This page provides information about Corona Outline Material in 3ds Max.
Overview
The Outline material draws an outline around an object. It ignores any internal edges, which separates it from the Corona Wire map.
The Outline material can be used to highlight an object in a scene, to give a render the look of an illustration, or be used in conjunction with the new Toon shader to complete the effect of a toon-style rendering. It is possible to apply it to all objects in a scene using a new global override, or it can be applied on a object-by-object basis like any material.
Parameters
Enable outline – Enables the outline effect. This option can also be used to disable the effect for a particular object, when the material is used as a global override.
Base mtl: – Specifies the material to which the outlines are applied. This can be a Corona Toon material, or any other one.
Color Multiplier – Sets a multiplier for the outline color.
Color – Specifies the outline color. A texture map can be used to specify the outline color.
Line Width
Pixels – Specifies the outline width in pixels.
Relative (%) – Specifies the outline width as a percentage of the image diagonal.
World Units – Specifies the outline width in world units.
Scale – Controls the width of the outline effect. Black areas of the connected map result in 0 width, while the white areas result in the currently specified width.
Opacity
Level – Opacity level multiplies both the constant color and the texmap. A value of 0.5 in combination with white color is the same as using 50% gray color, or a texmap with output level of 0.5.
Color – Assigns opacity to the material where white is completely opaque and black is completely transparent.
Thresholds
Normal – Determines which normal difference is considered when drawing outlines. Lower values mean that only sharper angles between faces generate an outline. A value of 0.5 means outlines appear where the angle between surface normals is 90 degrees or more. Higher values allow even smoother curves to produce outlines.
Depth – Determines which depth difference of points on the same object is considered when drawing outlines. Higher values means that only rapid large changes in z-depth between two points generate an outline. Lower values produce outlines even for smoother changes in z-depth.
Affect by Corona VFB Postprocessing
These controls specify whether or not the outline effect is affected by the camera exposure, tone mapping, or LUTs.
If your outline material looks too bright or too dark, this is most likely caused by camera exposure. Try disabling the checkboxes under Affect by Corona VFB Postprocessing.
Maps
Line color – Specifies a custom environment map that is applied only to the Line color.
Line width – Specifies a custom environment map that controls only the Line width.
Opacity – Specifies a custom environment map that controls only the opacity of the outline.
Apply as an Override
The Outline Material can be used as an override to all the objects in the scene.
To achieve that, go to Render Settings > Scene > Object Outline and enable it. Set the Corona Outline Material as a Material.
From the Object Outline settings, you can further control which objects are affected by the Outline Material.
