Shader Types and Settings

Depending on the look you are trying to apply to an object or the scene, you can select from among different shader algorithms. The differences between the shader types are sometimes subtle, as they build upon the same algorithms, such as Fresnel or the Oren-Nayar diffuse model.

Some of the settings in the Shader menu change depending on the shader type chosen. See the following sections for the specific settings for each shader type.

Shader Type box

Select a shading algorithm, or turn shading off.

Physically Based Shader

Use the Physically Based shader (PBS) to accurately represent real-world materials. In a PBS workflow, some Physically Based shader settings override the Geom, Material, or Surface node settings. For example, specular and shine settings in the Material or Geom menu do not have any effect.

Note: Some of these same settings are available as shader types from the PBS Map node (by using the PBS Map node, you can affect the shader on a per pixel basis).

Roughness field

Displays how the light reflects from the surface, based on the roughness of the material. Use a lower value for pure specular, or a higher value for high dispersion. Editable.

Metallic field

Displays the relative weight between the dielectric and metallic BRDF model, where 0 is pure dielectric and 1 is metallic. Editable.

SubSurface field

Displays the diffuse part to approximate a subsurface scattering effect for the dielectric model (has no effect on the metallic model). Editable.

Specular Level field

Displays the Fresnel F0 specular reflectance at normal incidence for the dielectric model (for the metallic model the F0 follows the Base Color of the material). Editable.

Specular Tint field

Displays the contribution of the Base Color (Diffuse) to tint the specular for the dielectric model (has no effect on the metallic model). Editable.

Anisotropic field

Displays the distortion of the specular lobe, according to the tangent and bi-normal angles. Editable.

Anisotropic Angle field

Displays the rotation of the distortion of the anisotropic specular lobe. Editable.

Emissive Intensity field

Displays the intensity of the light emitted by the material. Editable.

Intensity Colour pot

Displays the colour of the emitted light by material. Click to change the colour.

Thin Film

The Thin Film settings create iridescence by modeling the effect of thin film interference on a surface. With this modeling, you can reproduce the colour effects created by car paint under light. Use Thin Film with materials like multi-tone car paint, burnt chrome, or leather.

Thin Film Amount field

Blend in the thin film iridescence rendering effect. 1 is maximum effect.

Thin Film IOR field

Set the Index Of Refraction of the thin film. 1.0 for air, 1.33 for water, 1.45 for oil, 2.0 for car paint.

Thin Film Thickness field

Set the thickness of the thin film, as a unit-less parameter. As the thickness varies, the light pattern changes and affects the generated iridescence colour.

Sheen

Sheen field

Adds white colour to the geometry relative to the normals direction, where the closer the normal is to 90 degree, the whiter the colour becomes. Has no effect of Metallic is at 1.0.

Sheen Tint field

Defines how much of the Basecolor tints the Sheen effect.

Clear Coat

Clearcoat field

Creates specularity on top of the Metallic model, but is independent of the Roughness. It creates in fact a second layer of specularity like a clear coat finish would.

Clearcoat Gloss field

Shapes the specularity created by the Clearcoat parameter.

Car Paint Shader

Use the Car Paint shader to blend between two colour tones, based on the viewing angle and the normal of the object. This shader includes Cook-Torrance shaders and Fresnel controls for the specularity.

Roughness field

Displays the shape of specularity of the shader.

Fresnel Offset field

Displays the total amount of specular light.

Fresnel Factor field

Displays the amount of specular light at grazing angles.

Tip: To cancel out the Fresnel effect altogether, set the Fresnel Offset to 0 and the Fresnel Factor to 100.

Paint Mix field

Displays the viewing angle of the normal that occurs between parallel (mid colour) and perpendicular (edge colour). Editable.

Red Mid Colour field

Displays the red mid colour value. Editable.

Green Mid Colour field

Displays the green mid colour value. Editable.

Blue Mid Colour field

Displays the blue mid colour value. Editable.

Mid colour pot

Diplays the mid colour. Editable.

Red Edge Colour field

Displays the red edge colour value. Editable.

Green Edge Colour field

Displays the green edge colour value. Editable.

Blue Edge Colour field

Displays the blue edge colour value. Editable.

Edge colour pot

Displays the edge colour. Editable.

Fresnel Shader

The Fresnel shader contains only Fresnel controls for the specularity.

Roughness field

Displays the shape of specularity of the shader.

Fresnel Offset field

Displays the total amount of specular light.

Fresnel Factor field

Displays the amount of specular light at grazing angles.

Tip: To cancel out the Fresnel effect altogether, set the Fresnel Offset to 0 and the Fresnel Factor to 100.

Cook-Torrance Shader

Use the Cook-Torrance shader for high specularity materials, such as metals or shiny plastics. This shader includes Fresnel controls for specularity.

Roughness field

Displays the shape of specularity of the shader.

Fresnel Offset field

Displays the total amount of specular light.

Fresnel Factor field

Displays the amount of specular light at grazing angles.

Tip: To cancel out the Fresnel effect altogether, set the Fresnel Offset to 0 and the Fresnel Factor to 100.

Anisotropic Shader

Use the anisotropic shader to control the specular effect of the highlights.

X Roughness field

Displays the shape of specularity of the shader along the X axis. Editable.

Y Roughness field

Displays the shape of specularity of the shader along the Y axis. Editable.

Fresnel Offset field

Displays the total amount of specular light.

Fresnel Factor field

Displays the amount of specular light at grazing angles.

Tip: To cancel out the Fresnel effect altogether, set the Fresnel Offset to 0 and the Fresnel Factor to 100.