Angie fully support MaterialX. Originally developed by ILM, MaterialX is an open standard used to describe entire looks and materials making looks transfer between applications easy! MaterialX comes with its own comprehensive library of nodes allowing you to creating extremely complex materials and looks. For more information about MaterialX, please refer to its official page, where you will find documentation regarding its standard set of nodes provided in Clarisse.
One major difference of MaterialX compared to OSL and Clarisse classic materials and texture nodes, is that MaterialX is type strict. This means that you can connect a float output as input of an attribute of type color. You need to use a conversion node which are fortunately provided by the library.
Importing Materials
To Import a MaterialX material in Clarisse, just go to File > Import > MaterialX... and choose your mtlx file(s). Clarisse will automatically create the corresponding MaterialX material(s) in the current context. When imported in Clarisse, MaterialX materials are kept as reference and in a collapsed state. While you can freely edit the attributes exposed by the materials, it is not possible to see or edit their internal shading graph. To do that, you must first make the materials local to the project using the Make Local action in the Attribute Editor.
Exporting Materials
It is possible to export MaterialX material out of Clarisse. Select the material you wish to export and go to File > Export > MaterialX...
Note |
Note that you can only export materials created with the MaterialX set of nodes. |
Make Local
When you import a MaterialX file in Clarisse, it always comes as a reference in a collapsed state. To make it local to the project, simply select the material and using the Attribute Editor press Make Local. When the material is local it is then possible to expand it to reveal its full shading network and modify it in the Material Editor.
Expanding Materials
When a local material is collapsed, it is possible to expand it to reveal its full shading network in the Material Editor. Otherwise, they will appear as a single node. To expand a material, select it and using the Attribute Editor press Expand Material. Once expanded you are free to make structural changes to its graph and export it later on if you want.
Collapsing Materials
When a material is expanded it is possible to collapse it to hide all its shading network so it appears as a single node. To collapse a material, select it and using the Attribute Editor press Collapse Material. You can always expand it back using the Expand Material action.
Extending MaterialX Standard Library
It is possible to extend the standard library of nodes coming with MaterialX with a custom one. Go to Edit > Preferences... and go to the MaterialX section. In the Library Path add a semi colon ; and append the path to your library. Additionally you can also specify your MaterialX Extension Paths and MaterialX Texture Search Paths in the same way if needed.
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You will need to restart Clarisse to take this change into account. |
