Materials - What & How to use?
Materials can be seen as layers or paint that are added on the surface of your 3D model to them appear metallic or wooden.
To create a New Material, click + Material on your product page. This will add material to your Product Assets.
Click and select Material to open a tab with all its values.
By adjusting these values, you can change the material color or make appear metallic.
Material values do not add any data to your product so we recommend using them over textures
RGBA Color picker changes Material to any RGBA color. It can be used in combination with a Texture to fine-tune a colour or to reuse texture assets.
Material colours work in combination with the environment lighting so they might not translate 1:1 in all cases
Factor & Intensity affect the material on a scale from 0 to 1. When used with a Texture, it will reduce texture efficiency.
Roughness factor: Makes your material rough (1) or glossy (0).
Metalness factor: Makes your material metallic (1) or not metallic (0).
Normal intensity: Reduces the intensity of your Normal map (0 = no texture).
Occlusion intensity: Reduces the intensity of your Normal map (0 = no texture).
Drag & drop asset file to the image icon in a Material value to upload it and assign it.
To assign uploaded Textures (listed in Product Textures), click the image icon in a Material and select a Texture.
Drag & drop material icon to a Node in the scene. If you drag it to a Group, it will assign it to all Nodes in that group.
You can also select a Node and then choose Material from the dropdown to assign it.
The Sayduck Platform uses Physically Based Rendering (PBR), a shading and rendering technique that accurately calculates how light interacts with the surface, to achieve a higher level of realism and quality in our materials.
Base color is used to add solid color (RGB) or transparency (A ie. alpha value).
For more information, check out Base colour (RGBA)
Metalness defines how metallic your Material is.
For more information, check out Metalness
Roughness defines how light reflects from your Material.
For more information, check out Roughness
Normal map is used to add details such as bumps or dents without effecting the model structure.
For more information, check out Normal map
Emission simulates glow and is mainly used for lights.
For more information, check out Emissive color
Ambient occlusion is a rendering technique used to create contact shadows or shading to your product.
This AO shadow texture is baked in a 3D modelling software and then uploaded to the Platform.
For more information, check out Product Shadows (Ambient Occlusion)
To add transparency, change your material Alpha value or use the Transmission extension.
For more information, check out Transparency
Clear Coat is a material extension that adds a thin reflective layer on top of your model. It is mainly used for transparent coating on wood furniture or car paint.
This effect can be adjusted with the Intensity (factor & grayscale texture), Roughness (factor & grayscale texture) and Normal map.
Not supported in Augmented reality
For more information, check out Clear Coat
Sheen is an extension that is mainly used for fabric materials, such as velvet. It simulates how threads respond to light when viewed from different angles.
Not supported in Augmented reality
For more information, check out Sheen
Transform UV repeats, moves or rotates Texture applied to the material.
Tiling repeats the Texture asset based on the value added to the X and Y.
Offset moves Texture in the Y and X axes.
Rotation changes the angle of your Texture.
Occlusion map is not effected by Transform values
For more information, check out UV Transform (Tiling)
Remove unused assets deletes all unused Textures, Materials and Meshes.
Delete, Duplicate & Save to Library tools can be found by clicking the highlighted area on a Material.
Created a copy of the Material with all the same values and textures. Allowing you to use any Material as a template for others.
Removes selected Material and all Nodes using it from the 3D Scene. It does not delete any Textures assigned to the Material.
Adds a copy of your Material to your Material Library. From there, it can then be assigned to any product.
Material Folders are used to store Materials.
Material folders can be created with the highlighted button.
Drag & drop Material to assign it to a folder.
Drag & drop Material to the back arrow to remove it from the folder.
Click the highlighted button, to save your Material folder to your Library.
Select a folder and click highlighted area to change the name or delete the folder.
How to create a New material?
To create a New Material, click + Material on your product page. This will add material to your Product Assets.
How to make a change to a Material?
Click and select Material to open a tab with all its values.
By adjusting these values, you can change the material color or make appear metallic.
Material values do not add any data to your product so we recommend using them over textures
RGBA Color picker
RGBA Color picker changes Material to any RGBA color. It can be used in combination with a Texture to fine-tune a colour or to reuse texture assets.
Material colours work in combination with the environment lighting so they might not translate 1:1 in all cases
Factor & Intensity
Factor & Intensity affect the material on a scale from 0 to 1. When used with a Texture, it will reduce texture efficiency.
Roughness factor: Makes your material rough (1) or glossy (0).
Metalness factor: Makes your material metallic (1) or not metallic (0).
Normal intensity: Reduces the intensity of your Normal map (0 = no texture).
Occlusion intensity: Reduces the intensity of your Normal map (0 = no texture).
How to assign a Texture to a Material?
Drag & drop asset file to the image icon in a Material value to upload it and assign it.
To assign uploaded Textures (listed in Product Textures), click the image icon in a Material and select a Texture.
How to assign Material to a Node?
Drag & drop material icon to a Node in the scene. If you drag it to a Group, it will assign it to all Nodes in that group.
You can also select a Node and then choose Material from the dropdown to assign it.
PBR Materials values
The Sayduck Platform uses Physically Based Rendering (PBR), a shading and rendering technique that accurately calculates how light interacts with the surface, to achieve a higher level of realism and quality in our materials.
Base color (RGBA)
Base color is used to add solid color (RGB) or transparency (A ie. alpha value).
For more information, check out Base colour (RGBA)
Metalness
Metalness defines how metallic your Material is.
For more information, check out Metalness
Roughness
Roughness defines how light reflects from your Material.
For more information, check out Roughness
Normal map
Normal map is used to add details such as bumps or dents without effecting the model structure.
For more information, check out Normal map
Emissive color
Emission simulates glow and is mainly used for lights.
For more information, check out Emissive color
Ambient occlusion
Ambient occlusion is a rendering technique used to create contact shadows or shading to your product.
This AO shadow texture is baked in a 3D modelling software and then uploaded to the Platform.
For more information, check out Product Shadows (Ambient Occlusion)
Transparency
To add transparency, change your material Alpha value or use the Transmission extension.
For more information, check out Transparency
Clear Coat
Clear Coat is a material extension that adds a thin reflective layer on top of your model. It is mainly used for transparent coating on wood furniture or car paint.
This effect can be adjusted with the Intensity (factor & grayscale texture), Roughness (factor & grayscale texture) and Normal map.
Not supported in Augmented reality
For more information, check out Clear Coat
Sheen
Sheen is an extension that is mainly used for fabric materials, such as velvet. It simulates how threads respond to light when viewed from different angles.
Not supported in Augmented reality
For more information, check out Sheen
Transform UV
Transform UV repeats, moves or rotates Texture applied to the material.
Tiling repeats the Texture asset based on the value added to the X and Y.
Offset moves Texture in the Y and X axes.
Rotation changes the angle of your Texture.
Occlusion map is not effected by Transform values
For more information, check out UV Transform (Tiling)
Material Features
Remove unused assets
Remove unused assets deletes all unused Textures, Materials and Meshes.
Delete, Duplicate & Save to Library
Delete, Duplicate & Save to Library tools can be found by clicking the highlighted area on a Material.
Duplicate Material
Created a copy of the Material with all the same values and textures. Allowing you to use any Material as a template for others.
Delete Material
Removes selected Material and all Nodes using it from the 3D Scene. It does not delete any Textures assigned to the Material.
Save Material to Library
Adds a copy of your Material to your Material Library. From there, it can then be assigned to any product.
Material Folder
Material Folders are used to store Materials.
Create a Material folder
Material folders can be created with the highlighted button.
Assign Material to Folder
Drag & drop Material to assign it to a folder.
Drag & drop Material to the back arrow to remove it from the folder.
Save Folder to Library
Click the highlighted button, to save your Material folder to your Library.
Change Folder name & Delete button
Select a folder and click highlighted area to change the name or delete the folder.
Updated on: 26/04/2023
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