Materials

Materials define the surface of your objects — whether something looks like matte plastic, brushed metal, or frosted glass. Facet uses physically-based materials, so surfaces respond realistically to the lighting in your scene.

Core properties

• Colour — the base colour of the surface.
• Metalness — how metallic the surface is. Low values read as plastic or painted surfaces; high values read as metal and pick up reflections from the environment.
• Roughness — how sharp or blurred reflections are. Low roughness is glossy and mirror-like; high roughness is soft and matte.

Together, metalness and roughness cover most real-world surfaces. A polished chrome look is high metalness + low roughness; a soft matte finish is low metalness + high roughness.

Glass & transmission

To make glass or other transparent materials, enable transmission. Glass bends the light passing through it, so it needs an environment to refract:

Glass needs an environment. Refraction has nothing to bend without one — set an HDRI environment (see Lighting & HDRI) or your glass will look flat and grey.

Multiple materials

You can assign and edit more than one material in a scene to give different parts distinct surfaces. Adding and editing materials beyond the scene default is part of the paid plans — see Plans & pricing.

Tips

• Start from the environment. Because reflections come from the HDRI, a material can look completely different under a different environment — set your lighting early.
• Small roughness changes have a big visual impact. Nudge it gradually.
• For a premium product look, lean on low roughness plus a clean studio HDRI.