Metal & surface materials
Metals carry the piece; surfaces carry everything else — enamel, ceramic, pearl, leather, display props. Both live in the Material tab, chosen by the selected part's kind.
Metal presets
The library's Metals section covers the workshop: Gold, Rose Gold, White Gold, Platinum, Silver, Rhodium, base metals (Copper, Brass, Bronze, Chrome, Aluminum, Colored), and finish families — Hammered, Brushed, Textured, Matte, Special.
Selection scoping works like gems: a selected part takes the preset alone; no selection re-dresses every metal part and sets the template for new ones. Finish presets change character (brushed, hammered) while keeping your base color — and color presets keep your finish. Preset application is smart about what you've customized.
Base metal
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Color | The metal's tint. Gold tones live here. |
| Metalness | 1 for true metal; back it off for lacquered or oxidized looks. |
| Roughness (0–1, fine steps) | Mirror polish at 0 to satin at higher values. The single most important metal slider. |
| Metal reflections | How strongly the metal drinks its environment. |
| Reflectivity | Base reflectance at grazing angles. |
Anisotropy
Brushed metal's signature stretched highlights. Anisotropy sets the strength, Rotation the brushing direction. Combine with a Brushed finish preset for machined and satin-lined looks.
Thin film
Iridescent coatings — the oil-slick shimmer of coated titanium or heat-treated finishes: Iridescence, Film IOR, Thickness.
Bump & relief
Procedural surface texture without any texture files: Noise bump strength and Noise scale. Subtle values read as cast or hand-finished metal.
Surface ("Other") materials
Parts classified as surface get a full physically-based material with its own catalog presets — Ceramic, Pearl, Enamel & glass, Leather, Marble, Fabric, Wood & ivory, Paper, Semi-precious:
- Base surface — color, metalness, roughness, reflections, IOR, and Transmission (for glass and enamel).
- Clearcoat — the lacquer layer: strength and its own roughness.
- Sheen — fabric and velvet's soft edge glow, with color and roughness.
- Thin film — iridescence for pearl and glass.
- Texture mapping — the preset textures' scale, relief strength, normal strength, and blend sharpness. Mapping is projection-based, so imported models need no UVs.
Saving & moving materials
Identical to gems: Save current as custom for the quick list, Save to Drive for a named cloud document with a live viewport thumbnail, Export/Import JSON for files, stars for Favorites, and right-click Copy / Paste material between parts.