materials

Materials

Production shading with material reuse. PBR-accurate or intentionally stylized. Minimal unique materials.

When to Use

• Look development after UVs
• Procedural material creation
• Master material library setup
• Material variation from shared masters
• Engine export material preparation

Workflow

Master Materials → Instance Variations → Object Assignment
    → Vertex Color/Mask Setup → Validation → Export Prep

Master Material Library

Create reusable masters in MAT_ prefix:

Master	Base Setup
MAT_Metal_Base	Principled: Metallic 1, adjustable Roughness
MAT_Plastic_Base	Principled: Metallic 0, Specular IOR Level 0.5
MAT_Fabric_Base	Principled + Sheen
MAT_Glass_Base	Principled: Transmission 1, IOR 1.45
MAT_Emissive_Base	Principled: Emission strength variable
MAT_Organic_Base	Subsurface scattering enabled

Instance variations: duplicate master, adjust parameters only.

PBR Value Ranges

Material	Metallic	Roughness	Notes
Polished metal	1.0	0.1–0.3
Brushed metal	1.0	0.4–0.6	Anisotropic if available
Painted metal	0.0	0.3–0.5	Base color = paint
Plastic	0.0	0.3–0.6
Rubber	0.0	0.7–0.9
Concrete	0.0	0.8–0.95
Wood (raw)	0.0	0.5–0.7
Glass	0.0	0.0	Transmission 1
Skin	0.0	0.4–0.6	Subsurface 0.1–0.3
Fabric	0.0	0.7–0.9	Sheen

Procedural Material Patterns

Wear mask: Noise → ColorRamp → Lerp between clean/worn Edge wear: Bevel node → Pointiness or Ambient Occlusion Dirt accumulation: AO inverted → multiply with dirt color Rust: Noise mask on metal → orange/brown color override

Material Count Budget

Asset Type	Max Materials
Hero prop	3–5
Standard prop	1–2
Modular piece	1 (atlas)
Character	3–8 (body, cloth, eyes, hair)
Environment module	1–2

Vertex Color Usage

• RGB: variation masks (wear, moss, color variation)
• R: wear amount, G: dirt, B: wetness
• Document channel usage in material notes

Stylized Materials

See stylized-style skill. Key differences:

• Flatten roughness range
• Hand-painted base color priority
• Rim light via Fresnel mix
• NPR toon shaders if project requires

MCP Integration

1. Create material slots via MCP
2. Assign materials to objects via MCP
3. Set principled BSDF parameters via MCP
4. Query material count per scene
5. Verify material names follow convention

Constraints

MUST DO

• Reuse master materials; instance variations
• Name materials MAT_[Surface]_[Descriptor]
• Match PBR values to style skill direction
• Limit material count per asset budget
• Test materials in target lighting setup

MUST NOT DO

• Write code or snippets for Blender versions before 5.2, or add version fallbacks: this plugin targets 5.2+, and legacy branches teach users APIs that no longer exist
• Unique material per object (unless hero)
• PBR values outside physically plausible range (realistic style)
• Skip vertex color masks for variation
• Leave default material names
• Finalize materials before UVs complete

Scripts

Tested on Blender 5.2 LTS via the official Blender MCP. Run with execute_blender_code (or headless, see the blender-mcp-workflow skill); read the script header for every argument. When the user will paste code into Blender themselves, give them the short runpy call with the absolute path of this installed script and their ARGS. Don't inline or rewrite the script: the tested file is the point.

Script	What it does
scripts/pbr_material.py	Create (or update) a Principled BSDF PBR material and assign it to objects. Uses Blender 4+/5.x socket names. Optional texture paths are wired with the correct color spaces (Base Color = sRGB, data maps = Non-Color).

import runpy
result = runpy.run_path("<skill_dir>/scripts/pbr_material.py", init_globals={"ARGS": {...}})["result"]

ARGS: name, base_color, metallic, roughness, specular_ior_level, coat_weight, emission_strength, emission_color, textures, objects

Reference Guide

Topic	Reference	Load When
Surface recipes	references/surface-recipes.md	Specific materials
Procedural nodes	references/procedural-patterns.md	Wear, dirt, variation