

• the Edit menu has common edit actions cut, copy and paste

• the View menu contains actions to customize the graphial user interface

• the Tools menu has actions to add items to the user library

• the Help menu can be used to find more information and submit feedback about the software

File menu

• New material creates a new material and opens a tab in the center pane to edit it

• Load material opens a file dialog to select a procedural material (.ptex) file. If a material file is selected, it will be open in a new tab in the center pane. If the current tab contains an empty material (about material that only consists of a Material node), the material will be loaded into this tab.

• Save material saves the current material. If it was not previously saved, a file dialog will be displayed to select a location and file name.

• Save material as prompts for a location and file name and saves the current material.

• Save all materials saves all currently open materials. Materials that were already saved are ignored.

• the Export submenu can be used to export the current Material for Godot, Unity or Unreal. It will prompt for a file name and generate PNG files for all components of the material. Exporting to one of those engines is described in the Exporting Materials section.

• Close material closes the current material.

• Quit closes the software.

Edit menu

• Cut Copies the selected nodes to the clipboard and removes them from the current material.

• Copy Copies the selected nodes to the clipboard

• Paste Copies the clipboard into the current material. Note that the nodes will be added to the center of the view, so it is advised to scroll to the correct location before pasting. Pasting also unselects all previously selected nodes and selects all newly created nodes, so they can easily be moved around.

View menu

• Center view Centers the current material graph view

• Reset zoom Resets the zoom level of the current material graph view

• the Panes submenu can be used to show or hide all side panes

Tools menu

• The Create submenu can be used to create any of the node templates.

• Create group creates a subgraph node with the currently selected nodes, and shows the contents of the newly created group in the current graph view.

• the Make selected nodes editable menu item will toggle edit mode for all selected nodes that support it. Shader and graph nodes will show 3 buttons to edit, load and save the node, switches will show controls to modify the number of choices and outputs, and input/output modes will become editable.

• Add selected node to user library first prompts for an item name. If a name is entered and confirmed, the selected nodes in the current material will be added to the user library under that name. The user library is saved automatically.

• Export the nodes library will prompt for a location on the disk and save the whole node library.

Help menu

• User manual opens an external web browser to show this manual

• Show selected library item documentation opens an external web browser to show documentation from the User Manual for the current library item

• Report a bug opens a web browser on the Issues page of Material Maker’s GitHub project. Please do not hesitate to use it to suggest improvements for Material Maker.

• About Shows the about dialog.