Two-Sided Material
1. Select material preview window in 3D Max and name new material
2. Select Get Material and select “Double Sided”
3. Select “Facing Material” button and select first material
4. Select “Back Material” and select second material
5. Assign to object constructed so that you can see the inside such as a wine glass.
 
Creating materials with translucent background color
1. Create a repeat pattern or pick one from Materials Library.  Note that material should have foreground pattern on black background.
2. In PhotoShop make a B&W copy of that material (Image/Mode/Grayscale) and then create a negative version with Image/Adjust/Curves” option.  Save negative version.
3. Select material preview window in 3D Max and name new material
4. Click blank button next to diffuse.  Select “Bitmap” and select the color version of material
5. Go to Maps rollout and choose negative version for Opacity map
6. Apply material to object

Creating a decal with Multi/Sub-Object
1. Select material preview window in 3D Max and name new material
2. Select Get Material/Multi/Sub-Object
3. Under Multi/Sub-object Basic Parameters set the number of materials (usually 2—background and decal).
4. Set Material 1 as decal by selecting material button to right of material number and picking decal bitmap.
5. Set Material 2 to the background material used on the rest of the object.
6. Assign material to object
7. Select object and go to Modify/Mesh Select/Sub-object face
8. Select mesh for material 1
9. Apply Material Modifier to object
10. Render to check
11. You may have to tile or rotate material 1 to fit the decal area.  Open Maps/Coordinates by clicking on the sub-material and then clicking the map name.  Tile or rotate as needed.

Creating a Flat Mirror Reflection
1. Create standard material in material editor.  Name it “Mirror”.
2. Go to Maps and Assign a Flat Mirror Map in Material/Map Browser as the material’s reflection map.
3. In the Flat Mirror Parameters rollout/Render group, turn on apply to Faces With ID and choose the material ID number the mirrored face will have.
4. Select your object.  It must be a flat surface.
5. Go to Mesh Select/Face and select the face of the object that you want to see the reflection in.
6. Assign a  material ID number to that selection under “Select by material ID”.
7. Assign material to object.

Making a Text Decal Material
1.  In Photoshop open a 320x200 canvas with black background.
2.  With the Type Tool create a white letter approximately 75 points high.
3.  Go to Layer/Type and select Render Layer
4. Flatten Image in the Layers fly-out menu.
5. Select Channels tab (next to Layers) and select “load channel as selection” icon at bottom of window.  White letters will be selected.
6. Select “Save selection as a channel” icon.
7. Save as a 32 bit TARGA file.  (This file will include an 8 bit alpha channel to cookie cut the letters into a background.)
8. In 3D Studio open the Materials editor and create a new material using the 32 bit TARGA file you just saved. Click on the box to the right of the diffuse color patch for that material.  Select Bitmap and then your TARGA file.
9. The resulting material will allow the underlying color to show through as background.
10. If another material is required as background use the Mix material type.
11. Select a new materials window and select the box to the right of the diffuse color patch.
12. Select Mix material
13. In the Color One Map slot select a map from the Maps sub-directory
14. In the Mix Amount slot select your TARGA file with Alpha channel.
15. If texture of background is need in letters add a bump map using the same background file.