A 3D model without materials isn’t worth much. We often take materials for granted—a screw is metal, white paint is just white paint. But the moment you need to recreate those materials in 3D, you realize how complex it really is. How shiny is that screw, exactly? And how thick is the paint? The thickness affects how much texture from the layer beneath still shows through.
Materials consist of hundreds of properties we can tweak—color, texture, gloss, reflection, and more. In 3D, we call such a material a shader. And it takes a sharp eye and a lot of precision to match a shader perfectly to the real material. Every detail has to be right to make the material come alive in the digital world.
Material Library vs. Creating Materials from Scratch
With all the sliders, checkboxes, and settings, it’s easy to get lost in the world of 3D materials, making things unnecessarily complicated. That’s why it's crucial to decide together which materials we’ll create ourselves and which ones can get by with standard materials.
Sometimes, there’s no need to spend too much time on that tiny screw that’s barely visible—it can simply be assigned a basic metal material. But for materials that make up most of the product, like powder coating or plastic, you’ll want them to match the real product perfectly.
Which properties are involved?
So which properties actually matter? All those hundreds of sliders and buttons ultimately affect a few core characteristics of a material. Below are the most important properties we often work with when recreating materials in 3D. These define how a material looks, how it reacts to light, and how it behaves in different environments.
Diffuse
The color of a material, also known as the diffuse color, is what you see when you look at an object. It can be a simple solid color or a pattern, like wood grain or stone. This forms the foundation of a material.
Roughness
Roughness determines whether a surface appears matte or glossy. A smooth surface, like car paint, is highly glossy because it reflects light strongly. A paving stone, on the other hand, has a rougher texture, which scatters light and gives the surface a matte appearance.
Reflection
Reflection is about how well light is bounced back from a surface. Think of a mirror, which reflects nearly 100% of what’s in front of it, or glossy plastic, where you can still see much of the underlying color. It determines how much of the material’s own color remains visible on the surface.
Bump
Bump refers to the small surface details on a material—like wood grain or tiny cracks—that don’t alter the actual shape of the object but are still visible. It defines the texture and depth of a material without changing its geometry.
Transparancy
Transparency determines how much light passes through a material. Glass, for example, is almost completely transparent, while plastic lets through less light depending on its thickness or color.
Displacement
Displacement creates real depth by actually changing the shape of the surface. It’s ideal for materials with height variations, like a brick wall or coarse woven wool, where the texture physically changes and adds more detail to the surface.
Sheen
Soft materials like fabrics have tiny fibers that create a subtle sheen, especially noticeable when viewed from the side. The sheen property simulates this effect and gives the material a more realistic appearance.
The steps to create a material
In addition to the properties mentioned above, there are dozens of other factors that influence how a material looks and behaves. And yes, it can feel pretty overwhelming when you see all those settings lined up. Where on earth do you even start?
Luckily, we’ve gone through this process so many times that we’ve developed a solid workflow—one that allows us to create nearly any type of material in 3D.
1. Reference images
Good photos and/or physical samples of the material are essential for building a solid foundation and identifying its key properties. We use these reference images throughout the process to test and compare our materials, ensuring we always achieve an accurate result.
2. Textures
For 3D materials, we often start with real photographs as a foundation. These photos, optimized for use in 3D, are called textures. For example, if we’re recreating an oak tabletop, we first look for a photo of the exact wood used on that product. If we can’t find it online, we take the photo ourselves. This ensures the base of the material is visually identical to the real one.
3. Shader
Once the textures are ready, we begin building the material in 3D. The textures serve as the foundation, and from there we define all the necessary properties. One by one, we compare each setting with the reference material we gathered earlier. Only when every property matches perfectly do we end up with a shader that accurately reflects the real material.
4. Material Series
A final step we often take is creating a full material series. Products rarely come in just one color—they usually have an entire range. We make sure all these color variations maintain the same surface qualities and visual behavior as in real life. This way, you can switch colors in the visualization without any loss of quality or realism.
How does this work in a 3D program?
There are different ways to build a shader in 3D software, but the method we use is based on nodes. Nodes are property boxes that you connect to a base material, which usually sits on the far right of the screen. Each node serves a specific function: some add textures, others scale or tint those textures, and some create depth or smoke effects. There are also nodes that combine multiple inputs into one.
This node-based system gives us the flexibility and control we need to manage the process efficiently and with precision.
Storing Information in Texture Maps
In the 3D industry, materials are often built using texture maps, which tell the software how different properties of a material should behave. Instead of manually adjusting sliders in the 3D program, we use texture maps to control everything. These maps can be used across any 3D software, making them easy to share online. Texture maps can be created in several ways: manually, with AI, or directly from a photo. The method you choose depends on your goal and how much control you need. AI is fast and convenient—ideal for quick projects—while manual creation is necessary for consistent and detailed material series.
For example, a diffuse map defines the color of the material. For roughness, everything white appears matte, while black results in glossy areas. By using grayscale, we can fine-tune the glossiness across specific parts of the surface. A normal map (often in shades of purple) stores directional information to simulate depth and texture without changing the actual geometry. This method allows for highly controlled and consistent material creation.
Conclusion
While 3D rendering often brings the 3D model itself to mind, getting the materials just right can actually take far more time and effort. A model’s dimensions are fixed—there’s little room for debate, as there’s only one correct version. Materials, on the other hand, are created by eye. With hundreds of sliders, checkboxes, and adjustments, they can be a real challenge. But by fully understanding each property—and how they influence one another—we can recreate materials in a way that looks truly photorealistic.