Director 3D > Surfaces, Shaders and Textures

Introduction to surfaces, shaders and textures

To create a more believable effect with models you can manipulate the look of their surface. In Director 3D surfaces are simulated through the use of shaders and textures.

A shader governs the colour and reflectivity of a model or face: the way it behaves, or appears to behave, in response to light. You can define shaders in the 3D modelling software you're using, and you can define or modify them using Lingo in Director.

Note: Models, Shaders and textures are all created as separate “nodes”.

Textures are images that are "wrapped" over all or part of a model. These are usually imported, but you can also create bitmaps from scratch with Director. You can also create textures from any bitmap cast member.

Using shaders and textures gives you very precise control over a model's appearance, which is the result of the particular combination of shader(s) and texture(s) applied to that model.

Changes you make to a shader or texture will affect EVERY model using that shader or texture.

These sections will cover:

A good tutorial can be found here:

http://www.macromedia.com/support/director/work_3d/surface_appearance/

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July 2003