Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2. Managing Cycles Materials
In this chapter, we will cover:
• Preparing an ideal Cycles interface for material creation
• Naming materials and textures
• Creating node groups
• Linking materials
Introduction
As with Blender Internal materials, Cycles materials can (and should) be organized to
optimize not only your workflow but also Blender memory management.
Material nodes can easily grow quite complex in Cycles so it's sometimes a good idea
to split and label the different parts of a shader's network, just to make the meaning
of the different sections more clear (even to yourself; maybe at a certain point of your
workflow, you forget how exactly you organized the 120 nodes of material you made
a couple of months before working). Moreover, organized materials can be easily re-
used in other files, projects, or as parts of bigger and different materials.
The organization of the materials basically is made by grouping them and/or giving
them proper names and defined locations, so as to be easily found on the hard disk.
