Shaders are basic rendering tools that you use to create anything from basic object surfaces to a variety of special effects, such as lens flares, fog, textures, surfaces, and more. Shaders help you achieve just about any visual effect you can imagine.
Materials define how objects look in the rendered image. Each material provides connection points — or ports — for all of an object’s attributes. By attaching shaders to these ports, you define the object’s look.
This guide describes how to work with materials and shaders:
• Shader
Basics
Describes the different types of shaders available in XSI and explains,
generally, how to work with shaders.
• Materials
and Surface Shaders
Describes how to work with materials and material libraries. Also describes
how to work with surface shaders and provides an overview of basic shading
models and surface shading attributes.
• The Render
Tree
Explains how to create networks of shaders that work together to define
the way an object looks.
• Geometry Shaders
Explains how to work with geometry shaders, which are used to create
geometry at render time.
• Shader Quick
Reference
Provides brief descriptions of all of the shaders available in XSI,
included suggested usage.
SOFTIMAGE|XSI v.6.01