Material group

The Material group adjusts the properties for the mesh's material attributes and how the lights in the scene affect it. Mir supports up to up to eight Point lights, and unlimited Ambient lights. If a Spot light is used, Mir will respond as if it were a Point light.

Color swatch

Sets the color of the mesh. Lets you choose from a color selection onscreen, or from a pop-up color picker that appears when the color square is clicked upon. Whatever color is chosen will be reflected in the surface of the mesh.

Nudge Colors

Affects the colors at each vertex of the polygon. Can be used to liven up Flat shaded meshes when you have a very square or origami looking object. At low polygon meshes, the Nudge color can add some interesting texture and a slight gradient to the material when increased.

NOTE: Set the Specular settings to 0 and turn up the AE light for best results.

Left to right, Nudge Colors at 0 and 100.

Opacity

Sets the opacity of the mesh. We recommended lower settings more for the Density mode, when the Blend mode is set to Add, but it's best to keep at 100 for the Phong and Flat Shader modes unless you are trying to achieve an overall ghosted appearance with your mesh.

Ambient

Defines how much ambient light the mesh will reflect. Ambient light is a background light that is everywhere and radiates in all directions.

NOTE: Ambient needs to work with an Ambient light in the AE composition so remember to create at least one Ambient light in the comp when using this setting.

Diffuse

Diffuse is the non-directional component of shading, meaning that this determines how much the surface gives away light in all directions. The mesh reflects in every direction, no matter which direction you are viewing the mesh from. This does not tie into any particular light type, but instead affects all lights in the composition. High values make the light brighter while low values make the light duller. Matte surfaces typically have a large diffuse component.

Specular Amount

Specular reflection is the mirror-like reflection of light from a surface, in which light from a single incoming direction is reflected into a single outgoing direction. When turned up the mesh texture appears more glossy like plastic or metal. Turn the value to 0 and the mesh becomes matte and almost paper-like. High values make the mesh look more glossy.

You may need to lower the Diffuse value to allow the glimmer to come through. Specular Amount is sensitive to the position of the Point lights.

NOTE: Specular controls are only available in Phong or Flat Shader modes.

Left to right, Specular Amount set to low and high.

Specular Shininess

Defines how narrow or wide the specular reflection is. Low values create a very graphic effect. High values will affect the highlights. For example, glass may be very narrow and plastic slightly more wide.

Specular Shininess also lets you lower the sensitivity of Specular Amount so it's not as sensitive to the proximity of the light. High Sharpness values make the Amount more sensitive. Low Sharpness values make the Amount less sensitive.

Falloff pop-up

Decides if and how the light falls off with distance from the light source. The settings behave like After Effects’ new Falloff parameters. The light's layer property sets its light intensity. Light Falloff is what makes that light intensity fall away so that the parts of the mesh that are further from the light are less affected by the Shading. Basically, Falloff controls how light intensity varies with the distance from the surface to the light. Light Falloff only supports Point lights.

There are three Falloff modes:

- None: The default setting. It uses the default for AE's lights and does not fall off.
- Smooth: Gives the user control over both the Radius and the Distance of the Falloff. The Radius controls is how wide of an area the light hits and the Distance is how far down on the surface the light will extend before fading off. The light is constant until Radius and then falls to zero at Distance. This mode gives more precise control of the Falloff.
- Distance Squared: This is the natural equation for light falloff and the Radius parameter decides how far light reaches. If Falloff is set to the Distance Squared mode, then you can adjust the Radius of the light falling on the texture. Moving the point light in 3D space will help you achieve the desired lighting effects with proper falloff.

Top left to right, Falloff set to Off and Smooth.
Below, Falloff set to Distance Squared.

Radius

Sets how wide of an area the light hits from the light source. (Only for Smooth and Distance Squared modes)

Distance

Sets how far down on the surface the light will extend before fading off to 0. (Only for Smooth mode)