Blender: Intro to Materials

by Jonathan Williamson

Something we realized is though there are plenty of amazing video blender tutorials all over our site, there wasn’t a clearly defined starting point. As with anything there has to be a beginning or an initial handshake of “Hey, nice to meet you” to really get started on the right foot.

This is why we have created this dedicated “Getting Started with Blender” page to help break the ice and get introductions out of the way.

In this blender video we will cover the basics of materials within Blender.

Getting Started in Blender<>

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Discussion

39 Responses to “Blender: Intro to Materials”
  1. Akif aliyev
    Posts: 1

    I recently discovered Blender a few days ago and now i am really interested in it. Thankyou for the wonderful tutorials.

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    1
     Sep 2, 2011 at 12:46 am
    Reply
    • double d
      Posts: 1

      I agree , I’m working with blender for over a month now .. I LOVE IT.
      I couldn’t believe that it was free when I found it.. I underestimated it.
      Blender really is a powerful tool ,

      Thank you Blender Foundation , for opening the door for people without thousands of dollar to waste on a 3d software.

      D.Demirel

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      1.1
       Mar 15, 2012 at 4:52 pm
      Reply
  2. the smile in the frown
    Posts: 40

    for some reason, it will not show the preview at all. what should i do?

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    2
     Sep 19, 2011 at 4:56 pm
    Reply
    • wispcolor
      Posts: 3

      oh wait, never mind XD
      i clicked the wrong circle

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      2.1
       Sep 28, 2011 at 5:07 pm
      Reply
  3. Brock
    Posts: 3

    I was wondering why when you change the color, the preview AND the selected object automatically change, yet when you adjust the transparency, ONLY the preview changes. How do you apply that change to your selected object too?

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    3
     Oct 4, 2011 at 10:05 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      Hi Brock,

      Transparency will only show in the viewport if you select the object, go to the Object properties and enable “Transparency” under the extra draw modes.

      -Jonathan

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      3.1
       Oct 5, 2011 at 8:44 am
      Reply
      • Brock
        Posts: 3

        Hey, thanks Jonathan!
        One more question…

        I am trying to learn this all while also learning the python code behind it by <> and watching what it displays with my actions…

        But I only see that a materal is added, not of any properties…

        more specifically, how can I, only scripting, apply transparency and also view it (per my previous question)?

        Thanks again for your reply

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        3.1.1
         Oct 7, 2011 at 9:32 pm
      • jonathanwilliamson
        Posts: 1786

        Hi Brock,

        These would actually be very good questions for Patrick Boelens. I don’t know anything about scripting. If you send a email to support@cgcookie.com then I can forward it over to him :)

        -Jonathan

        #
         Oct 7, 2011 at 9:35 pm
      • Max
        Posts: 3

        Hi Jonathan, this seems like a very stupid question but I have the same problem with textures: the preview changes but the selected object doesn’t (and also the rendered object doesn’t)!

        What do I have to do?

        Thanks

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        3.1.2
         May 9, 2012 at 1:32 am
    • jabessette25
      Posts: 176

      bpy.data.materials['Material'].use_transparency = True will turn on transparency for the material named ‘Material’. I’m not sure what you mean by viewing the transparency. If you mean by seeing it in the viewport go down to Display in the properties tab and turn on GLSL mode and click the box for textured solid. Then on the 3D Viewport header click the box next to the one that says which mode your in and select “textured”

      I hope that helps and wasn’t too confusing.

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      3.2
       Oct 7, 2011 at 10:50 pm
      Reply
  4. Anonymous
    Posts: 4

    Hello I was wondering if you could teach me how to import this stuff into FCPX for a green screen

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    4
     Oct 5, 2011 at 8:37 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      If you render it out to an Image Sequence with RGBA and “Premultiply” enabled for the Sky you should be able to import it no problem.

      -Jonathan

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      4.1
       Oct 6, 2011 at 9:03 am
      Reply
  5. sentinel
    Posts: 2

    Hi Jonathan I can´t see the VIMEO videos, i dont know what is… but that sucks please change to utube or fixx the problem nice day!!

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    5
     Oct 9, 2011 at 1:34 pm
    Reply
  6. Bri
    Posts: 1

    Hello, I was wondering how I open up .jpg and .png images. I’m really new to this thing, and very confused on how to do these things.
    Thank you.

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    6
     Oct 9, 2011 at 3:10 pm
    Reply
  7. Regina
    Posts: 1

    Hi. How are you scrolling through the properties icon on the right to get to the material icon? Thanks

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    7
     Oct 13, 2011 at 9:54 am
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      By Middle Click and drag or by holding ALT and scrolling with the scroll wheel :)

      -Jonathan

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      7.1
       Oct 13, 2011 at 10:04 am
      Reply
      • Tyler
        Posts: 1

        I’m fairly new to Blender and your tutorials
        are some of the most explanatory I’ve ever
        seen for anything, so thank you.
        But I use a laptop, so I don’t have a scroll wheel nor can I middle click. What do I do to scroll the properties?

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        7.1.1
         Feb 24, 2012 at 7:27 pm
      • jonathanwilliamson
        Posts: 1786

        You can substitute the ALT + LMB for the MMB by enabling “Emulate 3 button mouse” in the Input section of the User Preferences.

        Glad you like the tutorials :)

        #
         Feb 24, 2012 at 8:45 pm
  8. Joe Condon
    Posts: 1

    Can I adjust the resolution of the final rendered image to be high resolution for printing?
    Everything I do winds up in print not the web. Is this software suitable for that?

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    8
     Oct 19, 2011 at 3:37 pm
    Reply
  9. Jazz
    Posts: 1

    hi, i was watching this video when i noticed i didnt have some of the tools that you did but i have seen them on my screen b4 now i cant find them. Do you have to like go on a certain mode or something?

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    9
     Oct 23, 2011 at 5:19 pm
    Reply
    • Ntr
      Posts: 2

      What tools are you missing?

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      9.1
       Dec 1, 2011 at 6:23 pm
      Reply
  10. Josh
    Posts: 1

    When I change the transparency the preview changes, but the actual object does not. How can I fix this? Transparency is enabled by the way. Thanks!

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    10
     Nov 11, 2011 at 11:33 pm
    Reply
  11. NTR
    Posts: 2

    How do you use thetexturing brushes. I’d really appreciate if you could respond.

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    11
     Dec 1, 2011 at 6:17 pm
    Reply
  12. Parth N. Acharya
    Posts: 2

    why cant I select face? It allows to select just the vertex and edge. Is there something I am missing?

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    12
     Dec 19, 2011 at 11:43 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      Hi Parth, to select faces you can press CTRL + TAB while in Edit Mode to switch into Face Select Mode.

      -Jonathan

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      12.1
       Dec 20, 2011 at 9:51 am
      Reply
  13. Mark Gerhard
    Posts: 1

    Is there a way to see the textures applied to the object in the viewport? I see the texture when I render, but where do I turn on the viewport display of the texture on the object?

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    13
     Dec 29, 2011 at 2:50 pm
    Reply
  14. Areej
    Posts: 1

    i cant find the small red circle which change the color of object :(
    the bar doesn’t move!

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    14
     Jan 17, 2012 at 3:33 pm
    Reply
    • melanie clemmons
      Posts: 2

      me either… Maybe it has to do with the version?
      I have—
      Version 2.62 (2.62, 2012-Feb-15, Blender Foundation)

      xoxo

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      14.1
       Mar 22, 2012 at 9:11 pm
      Reply
      • melanie clemmons
        Posts: 2

        Nvm. doh!

        You hover your mouse on the left side of the toolbox so the cursor can reveal arrows. Then you pull the toolbox out to the side.

        cheerio

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        14.1.1
         Mar 22, 2012 at 9:23 pm
  15. Keith
    Posts: 1

    Are there Material Libraries available to load materials ala 3DsMax. thanks

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    15
     Jan 20, 2012 at 6:39 pm
    Reply
  16. Kevat
    Posts: 1

    When is the blender 2.5 tutorial coming? Great job guys, this is easily one of the best software I’ve seen so far.

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    16
     Feb 2, 2012 at 7:19 pm
    Reply
  17. Jozef
    Posts: 1

    I am happy with these Tutorials. If you miss them than you probably give up!
    Almost 15 years ago I saw Blender for the first time and tried to get control over it.
    It did not work so I stopped woring with Blender. Now years later I give it a new try. In the mean time I have worked with Solidworks an 3D StudioMax and other programms. This has been already a few years ago.
    Now I give it a new try with Blender again.
    I see Blender more as a Creative Designing Prototyping Program. After this stage you can step over to Solidworks. But I will find out.

    Thank you and regards all the way from Belgium.

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    17
     Feb 28, 2012 at 7:53 am
    Reply
  18. JonK
    Posts: 1

    Great tutorials, I’m coming from a paint.net/3d world crafter background and the blender interface is well thought out and intuitive. My only real question is trivial, but I’m curious to know: why is there a monkey option in the preview render? I’m sure there’s good reason, but it escapes me.

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    18
     Mar 7, 2012 at 5:12 am
    Reply
  19. Lo
    Posts: 1

    I am in an incandescent state of rage. Nowhere can I find how to apply textures via materials.

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    19
     Mar 31, 2012 at 7:19 pm
    Reply
    • jonathanwilliamson
      Posts: 1786

      Hi Lo,

      What specifically are you trying to apply as a texture? Image textures?

      For image textures you first need to UV Unwrap the model and then add an Image Texture to the material and change the Mapping type to “UV”. If you’re not familiar with UV Unwrapping you can check my tutorial here: http://cgcookie.com/blender/2011/01/21/intro_uvmapping/

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      19.1
       Mar 31, 2012 at 7:23 pm
      Reply
  20. Hector Mateo
    Posts: 1

    can someone help me? I just downloaded blender and for some reason it doesn’t shows me the material icon at the right, next to world and all this things, can someone help me? btw: i have the version 6.3

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    20
     May 3, 2012 at 10:06 pm
    Reply

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