Material Types

Rendering menu > Material Editor > Type button > Material/Map Browser > In Show group, turn off Maps. > Material types are listed.

Materials create greater realism in a scene. A material describes how an object reflects or transmits light. You assign materials to individual objects or selection sets; a single scene can contain many different materials.

Different materials have different uses.

Standard material is the default material. This is a versatile surface model with a large number of options.
Raytrace material can create fully raytraced reflections and refractions. It also supports fog, color density, translucency, fluorescence, and other special effects.
Matte/Shadow material is specifically for making an object into a matte object that reveals the current environment map. A matte object is effectively invisible in the scene, but it can receive shadows cast onto it from other objects.
Advanced Lighting Override material is used to fine-tune the effects of a material on radiosity solutions. Radiosity Override is not required for calculating radiosity, but it can improve the result.
Shell material is for storing and viewing rendered textures.
Lightscape material helps support import and export of data from the Lightscape product.
Ink 'n Paint material gives a cartoon appearance to objects.

Other material types fall into the category of Compound materials.

Compound Materials

Compound materials combine other materials in some way.

Blend material mixes two materials on a single side of a surface.
Composite material mixes up to 10 materials, using additive colors, subtractive colors, or opacity mixing.
Double-Sided material lets you assign different materials to the front and back faces of an object.
Morpher material uses the Morpher modifier to manage multiple materials over time.
Multi/Sub-Object material uses the sub-object level to assign multiple materials to a single object, based on material ID values.
Shellac material superimposes one material on another using additive composition.
Top/Bottom material lets you assign different materials to the top and bottom of faces of an object.

Procedures

To get a material:

Click Get Material on the Material Editor toolbar.
The Material/Map Browser is displayed.
Double-click a material type (not a map type) in the list, or drag the material to a sample slot.
The Material Editor replaces the original material.

To change a material type:

At the level of a material, click the Type button below the Material Editor toolbar.
A modal Material/Map Browser is displayed. If you were at a material when you clicked Type, the Browser lists only materials (if you were at a map, it lists only maps).
Choose a material from the list, and then click OK.
If you choose a compound material, a Replace Material dialog is displayed. This dialog lets you choose whether to keep or discard the original material.
The Material Editor now displays controls for the new material.