blender-materials

Blender Materials

Apply physically-based materials to objects. Use only Principled BSDF — it's the only shader that exports cleanly to glTF and matches what other DCC tools expect.

The metallic switch — never an in-between

The single most-important rule: Metallic is a switch, not a slider. Set it to 0.0 (dielectric: plastic, wood, glass, skin) or 1.0 (metal: steel, gold, copper). Values between 0.2 and 0.8 are almost always wrong; they produce energy-non-conservative renders that look "plasticky."

Exception: dark mirror lenses (sunglasses) use ~0.8 to combine strong reflection with slight tint — that's a stylistic choice, not strict PBR.

Decision tree

What is it made of?
├── Raw metal (steel, gold, copper, etc.)
│   → Metallic=1.0, Base Color = F0 reflectance from physicallybased.info
│   → Roughness controls polish (0.05 mirror → 0.4 brushed → 0.7+ weathered)
│
├── Glass / clear / refractive
│   → Metallic=0, Transmission=1.0, IOR=1.5 (glass), Roughness=0.0
│   → Add Volume Absorption for thick tinted glass
│
├── Plastic / wood / stone (dielectric, opaque)
│   → Metallic=0, IOR=1.45 (plastic) or 1.5 (most others)
│   → Roughness per finish (0.15 glossy / 0.6 matte)
│   → Coat Weight 0.5+ for varnished/lacquered surfaces
│
├── Skin / wax / marble (subsurface scattering)
│   → Metallic=0, Subsurface Weight=1.0
│   → Subsurface Radius RGB tuned per material (skin: red scatters deepest)
│
├── Cloth / fabric (sheen)
│   → Metallic=0, Sheen Weight 0.2-0.5
│   → Roughness 0.6+, Sheen Roughness 0.5
│
└── Mirror / chrome (special metal)
    → Metallic=1.0, Roughness=0.02-0.05, near-white base

Reference-look handoff

If the goal is to match an original/reference image rather than make a generally attractive render, chain-load reference-look-calibration. It owns measurement of hue/saturation/value, object extent, glow/aura color, and before/after look metrics. This skill should then apply the requested material/lighting/render changes within that calibrated target.