10.1. Shading Concepts

Shaders are sets of specified properties that define how a surface reacts to lighting in a scene. A mental ray material is actually a text file that contains a description of those properties organized in a way that the software understands. In Maya, the Hypershade provides you with a graphical user interface so you can edit and connect shaders without writing or editing the text files themselves.

The terms shader and material are synonymous; you'll see them used interchangeably through the book and the Maya interface. mental ray also uses shaders to determine properties for lights, cameras, and other types of render nodes. For example, special lens shaders are applied to cameras to create effects such as depth of field.