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Blender Summer of Documentation: Contents | Manual | Blender Version 2.42

Materials and Textures in Blender

Introduction

Materials and textures are one of the most important tools in any 3D package. A superb mesh object will still look like a grey plastic toy without good textures. Yet materials and textures can be one of the most challenging aspects of the design process. Blender, like many other comprehensive 3D suites, has a vast array of tools that can help you create virtually any material either in reality or beyond. However, to the Blender beginner it can appear overwhelming. This documentation is designed to take you rapidly from no, or little knowledge, to the point where you can confidently create materials to your needs.

Morning, Caldera Waterfall, 2000m above sea level. You will discover how the materials were created for this scene, and others, as part of this training course

Blender material and texture settings will be covered by working through several real life exercises. Some of the exercises are challenging but they will introduce you to the underlying principles of material creation in a fun way.

Following a dramatic eruption overnight molten rock now flows down this lavafall. You will be able to transform the waterfall scene with the knowledge you learn with only a few material changes.

You will be shown a range of tools which if used creatively can produce scenes comparable to any feature film. I will show you how to approach the synthesis of a material in a logical way that you could apply to any 3D suite. Blender is the emphasis however, and it has some wonderful tools to make the process simple. Of course I cannot turn you into an artist but hopefully the pallet of tools presented to you will encourage your creative skills to produce magic in Blender.

Prerequisites

Absolutely none. You can approach this materials and textures section as a complete beginner. Hopefully you have already downloaded and installed Blender on your computer. I suspect that you will at least have pressed the F12 key to see a render of the default cube. Beyond that I will give instructions on exactly what to do.

Of course this is not a reference manual and will only cover materials and textures in detail. I will refer to reference sections elsewhere on the Blender Wiki and within the Blender Summer of Documentation. You are however encouraged to work through this boot camp training from beginning to end. Once you have done so it will make much more sense to go back to sections to remind or reinforce areas where you need more help and therefore aid you in your journey to create better materials in Blender.