Introduction to Materials and Shaders

Accessing the Materials Tab

The Materials tab is located within the Properties Editor. And every object comes with a default gray material that can be removed by clicking the 'X' button.

To add a new material, click the 'New' button.

Materials can be renamed by double-clicking the material slots and changing the name.

Changing the Material Color

Scroll down in the Materials tab to find the 'Base Color' field, then change the color by selecting a new color.

To see the color change, switch to the 'Materials Preview' or 'Rendered Preview' mode.

Assigning Multiple Materials

To assign different materials to different parts of a model, go into Edit Mode then Add a loop cut over half of the object. Use ‘Ctrl + R’ . Then Left click to insert loopcut.

Click the '+' button under the materials tab to add a new material and set a new color.

Select the vertices for the desired half of the object and click the 'Assign' button to assign the new material.

Material Channels

Material channels are the different components or properties of a material that can be manipulated to control its appearance. The fundamental channels are:

Base color: Sets the primary base color for the mesh

Metallic Value: Controls the metallic appearance of an object's shading. Organic objects usually have a low value, while inorganic or metallic objects usually have a high metallic value

Roughness Value: Determines how a surface scatters light. A low value corresponds to a smooth and shiny surface, while a high value results in a rough appearance.

IOR (Index of Refraction): Measures how light moves through a material. Metals have a higher IOR compared to non-metals.

Alpha Channel: Controls transparency. A value of 0.0 represents fully transparent, while 1.0 represents fully opaque. Normal Channel: Used to add detail to the surface of a material without increasing geometry. Normal maps can be baked from high-resolution meshes or hand-painted.

Shader Editor

The Shader Editor allows users to create complex materials by combining and adjusting material channels represented by nodes. Nodes represent specific functions or properties and are connected to form a material setup. The Principled BSDF node is found by default in the shader editor, and is a versatile node that simplifies the creation of complex materials by combining multiple layers into a single easy-to-use node.

Adding image Textures

To add a texture to a material, open the Materials Properties in the Properties Editor.

Click the yellow dot and select the Image Texture option.

Click the 'Open' button to select an image file.

The selected image will appear in the Shader Editor, where it can be further edited.