Materials and textures

Updated: May 15, 2025

Materials define the appearance of a 3D object’s surface. They consist of properties, like colors and textures, that work together to create the desired appearance.

Material properties

The standard material component includes just one property: Double Sided. If it’s not selected, the faces using the material will only be visible on one side. From the other side, the faces will not be visible.

Other options, under PBR Material Component, determine textures and how light interacts with the surface of your object. Here are the properties that make up a PBR material:

Property	Type	Definition
Base Color Factor	Color	The main color of the material. If using a texture, leave this white (255,255,255) unless you want to tint the texture.
Base Color Texture	Texture	Applies varying color values across the geometry using texture coordinates. This will form the base of your material. Use it to add visible color and details.
Alpha Mode	Text	This determines how the alpha value of the base color or texture is interpreted: In Opaque mode, the alpha value is ignored. In Mask mode, pixels are written off if the alpha value is > the alpha cutoff (see below). In Blend mode, the alpha value is used to blend with the color behind the object. Alpha value is the product of the base color texture alpha and the base color factor alpha.
Alpha Cutoff	Percent	A parameter (between 0 and 100) that determines the cutoff point when Alpha Mode is set to Mask.
Metallic Factor	Percent	This determines the extent to which the metallic channel of the roughness texture has an effect on the material.
Roughness Factor	Percent	This determines the extent to which the roughness channel of the roughness texture has an effect on the material.
Roughness Texture	Texture	Maps different metalness and roughness values across the geometry using texture coordinates. The blue channel defines metalness, and the green channel defines roughness. Representing these details as a texture instead of geometry will increase the performance of your composition. The extent to which these textures are applied is adjusted using the metallic and roughness factor settings. Spatial Editor packs ORM values into the RGB channels in that order.
Normal Texture	Texture	Used to create the appearance of real-world surface detail like bumps, grooves and rivets without adding extra geometry to your object.
Occlusion Texture	Texture	Approximates soft shadows baked into the creased areas of a surface. The occlusion information is read from the red channel of the texture only.
Occlusion Strength	Percent	This determines the extent to which the occlusion texture has an effect on the material.
Emissive Texture	Texture	This texture provides emissive information indicating where the material should emit light. For example, power light indicators, LED displays, or glowing eyes.
Specular Factor	Percent	The strength of the specular reflection.
Specular Texture	Image	Specular describes the strength and color tint of the specular reflectivity on dielectric materials. This texture defines the strength of the specular reflection, stored in the alpha channel. This will be multiplied by the Factor.
Specular Color Texture	Texture	A texture that defines the F0 (fresnel zero - a surface directly oriented toward the viewer) color of the specular reflection, stored in the RGB channels and encoded in sRGB.
Specular Color	Color	The F0 (fresnel zero - a surface directly oriented toward the viewer) color of the specular reflection. If using a texture, leave this white (255,255,255).

Change an object’s material

An object’s material can be changed or edited from the object editor:

Double-click the object in the Composition or Project Assets panel to open it in the object editor.

On the left, select a mesh from the Object panel (or select it directly from the Viewport).

On the right, click + next to the Primitive heading to open the material picker.

Select a new material from the current object’s folder, or select a different object from the dropdown menu to use a material from elsewhere in your project.

Edit a material

To edit a material’s properties:

With the object editor open, select a mesh from the Object panel. Make sure it uses the material you want to edit.

Hover over the material in the left-hand panel and click the three-dot menu (⋯) icon.

Select Edit from the dropdown menu.

Alternatively, selecting the material in the Project Assets panel will display material settings in the Properties panel on the right. To find out more about texture compatibility, visit this page on file formats and compatibility.