LuxCoreRender Materials Null

Null is a special material that does not have a visible surface. Null can be used in combination with a volume, making the object act as a container for the volume. Leaves and see-through curtains can also use the null material to make parts of them invisible.

Null and the Mix Material

Null can be used with the mix materials for two different tasks:

1. Opacity

It can be used without a texture to change the opacity of the output material. A mix that is part null will appear sheer, or if turned up high enough, ghostly-transparent.

2. Alpha Maps

When the mix amount is controlled by a texture, the null material can be used for alpha mapping. You will need a .png that has got an alpha channel or a grey-scale image that marks the areas to be transparent.

Null and Volumes

The null material can also be used with volumes to create a "volume-only" material. This is because LuxCoreRender uses the regular material settings to define the surface of the material, and the medium settings to define how light is filtered as it moves through the material. Since null defines a transparent surface, the only thing that appears is the color filtering through the object volume. The result is a mesh that looks like smoke or vapor. Null and a volume can also be used to emit light.