In the previous article, Blender Modeling Basics: Move, Rotate, Scale, Extrude, and Modifiers, we built the shape of a coffee cup. Now we'll turn that shape into ceramic by giving it a material — Blender's way of describing how a surface looks.
Even once a material is set, the default Solid viewport won't show its color or finish on screen. We'll switch to Material Preview first, then change one setting at a time and watch how the look shifts until the cup reads as ceramic.
* This article was verified with Blender 5.2 LTS.
This article uses the coffee cup from the previous article. No cup? A cube or a sphere works just as well with the same steps.
Adding a material
Before you can set a color or a finish, the object needs a "material."
A material holds everything about how an object's surface looks — its color, its gloss, whether it reads as metal — in one place. Patterns and images are handled by a separate feature called a "texture," which we'll cover in another article. Here we'll stay with what a material alone can do.
- Select the cup body
- In the Properties panel on the right side of the screen, open the red sphere icon at the very bottom (Material Properties)
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Click "New" to add a material
Once you add a material, a group of settings called "Principled BSDF" appears automatically. The long list of options may look daunting, but at first these three are all you need.
- Base Color: the color
- Roughness: how glossy the surface is
- Metallic: whether it's metal
Adding color and showing it on screen
Choosing a color with Base Color
Click "Base Color" on the material and a color picker appears. Choose the color of your cup here. This time, let's go with a cream color that suits ceramic.
If nothing shows on screen, switch the shading mode
Sometimes you pick a color and the 3D viewport doesn't change at all. That's because Blender's viewport shading is still set to "Solid." Solid shading is a display mode for checking a model's shape, and with the default settings it doesn't show the color or finish you set on the material.
From the four sphere icons at the top right of the viewport, click the third from the left, "Material Preview." You can also switch from the menu that appears when you press Z.
If the sides look faceted, use "Shade Smooth"
As in the image above, the side of the cup may look faceted. That's because the cup's round shape is made up of multiple flat faces.
In Object Mode, right-click the cup and choose "Shade Smooth." The boundaries between faces become less noticeable, and the surface looks smooth. The shape of the cup itself doesn't change. You can apply it the same way to other objects, such as the saucer.
The gloss and reflections we'll cover next are easier to tell apart on a smooth surface, so it's worth setting this first.
"Roughness," which determines gloss
"Roughness" is the setting that adjusts the gloss of a surface. It ranges from 0 to 1: closer to 0 gives a slick, mirror-like finish, and closer to 1 gives a matte one.
- Roughness 0.1: slick as a mirror
- Roughness 0.5: a moderately glossy finish
- Roughness 0.9: a rough, matte finish
In the comparison images below, the Base Color has been set to a dark shade to make the difference easy to see. With a light color such as cream, the difference can be hard to see when you change the roughness. When you try it yourself, switch to a dark color first.
For a ceramic look, setting the roughness to around 0.4 gives a moderate gloss that reads naturally.
"Metallic," which determines whether it's metal
"Metallic" is the setting that determines whether a surface is metal. 0 is non-metal and 1 is metal. When recreating real-world materials, you'll generally use either 0 or 1.
A ceramic cup isn't metal, so we'll leave Metallic at 0. As a test, set it to 1 and see how the surface changes.
Even with Metallic set to 1, the reflections may be weak and the cup may not look metallic. One reason is that there is little around the object to reflect. How metal looks depends a great deal on the lighting and the surrounding environment.
If the metal surface isn't coming out right, see the supplementary column "Troubleshooting: a quick-reference guide"
Changing the surface of just one part of the cup
We'll keep the cup body ceramic and change only the handle to a metallic finish. In Blender, you can set different materials for different faces, even within a single object. This is done with "material slots," the places where an object registers the materials it uses. Here, we'll add a new slot, set up a metal material in it, and assign it to the faces of the handle.
- Press Tab to enter Edit Mode
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Switch to face select mode (3), hover the mouse cursor over the handle, and press L. The faces of the handle are selected together
L is the shortcut that selects all "connected mesh" at the mouse cursor's position. The handle isn't connected face-to-face with the cup body, so this one press selects the whole handle. There's no need to click the faces one at a time.
- Click "+" in Material Properties to add a material slot
- Click "New" to create a second material, then set Metallic to 1 and Roughness to around 0.2
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Click "Assign" to apply the new material to only the selected faces
A checklist for when color and finish don't show up
If the color or finish you set doesn't show up the way you expected, check these four things.
- Is the viewport set to Material Preview? In Solid shading, nothing you set on the material shows up
- Is the Principled BSDF connected to the Material Output? Check in the Shader Editor that the link between the nodes hasn't come loose
- Did you forget to assign? When changing the surface per face, nothing is applied if you forget to press "Assign"
- Check the scene lights and world settings In a scene that's extremely dark or extremely bright, differences in the surface are hard to make out
Material Preview and Rendered view use different lighting and different ways of drawing the image, so the look can shift slightly between them. Check the finished look in Rendered view.
What to do next
Your cup now has both a color and a finish.
If it felt like a lot to take in, these three points are all you really need to create a surface.
- Choose the color with Base Color
- Set the gloss with Roughness and whether it's metal with Metallic
- When nothing shows up, check the viewport shading first
Next, we'll build a glass material and use it to explain "material nodes," the mechanism behind materials themselves. That's also where the checklist item in this article, whether the Principled BSDF is connected to the Material Output, will start to make sense.
Next article: Blender Material Nodes Explained: Building a Glass Material in EEVEEFrequently asked questions
Q. What is the difference between a material and a texture?
A. A material holds everything about how an object's surface looks, such as its color, gloss, and metallicness, in one place. A texture is used to add patterns, like wood grain or the weave of fabric, and fine bumps on the surface. You can use an image, or have Blender calculate a pattern for you. A material's basic settings alone can give you a solid-colored surface, but a texture is handy when you want finer patterns. The steps are covered in Blender Texture Basics: Base Color, Roughness, and Normal Maps.
Q. Why doesn't the color show up on screen after I change it?
A. Your viewport is probably still set to Solid. Solid shading is a display mode for checking a model's shape, and with the default settings it doesn't show the color or finish you set on the material. Switch to Material Preview using the icons at the top right of the viewport to see what you've set.
Q. I want it to look metallic, but it just looks like gray plastic. Why?
A. Even with Metallic set to 1, the reflections may be weak and it may not look metallic. The Roughness setting, or having little around the object to reflect, may be the cause.
Q. Can I give one part of an object a different color or finish?
A. Yes. In Edit Mode, select the faces you want to change, add a material slot, and create a new material. Click Assign, and that material is applied to only the selected faces.
Q. Can I reuse a material I made on another object?
A. Yes. In Material Properties, click the icon next to the New button to see a list of the materials you've made. Pick one, and you can use the same material on another object. Because the material is shared, changing its color on one object changes the other as well.
Q. Why does it look different in Material Preview and Rendered view?
A. Because they use different lighting and different ways of drawing the image. Material Preview draws with EEVEE (a system that calculates images quickly) and, by default, lights the scene with its own dedicated environment light. Rendered view, on the other hand, uses the lights you placed in the scene and whichever engine you selected in the render settings, EEVEE or Cycles. As a result, the same material can look different in brightness and reflection. Check the finished look in Rendered view, and make the final call from an actual rendered image.
Q. How do I create a transparent, glass-like surface?
A. In addition to the three settings covered in this article (Base Color, Roughness, and Metallic), you use a setting called Transmission. However, setting Transmission alone may not make the surface transparent; you also need to change some settings on the render side and the material side. The steps are covered in Blender Material Nodes Explained: Building a Glass Material in EEVEE.
Supplementary columns
Troubleshooting: a quick-reference guide
Scene Lights and Scene World change how surfaces look
While in Material Preview, click the down arrow at the right end of the shading mode icons at the top right of the 3D viewport to open the display settings. If "Scene Lights" and "Scene World" are turned on, the lights and environment set up in your scene are used instead, so surfaces may look darker or reflections may look different. To check the surface with Material Preview's own dedicated environment light, try unchecking these.
Too many material slots to keep track of
Repeatedly changing the surface per face can leave unused material slots behind. To remove one you no longer need, select it and press the "−" button. However, if faces are assigned to that slot, removing it changes the surface of those faces. In Edit Mode, select the slot and press Select to see which faces are assigned to it.
The number shown to the right of a material's name tells you how many places that material is used in. It isn't a count of faces. Removing a material slot from this object leaves the material in place on any other objects that use it.
The reflections are weak and it doesn't look metallic
If it doesn't look like metal even with Metallic set to 1, the Roughness setting or having little in the surroundings to reflect may be the cause. Start by lowering Roughness. In Material Preview, you can also switch the environment image used for reflections from the down arrow at the right end of the shading mode icons. Changing the image changes how the reflections look.
Setting guidelines for metal, plastic, and other surfaces
Adjusting just three settings, Base Color, Roughness, and Metallic, lets you create a wide range of surfaces. The table below lists approximate settings for some common materials.
Quick reference for common surfaces (approximate)
| Surface | Base Color | Roughness | Metallic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ceramic | White to cream | Around 0.4 | 0 |
| Metal (matte) | Grays | 0.4–0.6 | 1 |
| Metal (mirror) | Grays | 0.0–0.1 | 1 |
| Plastic | Any color | 0.2–0.3 | 0 |