Physically based rendering materials will probably sound like something really technical and out-of-the-scope for you. However, if you look at the 3D model as a skeleton, the materials bring life to your scene. Not only is it necessary in terms of aesthetics, but you can play with colors and contrast as a composition tool to convey the message for a specific project as well. Working with materials is not a simple task of assigning a material to a particular surface; you have to learn how to bend them to your will.

In this chapter, you are going to learn what physically based materials are, where they are in Lumion and how to work with them. As a plus, you will learn some techniques to create your own textures to use in Lumion. To give you a heads up, have a look at the following list of topics that we are going to cover: