Using the Hypershade

The Hypershade is used to create new shaders, modify them and to add textures to shaders to generate the appropriate material properties.

As Maya is designed as an object oriented program, the representation of the elements from the library are building blocks which we can connect to form a network of blocks, a shading network defining the material properties. When we use the Hypershade for constructing the materials we will use the workarea to connect the different "blocks" into one material. The shaders are represented by the spheres and the textures and other blocks by icons or the image of the texture. By dragging the block with the middle mouse button onto another block a connenction is made. This can be quite complex and requires some experience in making the materials.

However there is a simpler method of changing the different properties of the shader. We split the construction of materials between two different interfaces. We open the Hypershade to generate the shaders , but the textures will be added in the Attribute Editor. The Attribute editor contains all the adjustable properties of an object. This means if the shader is selected in de hypershade and we open the Attribute editor we get an overview of all the properties of the shader which we can adjust.

Create new shaders

To create a Shader you will have to use the library of the hypershade. Just click on one of the four shaders in the library and the shader will be placed in the work area of the hypershade. Simultaneously the shader will be added in the top tab field. The top tab field displays all the shaders in the scene.

Note: Never change the default shaders which are generated by Maya for every scene. The default shader is the LAMBERT1 SHADER. The default shader will be assigned by Maya to every newly created geometry. Changing the default shader will have the effect that every new object will have the material properties of the adjusted shader.

Assigning shaders to objects

The shader acts like an object containing all the information of the material.Each shader is defined by a series of properties, depending on the type of shader. The appearance of the shader is for a large part defined by those properties. By changing the individual properties the material is defined. Changing by adjusting the sliders or adding textures. The shader, as carrier of all the material information has to be assigned to an object. Select the appropriate object or objects in the scene and right click and hold with the mouse over the shader. A menu appears with the option of “ Assign Material to Selection” Move the mouse over that option and release. So:

• first select the objects which have to receive the material
• secondly right click and hold with the mouse the appropriate shader in de hypershade
• finally select the option Assign Material to Selection and release.