Textures and Labels
The Textures and Labels tabs of the Material Editor are where you attach image maps and position decals on a surface. Open the Material Editor (View ▸ Material), select a material, then click the Textures or Labels tab.
Textures tab
Texture slots
The top of the Textures tab shows a row of slot cards. Which slots appear depends on the material type — a Basic Plastic material shows Colour, Specular, Bump / Normal and Opacity, plus a card for each other field that accepts a texture; on Metal and Anisotropic types the Colour slot is labelled Reflection Colour, and on Glass, Glass (Solid), Liquid and Gem types it is labelled Transmission Colour. Other types show different or additional slots.
Each card shows:
- A thumbnail preview of the current texture
- The slot name as a label
- An On switch to enable or disable that slot
Click a card to open its editor below. Drag an image file directly onto a card to load it. Right-click a card for Copy Texture, Paste Texture or Remove Texture.
Editing a slot
With a card selected, the editor below shows:
Channel Sync — a Sync Label text field (placeholder: "(independent)"). Slots that share the same label share their mapping and texture settings; the earliest enabled slot leads and the rest show "following [label]". The padlock icons let individual settings on following slots differ from the lead.
Source section — the Type dropdown selects the texture source. The dropdown is a single flat list: None, Image, Video Map, Noise, Voronoi, Wave, Magic, Brick, Checker, Gradient, Gabor, White Noise, Marble, Wood, Wood (Advanced), Cellular, Spots, Granite, Camouflage, Brushed, Brushed (Radial), Scratches, Weave, Mesh, Leather, Curvature, Occlusion, 3D Paint, Advanced.
For Image sources: a file path row with Browse for a texture image and Clear the image buttons. Image and video-file sources also have Extension (Tile (Repeat) · Extend · Clip · Mirror). For Video Map sources: a file path row, plus a Source option — choose between File and After Effects comp.
- File source rows: ↻ Use picked file as frame sequence (####), Frame, Frame Count, FPS.
- After Effects comp rows: Comp dropdown, Colour Space (Scene-linear / sRGB), Alpha (Straight / Premultiplied), Strength (emission slot only). Note: The comp fills this material's UV square. Requires compositions linked via the After Effects panel; if none are linked a hint reads "Link comps as Texture in the After Effects panel."
Source adjustments vary by slot and source type:
- Image, video and comp sources: Saturation, Brightness, Contrast (not on normal maps); image and video-file sources also have Colour Space (not on normal maps)
- Colour slot: Tint (images only)
- Procedural patterns (any slot): Feature Size (not on Curvature, Occlusion or 3D Paint) and per-type parameters; on the Colour slot also the Dark/Light Tone gradient bar and Random Hue / Sat / Value / Seed
- Specular slot: Specular Colour
- Opacity slot: Opacity; Mask Source (images only)
- Bump / Normal slot: Height Multiplier (Normal Strength when the image is a normal map); Image is a Normal Map (images only); Normal Space and Convention (normal maps only)
- Every per-field card: Remove Texture; cards for number fields also show Strength once a texture is set, as does the Emission colour card for a video source
Clear All Textures sits above the slot editor. Tooltip: Clear current and remembered texture assignments; keep colours and surface settings. If textures are remembered for other material types, a note above the button reads Textures stored for: …; switch back to that type to restore compatible slots.
Mapping and projection
Each slot's mapping is set independently in the editor below the source controls. Sections:
Mapping section
| Setting | Options |
|---|---|
| Projection | Planar · Box (triplanar) · Cylinder · Sphere · Mesh UV. Image and video-file sources only; hidden for tangent-space normal maps. |
| Coordinates | Object · Generated · World (also applies to procedural textures) |
| Orientation (°) | Rotation of the projection axis (image and video-file sources only) |
| Scale Mode | Scene Units · DPI |
| Width | Real-world footprint width in the document unit; also defines the viewport gizmo box width |
| Height | Real-world footprint height in the document unit |
| Lock Aspect | Keep Width and Height in proportion |
| DPI | DPI value; changing it rescales Width and Height keeping the aspect (DPI mode only) |
| Size from Image | Set Width and Height from the image's pixel size at the current DPI (DPI mode only) |
| Flip H / V | Mirror the image |
Scale Mode, Width, Height and Lock Aspect appear for image and video-file sources, except with Mesh UV projection.
Only the Colour slot's Width carries an animation key dot (key label: Texture Size).
Box · Triplanar section — appears for Box projection. Contains a Blend value and a Per-Axis Images toggle. Enabling Per-Axis Images reveals Image X/Y/Z (Browse for an axis texture), Tile X/Y/Z and Orient X/Y/Z (°).
Cylinder section — appears for Cylinder projection. Contains Wrap (°), Diameter, Depth, Offset and Caps; enabling Caps reveals Cap Orient (°) and Cap Blend.
Transform section — fine-tune projection placement:
| Row | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Location | Position offset of the projection |
| Rotation (°) | Rotation of the projection |
| Scale | Scale of the projection |
Projection gizmo
The Transform section appears for image, video-file and procedural textures, including on per-field cards. Curvature, Occlusion and 3D Paint sources have no Mapping or Transform section. Adjust in Viewport is not offered on per-field cards.
The Adjust in Viewport button (in the Transform section) enters an interactive mode where you can position the projection in the 3D view. Press Adjust in Viewport again to finish.
3D Paint
When the slot Type is set to 3D Paint, the source area shows a Background colour row followed by a Paint Dabs (object space) list. Each dab has:
- A colour swatch
- X, Y, Z position (in object space)
- r — radius
- h — hardness
- Delete this paint dab — remove this dab
Add a paint dab adds a new dab at the origin. Position it by editing its X, Y, Z values.
Labels tab
A label is a decal image applied on top of the material — a logo, print or other graphic.
Labels are positioned by Coord Space (Generated, Object or World), not by UV maps.
Adding a label
- Open the Labels tab.
- Click Add a label to pick an image file. The image dimensions at its DPI setting determine the default size.
- In the Placement · Size section, press Place on Model — then drag the decal onto a surface in the 3D viewport to set its position, face normal and spin.
- Adjust the placement further in the Placement · Size and Advanced Placement sections.
Label list
All labels for the active material appear as rows. Select a row to see its controls.
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Duplicate the selected label | Duplicate the selected label |
| Delete the selected label | Delete the selected label |
| ▲ | Move up (draw earlier) — render this label beneath other labels |
| ▼ | Move down (draw on top) — render this label above other labels |
Label controls
Label section
| Row | What it controls | Keyable |
|---|---|---|
| On | Enable or disable this label | No |
| Name | Label name | No |
| Image | Filepath of the label image | No |
| Browse for a label image | Replace the image | — |
| Clear the image | Remove the image | — |
| Type | Plastic (sticker) · Foil (metallic) · Glow (emissive) · Matte · Gloss | No |
| Roughness | Surface roughness of the label print area | No |
| Metallic | Metalness (Foil type only) | No |
| Glow Strength | Emission intensity (Glow type only) | No |
| Coord Space | Generated · Object · World | No |
Look section
| Row | What it controls | Keyable |
|---|---|---|
| Opacity | Overall opacity of this label layer | No |
| Brightness | Brightness adjustment | No |
| Contrast | Contrast adjustment | No |
| Tint | Tint colour | No |
| Tint Amount | Tint blend strength | No |
| Colourise | Replace image colours with the tint colour | No |
| Colourise Amt | Strength of the colourise effect (visible only while Colourise is on) | No |
Placement · Size section
| Row | What it controls | Keyable |
|---|---|---|
| Width | Physical width of the label on the surface | Yes |
| Height | Physical height of the label | Yes |
| Lock Aspect | Keep Width and Height in proportion | No |
| Auto Size (DPI fit) | Size label from image DPI | No |
| DPI | DPI value; changing it rescales Width and Height keeping the aspect | No |
| Size from Image | Reset Width and Height to the image's size and aspect at the current DPI | — |
| Flip H / V | Mirror the label | No |
| Spin (°) | Rotation of the label | Yes |
| Place on Model | Enter interactive label placement in the viewport | — |
Advanced Placement section
| Row | What it controls | Keyable |
|---|---|---|
| Position (unit) | X/Y/Z offset | Yes |
| Face Normal | X/Y/Z target face normal | Yes |
Drop an image onto the model
With a document open, drag an image file onto a part in the viewport. The part is selected and a menu asks which material channel to fill:
| Menu choice | Image use |
|---|---|
| Colour (base) | Base colour texture |
| Roughness | Roughness texture |
| Metallic | Metallic texture |
| Bump / Height | Bump texture |
| Opacity | Opacity texture |
Choose a channel to apply the image. Dismiss the menu to leave the material unchanged (the part stays selected). Ctrl+Z undoes an applied texture edit. If the material is shared, check the other parts: the change may reach every part using it. To give one part an independent finish while the material is shared, first select it and click Single-user in the Node Graph toolbar (Node Graph).
If the material has been edited in the Node Graph, the drop may be refused even though the status bar says Applied texture to …. Check the Material editor's Textures tab after dropping; use the Node Graph to edit a node-based material.
Dropping the image on empty viewport space instead sets and enables the active camera's backplate. This requires an active camera; otherwise the status bar reads No active camera for the backplate. See Cameras and composition for the backplate controls.
Related
- Materials — Surface tab controls
- Node Graph — texture nodes and procedural inputs
- Surface Effects — geometry and shading effects on the FX tab