Book Image

Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook, Third Edition

By : Enrico Valenza
Book Image

Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook, Third Edition

By: Enrico Valenza

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook Third Edition
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Creating a shadeless material in Cycles


In this recipe, we will create a shadeless material, which is a material that behaves as self-illuminated but does not actually emit any light on the nearby objects.

In the following screenshot, we can see the difference between a Plane with a shadeless material and a Plane with an emitting material:

A shadeless Plane and an emitting Plane in comparison

At the top, the cloudy sky image is perfectly self-illuminated and visible, but it's neither affecting the Spheres or the Suzannes nor the floor Plane (nevertheless slightly visible because of a low intensity World).

This is the reason a shadeless material is perfect for backdrop elements mapped on Planes (or more often on unwrapped half-spheres called domes) to simulate skies, clouds, and even distant trees. It can also simulate forests and mountains in the background of a scene.

In Blender Internal, obtaining a shadeless material is very simple. Enabling the appropriate item in the material panel is enough...