The Blender Creative Series: 3D Modelling for Beginners

Procedural Materials In Blender

You will be able to use and navigate the Shading workspace, have a deep understanding of several key nodes, and will be able to create shaders both from existing textures as well as from scratch using maths!

1 Setup Blender for Shader Work

• How to enable the Node Wrangler addon.

2 Introduction to the Shader Editor

• How to navigate the Shader Editor.
• What node types are available.
• What different socket colours mean.

3 Useful Shader Shortcuts

• Basic actions in the shader editor. > + Pan with MMB > + Zoom with Scroll Wheel > + Add new nodes with CTRL + A > + Duplicate nodes with SHIFT + D or CTRL + SHIFT + D
• Some common Node Wrangler shortcuts. > + View a node with CTRL + SHIFT + LMB > + Lazy Connect two nodes with ALT + RMB > + Cut noodles with CTRL + RMB > + Create a reroute with SHIFT + RMB
• And more..

4 A First Material

• How to create and edit a shader in the Shader Editor.
• How to modify a texture using the ColorRamp node.

5 Understanding Values in Shaders

• How values are represented as colour and the limitation of colour (especially with negative values).

6 The Texture Coordinate Node

• Understanding what each socket of the Texture Coordinate node offers.

7 The Math Node Part 1

• How the Math node works.
• Understanding specific functions: > + Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide > + Absolute

8 The Math Node Part 2

• How the Math node works.
• Understanding specific functions: > + Minimum, Maximum > + Greater Than, Less Than > + Fraction, Modulo, Ping-Pong> + Snap

9 A Screentone Shader

• How to manipulate texture coordinates with a Mapping node.
• How to use a Shader to RGB node to introduce lighting information into a shader.

10 The MixRGB Node

• How the MixRGB node works.
• Understanding specific blend modes: > + Mix > + Darken, Multiply, Color Burn > + Lighten, Color Dodge, Add > + Linear Light > + Difference

11 Introduction to the Kitchen Scene

• How a non-destructive workflow has been used to create the scene using modifiers.

12 Creating PBR Shaders

• How to set up a PBR material with multiple image maps.
• How to manipulate values such as roughness inside the shader.

13 Manipulating Procedural Textures

• How to use a Map Range node.
• How to use a Constant falloff with the ColorRamp node.

14 The Bump Node

• How to set up the Bump Node.
• How to assign materials with the Solidify Modifier.
• How to link materials and modifiers with CTRL + L.

15 Randomising Colour per Object

• How to get a random value with the Object Info node.
• How to create a palette with a ColorRamp node.
• How to randomise values with a White Noise node.

16 Assigning Materials

• How to assign multiple materials to a single object.

17 Liquid Inside a Glass

• How to create a custom glass shader that allows for liquid inside a container with Eevee.
• How to use the Fresnel and RGB Curve nodes.

18 Creating a Tile Pattern

• How to create our own patterns from scratch.
• How to work with the Vector Math node.
• How to build useful controls into your procedural shader.

19 Making the Tile Shader

• How to go from a greyscale pattern to a full shader.
• How to use RGB Curves to create custom tile profiles.
• How to build randomness into a procedural shader.

20 Creating Group Nodes

• How to create and navigate Group Nodes.
• How to generate and manage sockets.

21 Baking Textures

• How to optimise the baking process: > + Set Render Samples to 1 unless specifically baking lighting information. > + Set the Tile Size to match your texture resolution. > + Ensure the texture you bake to is the active node.

22 Extra Challenges and Wrap Up

• Well done on getting this far!
• Extra challenges to help consolidate the lessons so far.
• If you haven't yet, I'd love to see your progress.
• Any feedback? Let us know.