Learning Blender: A Hands-On Guide to Creating 3D Animated Characters

Materials

Materials define how an object looks, such as what its color is, whether the object is dull or shiny, or if it is reflective or transparent. With materials, you can make an object look like glass, metal, plastic, or wood. In the end, both materials and lighting define how your objects look. In this section, you’ll see how to use materials for both Blender Render and Cycles.

From the Materials tab (the shiny red sphere icon) in the Properties Editor, you can add new materials or select existing ones from the drop-down list shown in Figure 3.8. A single object can have more than one material and these materials appear in the list at the top of the material properties. You can add and remove new slots for materials with the + and – buttons ...