Cycles_Matlib Beta Release! Help Wanted!

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

hi,
Some of you may have seen my old Materials Library from time to time.
It’s current home is here:


http://www.blendswap.com/wp-content/uploads/gravity_forms/1/2011/02/meta_materials_25_opt-400x150.jpg

The basic Blender Internal Materials which I made or collected from the community, were quite good as examples of what you can do & as starting points for learning & improving your own materials.

Well, It’s about time for an update!
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=32152

I’m looking for submissions for all categories.
Please, submit materials in .blend format, you can use http://www.pasteall.org/blend/

Once the Library is completed,
1/ It will be released on Blendswap with author attribution, under CC0
Please note: I will be attributing the authors,
however you will not be required to attribute the authors if you use the materials.
So the actual lib will be CC0
2/ I’ll set a Python Mat library to include all materials.
3/ Said library will go into Blender Contrib for all to use.
4/ Start online repository via addon to browse & load materials.

Please Note:
I will in the Blend file include the names of all authors who contribute.
In the py addon this will also be possible.

Remember, we are dealing with Blender materials & we all have access to the same tools.

Please Note 2:
I know we need a better way for a mat lib & presets in Blender.
This is a way forward. :slight_smile:

Edit! Beta Release 3!!
Hi, for several weeks I have been collecting Cycles Node set ups & materials.
The goal is to provide a fairly comprehensive Material Library for Cycles.
I’m currently seeking Materials & Textures (Cycles only, no images) to build upon this library to present the community with a .blend mat lib (availible on Blendswap) & a Python Addon Material Lib for Contrib addons.

All Category’s have Basic/Simple, Advanced/Open Nodes & Advanced Grouped Nodes.
Category’s as stands & needed materials/textures:
Carpaint Wood Stone Synthetic Skin Organic Earth Textile Others Misc.

I’ve renamed all the materials & It’t time for a beta release of the .blend mat lib.
Materials with the suffix category_matname_G contain groups.

Special Thanks to all the contributors so far.
meta-androcto, mib2berlin, kellpossible, monsterdog, Jonathon L, elbrujodelatribu, lubomircenovsky, wesdevs, ace dragon, naibot, gwenouille, NRK, Agus, dimistic, broadstu, gexwing, const, moony, enzyme69, JuanJosé Torres, Greg Zaal,
the blender community & developers & anyone that I missed,let me know & I’ll add you.

beta_Cycles_matlib_3 (beta version on blendswap)

Thanks for help & support.
This is a community effort to provide ourselves with a decent mat lib. :slight_smile:

2

Monsterdog’s car shader and the glass dispersion are a must! I have a pretty cool mountain shader but it needs a little work before I submit it.

Thanks for doing this, it will be super helpful!

3

This is a great idea :slight_smile:

Since people seems to like my (complete-stroke-of-luck) car paint shader, feel free to include it.

I agree on the glass dispersion too.

It would be really great if somehow they could all be done as grouped nodes with sane inputs for various things like colors, etc.

4

It would be really great if somehow they could all be done as grouped nodes with sane inputs for various things like colors, etc.

Exactly what I was thinking, that would be so helpful, because then they could be added sort of like shaders

5

monsterdog, thanks :slight_smile:
did you have a link or simple .blend with the node set ups?, it’s easiest for me to append to the scene.
I’ve seen examples of these sane ‘groups’ it makes sense to me too.
Maybe 1 or 2 groups for each category would be good.
Individual materials are cool too :wink:

Jonathan L, thanks I look forward to it, landscape shaders are much needed :slight_smile:

thanks.

6

@meta-androcto, do you want new materials or porting the bi materials of your library? If you want you can use some of my node setups:




Except the last one, normally I prepare the node setups to use only one color.

7

elbrujodelatribu,
thanks very much, these are already a very great library :slight_smile:
I’ll be sure to add these to the library.

yes, I’m looking for new cycles materials, I’ll port some of the library myself, but cycles is new & already there’s some great materials out there.

8

here you want a file containing the material with it’s node set up
which can then be imported into another file!

i began working on a script fo light and material basic set up for cycles

and it is beginning to work

but don’t think it can contains 100’s of materials made with python node scripting
cause it takes a lot of script lines to make complicated material
and still trying to figure out a way to simplfy the process!

is this an interesting option ?

thanks
happy cycles

9

I’m also working on similar library. Here is what i got so far :http://blender-spirit.cz/Wiki//Cycles
But this site is in czech language only. If you are confused, you can download all materials from this link: http://blender-spirit.cz/all_materials.zip

10

Mh would it be possible to have Blend Swap host material libraries?

Since Google Drive is out we could also start an online database with Cycle materials (blend file + rendered image)

11

hi, thanks for all the responses so far :slight_smile:

@lubomircenovsky
Thanks, that’s awesome :slight_smile:

 @monsterdog
ok, I can set them up :slight_smile:

		 				 	@ejnaren 	 
			thanks for the heads up, yes very nice.

		 				 	@cekuhnen 	 
			yes the finished library will be on blend swap.

in the library there will be a simple test scene.

The basic problem with the bmps test scene is it’s large file size & long render times.
I’m looking at a simple setup.
1 scene with all the materials applied to the category’s
1 scene for testing the materials (simple sphere setup)
1 addon with all the materials included
you will be able to either append link the mats/lib to your scene or use the addon.

@monsterdog

12

Good idea, but unfortunaly mostly every atemp to create a materiallibrary for a Renderer is getting lost in a mostly useless bad quality library nobody is intereted in.

VERY important is a qualitymanagement. Look at designconnted.com, they only have a real good quality of their models, they don’t accept bad quality.

This library for Cyclesmaterials can only get popular when there are ONLY materials of very good quality.
This also would help to make Blender more an more interesting for the CG-Industry.
But if there is low quality none of the professional useres will ever take it for serious !

I hope everyone understands and no one is offended.

This best and for new users the most obvious place for such a library would be blender.org.

Kind regards
Alain

13

@Jonathan_L
Hey, that’s exactly what I need :slight_smile:
Awesome, it shows up in the groups menu too :slight_smile:
Really well done!
If your interested in this type of thing I want to add a couple of presets to ANT landscape.
Please give me a hello on irc freenode #blenderpython #blender or #blenderchat

		 				 	@Alain 	 
			Hi,

My mat libs provide a reference for people to create materials & textures.
They are not always the best but provide a starting point & an insight into blender’s shading system.
Popularity is not really a factor, I’m setting this up because I need to refresh my mat lib to cycles.
I already have collected loads of cycles mats & until there’s a better way in blender it’self, this provides an alternative.

I find it’s great to have 1 .blend with loads of materials, once you do a high res render & work with the lib a little,
appending what you need/your favorites/your custom mats/textures becomes easy & a time saver.

14

hi, just an update,
Work has begun!
I’ve started on the materials collection :slight_smile:
A couple of nice things to report.

1/ The matlib by mackraken supports cycles very nicely.
2/ The Physial .blend mat lib is in progress
3/ Shader node groups so far: Dispersive glass, Plastic, Fake Caustics, Car Paint & Mountain.

More materials are welcome & more to come :slight_smile:

15

hi,
Ace Dragon,
cool library & well done.

Just to note, I won’t be making 100’s of huge node groups.
12 Categorys, 10 mats per category, possibly around half will be Shader Groups per category.
There’s many considerations, lighting, render times, user experience, ease of use & file size.
I’ll add a few hdri to the .blend & a good test scene.

thanks, some rocky materials would be cool :wink:

16

hi,
here’s a test render, bmps Blender Ball.
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/show.php?id=30962
The main material I made myself, the others were collected.

progress report:
I created a new .blend for the cycles library, it’s the same as my original layout. (first post)
Then I added in the bmps scene for better testing & a nice cycles scene of the blender logo for fun.
One big change, this time there are Multiple materials per mesh.
Some materials are so similar, or locked into the same group so this works well. (only renders the active material slot)
& allows for greater variety.

So far I’m about 40 materials done, 1/4 way there.

17

hi, thanks to all who helped so far.
we still need more materials.
Stone, Skin, Organic, Wood & Textile.
Please, no image textures.

Thanks.

18

hi, just an update on the current progress.

there’slots to go, however there’s stacked mat slots in glass, metal & car paint.
slowly but surely it’s filling up. :slight_smile:

19

I have some Textile to add (needs UV-Map, but nothing else). First with rectangle pattern, second with half diagonal pattern: http://www.blendpolis.de/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=39178#p436528

Maybe you want to convert the UV-Node to a socket and the the last multiply factor before “displacement” as an input as well.

20

hi niabot,
thanks for the great materials :slight_smile:

I’m really in need of some more .blends
node set ups are ok, but grouped nodes should be in .blend format,
I really have trouble trying to re-create them.

thanks to everyone helping.