Maya Shaders! An Overview....

Texture > Material > Shader

Shader – the combining of Materials and Textures that culminates in the final surface that is displayed in a render. Shaders control how light reacts with the surface of a mesh.

Material – A node that controls the perceived surface of a mesh.

Texture – A 2D image whose color values are read by a shader.

Maya Favorite Shaders

Lambert – Flat material which displays color and shading without specular highlights

Blinn – Calculates curvature, lighting, and camera angle to create accurate specular highlights and reflections. The shape of Blinn specular highlights are soft and more akin to real-world highlights. Good for metallic surfaces, however extremely versatile.

Phong – Similar to Blinn but with tighter highlights. Good for polished shiny surfaces.

PhongE – A faster rendering version of Phong that creates tighter highlights than Blinn materials, yet softer highlights than Phong materials.

Other Shaders

Ramp Shader – Applies a color gradient to the surface based on parameters

Surface Shader – Used for controlling color, transparency and/or glow with other scene data. (3D Textures)

Swatch Window – All nodes that are created will be organized in the Swatch Window