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in very next for sketchup' we've
redesigned the user interface an asset
editor to make working in your scenes
faster and more intuitive in this lesson
I will walk you through these new
features and demonstrate how via rain-x
can speed up your workflow while making
it easier than ever to get stunning
looking images to get started you'll see
here that we have a simple scene set up
already with a lamp in side table and
two cups on it let's click on the very
icon to open up the asset editor and
explore some of the updates we've made
to the user interface one of the new
powerful features we've implemented is
the new asset review in the outliner now
I can quickly list materials lights
geometries render elements and textures
in a unified way and visualize their
shader hierarchy as you can see all of
the assets in the scene are listed by
categories in the outliner in our scene
currently we have three types displayed
materials lights and textures to make
things easier to identify every asset
and the editor now has a small icon in
front of its name depending on its type
in addition you'll see that some assets
here have a small arrow to their left
these are new drop-down menus
collectively known as the asset tree
view and they are available for lights
geometries render elements and textures
as well providing a simple and unified
way to visualize shader hierarchies
throughout v-ray next now we can
conveniently view all child textures for
a material simply by clicking the
drop-down arrow to the left if we take a
look at the top of the asset editor here
you'll notice that these three
categories are highlighted blue for the
materials lights and textures the others
are grayed out which indicates that they
don't contain any data yet at all to add
more assets I can simply right-click on
each category at the top which opens a
drop-down menu containing the respective
v-ray assets for that category if you've
used previous versions of Furai you may
also notice that two additional
categories have been added in v-ray next
one for textures and one for render
elements if I click on the render
element tab we can create multiple
assets quickly without closing the menu
by holding ctrl and left clicking on the
elements we want let's add the lighting
and reflection elements now you'll also
see the category is no longer grayed out
at the top if I decide to delete the
elements I can select several with ctrl
+ click or use Shift + click to
highlight a range and right-click to
delete them in this case let's leave
them for now
in very next I can also easily choose
which different categories to view by
holding the control key to select a
combination of them
note that tabs containing data that we
aren't currently viewing appear white
instead of grayed out I can also easily
view all the tabs containing assets at
once simply by pressing the shortcut
ctrl a again you'll see the render
elements category has appeared down
below here as well since we created the
lighting and reflection elements a
moment ago next let's see what other
options we have to create assets in the
lower left hand corner of the asset
editor we have a small circular button
with a plus icon which can also be used
to create assets the asset categories
here are the exact same as the tabs
along the top row so if you're used to
previous versions of v-ray you can still
use this option now let's expand the
left hand flyout menu here you'll find
an extensive material library which is
helpful when you don't want to create a
material from scratch it's organized by
categories containing materials that you
can either use right out of the box or
use as a starting point for building
your own customized material we also
have another asset creation menu above
if I twirl down the create menu
drop-down you'll see once again that it
offers the same asset categories to
choose from as the row of tabs on the
right in the drop down you can quickly
preview specific categories or even view
all assets together just by selecting
create at the top you can also easily
search the library for any specific
types of assets for example if I type
Bezier you'll see that it presents me
the option to create a Bezier curve and
if I type metallic I can create a PBR
metallic material
okay now let's see how we can create
materials in this category you'll see
that there are a lot of different
utility materials to choose from but
most of the time you'll probably want to
use the generic material to get started
we can simply drag and drop it into the
asset tree to use in our project first
I'm going to change the name of the
generic material to blue cup material by
right-clicking on it and selecting
rename
next let's expand the flyout menu to the
right here you'll find the properties
and parameters for the current asset as
well as the live swatch preview that
displays the material now let's add a
texture by left clicking on the diffuse
texture swatch and choose bitmap a
selected texture called blue Cup diffuse
and you'll see that the live swatch
preview updates immediately to display
an isolated preview of the texture
itself which is useful if we need to
make tweaks now back over in the asset
tree you will see that an expandable
arrow has now appeared in front of the
name of the material once again this
menu makes it so that we can easily
navigate through the assets hierarchy so
that you can get a sense of what each
asset contains without having to go into
individual texture slots this also makes
it easier to navigate between textures
much more quickly allowing you to copy
an instance the textures between
different materials or assets more
easily what's more you'll see that
depending on the asset or texture I
select the live swatch continually
updates to provide us with a relative
preview this makes it easy to make
tweaks to each individual asset or
texture as well as see how those tweaks
impact the overall result as I'll show
you in a bit now returning to our blue
cut material you'll see that the live
swatch display on the right is showing
our material with the blue texture that
we loaded in any changes we make to the
material will be updated in the preview
above so that you can quickly get a
sense for how the material will look
when rendered for example let's drop
down the reflection menu here and
slightly increase the reflection color
parameter a bit and you'll see that the
material updates in the swatch to
display a light source reflecting on it
we can also select from a variety of
different preview modes in the upper
right hand corner which is helpful for
getting a better feel for the material
depending on your specific use case
since I will use this material for one
of the cups on the table I'm going to
keep it on the generic preview mode down
here just below the swatch we can also
toggle between basic or advanced
settings for the material parameters as
the name suggests the advanced mode
contains more parameter options that you
can tweak to create an even more
customized result that said the basic
settings are still very flexible while
making it simple and easy to work with
okay let's now go ahead and apply the
material to the blue cup by selecting it
and then right-clicking on the material
and choosing apply to selection then
let's right click on the diffuse texture
swatch again and this time I'm going to
go to the wrap and sub menu here and
select the color correction the rappin
option allows you to quickly put a new
texture in the texture slot in this case
the color correction while placing the
original texture the blue cup diffuse
within the new texture this makes it
easy to plug one texture into another
one so that we can then make
modifications to the original using
color correction we can change the
appearance of the blue cup diffuse
texture and see the results in the live
swatch preview without needing to use
any other software we can also easily
reuse assets we've already created
selecting the blue cut material again I
can simply drag and drop the color
correction into the reflection color
swatch if I choose paste as copy it will
create a separate copy of the color
correction that I can tweak
independently in this case let's choose
paste this instance so that any tweaks I
make will update all instances of the
color correction automatically now to
organize my maps a bit better and make
things easy to work with let's select
the color correction in the asset tree
and rename it by right-clicking and
choosing rename or just double clicking
on it
I'll call it diffuse CC and let's click
on the drop down and rename the blue cup
bitmap inside diffuse okay now let's
twirl up the drop-down arrows and select
the blue cup material once more just to
inspect our work in the live swatch
preview I think that looks ready to use
now I can save this material as a vr mat
file to my hard drive for later use in
the future by clicking on the save asset
2 file icon at the bottom of the asset
editor and selecting a folder you'll
also see that I've already saved some
materials in this custom library folder
let's now choose save to save it to the
library and then explore how we can use
other materials I have in this folder in
v-ray next we now have the option to
loading custom libraries by simply
clicking the little folder icon on the
bottom left custom libraries are an
incredibly useful way to organize and
share assets which can be imported into
other projects in this case I'll select
the folder called custom library which
as you saw a moment ago contains several
VR mat files have already organized in
advance as well as our blue cut material
we saved you'll see that I have also
saved different types of assets such as
lights and render elements all of these
assets can be used to create templates
which can even be shared between
colleagues for example you can have
Network locations allowing for a single
unified library for all members of a
team to access now let's decrease the
reflection glossiness of the blue cut
material in our project and then close
the right hand flyout menu if we then
drag and drop the newly adjusted blue
cut material back into the custom
library on the left you'll see that I'm
given the option to replace the version
in the library or to save it as a new
material or to another location we can
right click on the blue cut material in
the outliner and choose save as
meanwhile if someone else on my team is
working on a project using the same
custom library and adds their own new
material to it all I need to do is
right-click on the custom library and
choose refresh to load in the latest
asset files they've added this option to
refresh an open library is especially
helpful when you have a project with the
library already open and someone else
from your studio is adding new assets to
the library at the same time from
somewhere else ok now you've seen how
with the redesigned asset editor you'll
be able to load in custom libraries
refine your materials quickly using the
live swatch preview and easily manage
your textures with the new asset tree
dropdowns to speed up your workflow in
v-ray next
you
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