Book Image

Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook, Third Edition

By : Enrico Valenza
Book Image

Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook, Third Edition

By: Enrico Valenza

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Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook, Third Edition
Enrico Valenza
Feb, 2015 | 400 pages
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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook Third Edition
Blender Cycles: Materials and Textures Cookbook Third Edition
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Acknowledgments
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Overview of Materials in Cycles
Overview of Materials in Cycles
Introduction
Material nodes in Cycles
Procedural textures in Cycles
Setting the World material
Creating a mesh-light material
Using volume materials
Using displacement
2
Managing Cycles Materials
Managing Cycles Materials
Introduction
Preparing an ideal Cycles interface for material creation
Naming materials and textures
Creating node groups
Grouping nodes under frames for easier reading
Linking materials and node groups
3
Creating Natural Materials in Cycles
Creating Natural Materials in Cycles
Introduction
Creating a rock material using image maps
Creating a rock material using procedural textures
Creating a sand material using procedural textures
Creating a simple ground material using procedural textures
Creating a snow material using procedural textures
Creating an ice material using procedural textures
4
Creating Man-made Materials in Cycles
Creating Man-made Materials in Cycles
Introduction
Creating a generic plastic material
Creating a Bakelite material
Creating an expanded polystyrene material
Creating a clear (glassy) polystyrene material
Creating a rubber material
Creating an antique bronze material with procedurals
Creating a multipurpose metal node group
Creating a rusty metal material with procedurals
Creating a wood material with procedurals
5
Creating Complex Natural Materials in Cycles
Creating Complex Natural Materials in Cycles
Introduction
Creating an ocean material using procedural textures
Creating underwater environment materials
Creating a snowy mountain landscape with procedurals
Creating a realistic Earth as seen from space
6
Creating More Complex Man-made Materials
Creating More Complex Man-made Materials
Introduction
Creating cloth materials with procedurals
Creating a leather material with procedurals
Creating a synthetic sponge material with procedurals
Creating a spaceship hull shader
7
Subsurface Scattering in Cycles
Subsurface Scattering in Cycles
Introduction
Using the Subsurface Scattering shader node
Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Translucent shader
Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Vertex Color tool
Simulating Subsurface Scattering in Cycles using the Ray Length output in the Light Path node
Creating a fake Subsurface Scattering node group
8
Creating Organic Materials
Creating Organic Materials
Introduction
Creating an organic-looking shader with procedurals
Creating a wasp-like chitin material with procedural textures
Creating a beetle-like chitin material with procedural textures
Creating tree shaders – the bark
Creating tree shaders – the leaves
Creating a layered human skin material in Cycles
Creating fur and hair
Creating a gray alien skin material with procedurals
9
Special Materials
Special Materials
Introduction
Using Cycles volume materials
Creating a cloud volumetric material
Creating a fire and smoke shader
Creating a shadeless material in Cycles
Creating a fake immersion effect material
Creating a fake volume light material
Index
Index

Linking materials and node groups

Similar to Blender Internal, Cycles materials can be linked from libraries. Every blend file containing linkable assets can be a library.

Linking materials is really useful practice. Let's say you have 20 different blend files with objects using an iron shader, and at a certain point of your workflow, you need to modify this iron material in all the files. By having this material linked in all the 20 files from a single blend, it is possible to update all of them at once by modifying just one shader in the library file (as you know, a linked material reflects the properties of the library material and cannot be edited, differently from an appended material that is local to the file where it has been imported from the library file).

How to do it...

Start Blender, go to the File menu in the left part of the main header, and select Link, or press Ctrl + Alt + O. Then perform the following steps:

  1. Browse to the directory where you store your library files. Select...

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