Every mesh gets a material. Use Physical (PBR) for realistic surfaces, Matcap for stylized sphere-lit looks, Shader for custom GLSL, or HTML to map a DOM element onto the surface — and start from one-click presets like chrome, gold, glass, or liquid glass.
Where: 3D editor → select a mesh → Material — Pick a material kind or a preset
Key ideas
- Physical (PBR): Color, metalness, roughness, transmission/IOR, clearcoat, sheen, iridescence, emissive, opacity — plus texture-map slots.
- Other kinds: Matcap (no lights needed), Shader (custom vertex/fragment GLSL + uniforms), and HTML-as-texture.
- Presets: matte / plastic / chrome / gold / copper / glass / liquid-glass / frosted-glass / ceramic / car-paint / emissive.
- Faceted/smooth and custom shader materials: Faceted versus smooth shading is a material choice, and the shader workspace supports custom vertex/fragment stages plus declared uniform controls without rebuilding the object.
Steps
- Select a mesh and open its Material.
- Apply a preset, or pick a kind and tune the channels.
- Add texture maps (image or procedural) for detail.
- Select the object or complete mesh selection, choose its material, then decide whether the surface should read Faceted or Smooth.
- For a custom shader, open the shader workspace, provide both required stages, declare each editable uniform, and test it in the live viewport.
- Use Shade smooth or Smooth by angle when normals need to change; add Subdivision only when the silhouette or deformation needs more geometry.
Shading versus geometry
- Faceted/Smooth changes how the material shades the mesh.
- Shade smooth recalculates/uses smooth normals.
- Smooth by angle preserves intentional hard boundaries while smoothing eligible faces.
- Subdivision adds real geometry and can affect silhouette, memory, and later modifiers.
Custom shader contract
- The shader workspace keeps vertex and fragment stages together.
- The Scene assistant receives current scene and pointer context before proposing a change.
- Every declared uniform produces its matching editable control.
- A shader can be applied only where the material/shader slot supports it; declaring only a fragment stage is not a complete custom material.
Tips
- Start with material Faceted/Smooth before changing geometry.
- Use subdivision sparingly on imported production models.
- Expose only uniforms a designer should actually tune.