Materials

A material consists of several graphics / textures to create a lifelike image that is as accurate as possible. Each graphic has its own task.

Structure of a material

  • Texture:
    A texture is an image file, it can be a floor, a tile, stones, fabric, metal, etc.
  • Roughness / Roughness
    The roughness indicates how rough a surface is, this is done by means of a black and white image. The darker the area in the image, the smoother the surface. The lighter the area, the less shiny the surface.
  • Metallic
    Indicates how metallic a surface is. This is also done by means of a black and white image.

Normal Map / Bump Map
The Normal Map simulates structures. The graphic for this has a blue tint and edges where it refracts the light are either green or pink. Using these colors, the renderer recognizes where the light refracts and thus generates a more realistic representation of the surface.

A very good source for textures is the website www.textures.com. The registration is free and you get 15 credits per day with which you can download textures in a resolution of (1024×1024 pixels) for free. For larger resolutions you need a premium account.

Create a material

  1. In the Material Editor, click the Green Plus icon in the upper left corner
  2. Now appears below the new material
  3. You can also give this a name, for example: Chequer plate
  4. Color / Texture, use the left icon to select the texture
  5. Roughness, select the roughness graphic for your material
  6. Metallic, if available, select the graphic for metal here
  7. Normal Map, here you select your normal