Material

The Material tab allows you to set the color values for all of the objects material properties.

There are a number of preset materials to choose from in the drop down list. You may want to use one of these presets as a starting point.

Ambient, Diffuse and Specular determine how the light will respond to lights (see the lighting tutorial for more on these).

Emission will make the object appear to glow in the color selected.

Shininess allows you to adjust the shiny highlight that is reflected from a light.

You can also make the object transparent by moving the slider to the right.

Experiment with lights and material properties together. The effect of the material properties will be seen best on non-textured primitive objects. The sphere is a good object to experiment with initially.