This little gem will transform the most boring texture into a genuine work of art. It has several options including adding multiple textures along with the effects like adding transparency, bump mapping, various color shaders like image mirroring, glass, metal, tile patterns, and a multitude of different visual effects. It also has a feature to make any material into a light source by using something called a material light; an object painted this way can actually create cool objects like street lights, vehicle headlights, building windows, etc. I've been playing around with the material editor and the possibilties seem endless, and by my own admission can't really texture models very artistically. I can paint premade textures on models easy enough, but when it comes to exporting a UV map to a typical paint program the fun stops there. Creating custom skins for models is quite a challenge for many modelers including myself. PS: A good way to explore the possibilties of the material editor is to load some of the stock models that are included with TS. The mat editor has an eyedrop function that copies the applied materials characteristics and displays them in the mat window, so you can see what settings and files are used in the material itself. Quite asounding to see how a material will appear when render either to screen or to a graphic image file. The possibilties seem endless even on a model with no actual texures applied rather with just material effects themselves. PPS: I also just realized that scene lights can be added to the models hiearchal tree to become a part of the model itself. With this you can add area and spotlights to the model for some truly awesome lighting effects.
