If you read the previous section you should have a fractal texture in Component 1 and both the Alpha Button and the Bump Button should be turned on. In this section we will be learning about color, so turn on the Color Button and the turn off the Alpha Button and the Bump Button. Component 1 should now be completely red.

What happened was it took Color Pallette 1's color and applied it to the entire texture. You must tell the component how you want the color to be applied to the texture if you want more than one color. Click the Color Mode Triangle (#19 on the reference sheet) and it should pop up a large list of lots of wierd choices. These choices are shown below. Instead of confusing you with teaching you all of the different color blending options just choose Spline Interpol. You will learn about all the different choices later on.

     This applies the red green and blue colors to the texture component. Now you can adjust the colors to the texture by clicking the Color Pallete 1, 2 & 3. If you alt-click them you get a more advanced color selection tools. Adjust the colors to how you like them and then click the check mark and return to the Material Editor. Add a marble to the Texture A Column for both Diffuse and Ambient. This will apply the color channel from the texture you just made to the sphere.

     Now to solidify this newfound knowledge, mess around with different textures and add colors to it. Check the table below to see which channels in the Material Lab use color information. You should also mess around a little with the alpha and bump information that you learned how to use in the previous lesson. Make sure to check out the examples below. After you feel comfortable with the basic applications of a basic texture move onto the next section.

 

 

Example:	This material has the default texture's colors applied to the Diffuse and Ambient channel.
Example:	Colors changed to a more dirt like color.
Example:	Bump added to make a more realistic dirt texture.
Example:	The same material applied to a terrain.