In lecture 26: Multiple Materials, Michael shows how to set a fake user to ensure that a material continues to exist within a blend file, even if no objects use it.
How do I edit such a material? I can only see how to edit a material via the properties of an object that uses it.
I was expecting there to be an editor type ‘Material Editor’ or somesuch.
Yes, there is in the shaders tab / workspace.
Above the node panel, there is an option to select the material, other that the one connected to a current selected object.
I can’t see that option. Is that in a Shader Editor?
Red and Green here are two materials with only a fake user.
Thanks FedPete.
I think the Editor Type at bottom left in that screenshot is a Shader Editor.
In my blend file, I have no objects, only materials. I get neither a slot or material combo widgets.
Which version of Blender are you using … ?
2.82a on Linux
yes you’r right. So add a cube !
ok, it’s not my mistake then.
In a later lecture, Appending vs Duplication at 0:40, Michael asks us to consider where materials are stored. My thought was to store my materials in a single mymaterials.blend file an then somehow reference them from blend files containing models. Then, I’d have a central place to edit my materials as used by multiple models.
That’s why I’m experimenting with a blend file with no objects, just materials.
Seems circuitous to have to introduce geometry just to allow materials to be edited.
Yes I know.
But it is not only about storing a material, a texture. You want to see it work also on a object … flat faced, curves …
This way you can compare materials.
What I do is use materials from other projects. Change them, improve them, storing it in the new project. but I leave them in those projects. Because the same reason for materials, goes for objects too. Create re-usable objects.
You could store them (as materials, as objects) in your Blend startup file. Or separate file, but these files will only grow massively.
For some materials I use this mesh model. You can download it from the internet. Forget where.
So, this is where my enquiry is headed.
Suppose you have a material in a.blend and somehow link to it and use it in b.blend. You then edit the material in a.blend. Does that edit affect how the material looks in b.blend?
You should investigate the use of “Linked” objects and or materials.
And “Applied” objects and or materials!
ok. Will do that.
thanks
Linked or Appended. Appended is a bit of an odd word to use but it is ‘add’ a copy, unlinked or connected to the original. There is a lecture about the two in the game assets section I believe.
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