The Standard and Raytrace materials let you specify a shading type. Shading types are handled by a "shader," which describes how the surface responds to light.
Warning: When you change the shading type of a material, you lose the settings (including map assignments) for any parameters that the new shader does not support. If you want to experiment with different shaders for a material with the same general parameters, copy the material to a different sample slot before you change its shading type. That way, you can still use the original material if the new shader doesn't give you the effect you want.
Several different shaders are available. Some of these are not available for the Raytrace material, as indicated below. Blinn is the most general-purpose of these shaders. The others have special purposes, especially regarding how the material creates highlights.
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Creates surfaces with noncircular, "anisotropic" highlights; good for modeling hair, glass, or metal.
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Creates smooth surfaces with some shininess; a general-purpose shader.
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Creates more complex highlights than Anisotropic by layering two anisotropic highlights.
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Creates good matte surfaces such as fabric or terra-cotta; similar to Blinn.
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Creates smooth surfaces with some shininess; similar to Blinn, but doesn't handle highlights (especially glancing highlights) as well.
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Creates both nonmetallic and metallic surfaces; has a simple set of controls.
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Translucent shading is similar to Blinn shading, but it also lets you specify translucency, where light is scattered as it passes through the material. You can use translucency to simulate frosted and etched glass.