In order to determine the appearance of an object, shaders required. The use of shaders provides colour, reflectivity and transparency, Maya itself has base shaders (see linked post: )
Properties of shaders, such as the colour, are normally specified as a singular value. To vary these on an object/surface – textures are used. These are patterns that are used to vary properties such as colour and reflectivity across a surface – these can be file textures or generated patterns and are used as a method of defining high frequency detail.
Take for example the use of alpha textures are introduced, which illustrate the transparent areas using black and white areas representing the opaque (black areas) and the transparent (white areas) of areas of the textures, this is mostly used on areas such as trees and fencing.
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