[qrk5]

I've been reading all the post in the forum on decals and placing maps
clipping etc. I guess I'm just dense but I can't seem to get it to work.
As shown in the attachments I cannot seem to get the background to
to render unaffected. I also have a question about channels. There does not seem to be any way of knowing which channel is related to which
mapping wiget. channel # in Rhino does not seem to relate to channel #
in Material editor. I need to be able to apply multiple decals on a single
surface in Rhino. Sometimes I need the decal to also emitt light as in a
lighted exit sign. In the red/yellow squiggle map again I just can't get the
background of the map to clip out. Thanks for any help.

[Mihai]

Looks like you need to invert the weightmap for one of the bsdfs. Download a clip mapped material from the mxmgallery and check it out.

[qrk5]

Something very strange has been happening. I've been adding and deleteing maps, putting them in different places turning layers on and off
etc. trying to learn how to use clip maps. I have gone back to one bsdf with just a single color all settings at default and all other bsdf's turned off. Then I refreshed material preview, and render both are black. I again turn on some of the other bsdf's and it renders color again. I have tried clear data cache, still renders black???

[JDHill]

In my experience, disabling a BSDF is not the same as removing it. I can't recall exactly what I mean, but I'm pretty sure it renders different.

[EADC]

Here's my way of working: i just place a planar surface (as many as you need decals) closely in front of my subject with a base color(red in this case) like this:

Assign material to the planar surfaces like this:


And the result looks like this:

Turn on Multilight and adjust to your needs.

[dilbert]

Remember also that if you are using weightmaps you have to factor in a greyscale to get the correct result.

For instance, say you wanted your box to be a standard Maxwell "rough red plastic" that has two BSDF's, and you want your letters to be a standard Maxwell "rough pink plastic" which also has two BSDF's, and you want to combine them into a single clipmap material using weightmaps (effectively creating a material that has 4 BSDF's). To do this, you have to use a greyscale alpha mask in the weightmap channel to account for the relative weights within the original materials. If I remember correctly, a standard "rough plastic" in Maxwell has one BSDF with a weight of around 70, and a second BSDF with a weight around 30. This means that when you combine this material with another in a climap, you'll have to use a 30% grey weightmap on one BSDF, and a 70% grey weightmap on the other, to maintain the correct ratio. If you used a fully blck/white weightmap, they would combine at an effective weight of 100 each, and will look very different from the original "rough plastic" look that you wanted.

[qrk5]

Thanks Dillbert, JD. I think Maxwell needs to publish a comprehensive
training suppliment which explains the theory with visual illustrations to expidite the learning curve for making complex materials.
The explainations describing the physics of light are clear and understandable but tranlating theory into the working process of creating
complex materials with the material editor presents I believe a fairly
steep learning curve for a program that advertises being as simple to use
as a camera. Love the program for the great real light quality and simple
set up for lighting, worth the cost of long render times because you can
set off the rendering and get back to other work. But struggling to make
the complex materials like a self illuminated exit sign compromises that
advantage at least until you mount the learning curve for complex materials. Thanks for listening.

[Mihai]

The method for mixing emitters with bsdfs and clipmaps are mentioned in the manual though. Have you read through the material editor section?

[qrk5]

I'll go back and study it again, thanks Mihai