• 1. 3D Print Resin
    Always on the look-out for a new way to present 3D models, in this lesson I explore a specific kind of 3D print resin that seems tailor-made to accentuate form and shape.
  • 2. Bodies of Water
    This chapter involves light refraction and absorption as characteristics of water collections.
  • 3. Brushed Metal
    A specific finish for metallic objects, brushed metal's key characteristic is the 'stretching' of reflections across a model's surface. It's common with kitchen appliances, jewelry, household accessories, and more.
  • 4. Carbon Fiber
    Carbon fiber is a great material that can be used anywhere from the trim on a fancy sports car to a scraped up sci-fi helmet. Since it can be molded into practically any shape and can be ten times stronger (and five times lighter!) than steel, carbon fiber goes well with anything high tech.
  • 5. Car Paint
    Vehicle rendering is one of the most popular uses of computer graphics. Car paint has a specific look and feel that leans heavily on the concept of "fresnel".
  • 6. Clip Art
    Sure it's not 1995 anymore, but turning your 3D model into clip art is totally cool! Plus this shader exposes you to some unconventional usage of nodes.
  • 7. Dispersion
    This is the optical phenomenon that occurs when light passes through transparent material causing the separation of the color spectrum.
  • 8. Gemstones & Ice
    Dazzling gems and crystals are relevant to jewelry, pirate treasure, a monarch's crown, and anything else that needs bedazzling. The emphasis in this chapter is on manipulating complex refractions despite an object's simple surface.
  • 9. Gold
    This precious metal focuses on reflection and bump texture as it's primary characteristics of surface quality. Additionally, the last lesson demonstrates the consolidation process of a node group.
  • 10. Hologram

    This effect is popular in the Sci-fi genre and it's a fun material to build.

  • 11. Lava

    This molten material features highly-detailed geometric displacement, multi-layered procedural textures, and adaptive subdivision. It's a hot chapter.

  • 12. Leather
    Leather makes a good procedural candidate because it’s used often for things like car interiors, furniture, and clothing among others. So an artist’s material library benefits from having a flexible material that’s not restricted by image textures and UVs.
  • 13. Marble
    A natural stone that’s used often in architecture, countertops, tile, and statues/sculptures among other things.
  • 14. PBR
    Create a shader group node based on a modern standard.
  • 15. Snow
    This is the white stuff that falls from the sky during the winter time.
    • Snow
      Playing 29 min
  • 16. Speed Boost
    A simple trick to speed up render times for materials using bump maps.
  • 17. Wood
    Expert-level lesson about procedural wood grain. NOTE: This is from guest author Bartek Skorupa.
    • Wood
      Playing 42 min

PBR: Introduction

Physically Based Material Creation


Physically based is the new standard for creating materials. Instead of relying on diffuse and specular components separately, PBR shaders work with roughness and real reflections. To create most any opaque material, you'll just need to adjust four settings:

  • Roughness
  • Fresnel
  • Metalness
  • Displacement

In these lessons, we'll dive into what each of those settings is for and how to set up your own PBR shader using Cycles. Then, you'll be able to spend less time tweaking and more time creating awesome textures! 

  


Materials