MatPlusTutorial 03
Texture a Radio in Blender, Part 3: Antenna, Rubber and Glass Buttons
Antenna roughness and curvature edges, dotted and dirty rubber in Mesh Island groups, glass buttons with a Transmission channel and a linked Blender decal.
In this third part of the radio series we go deeper into the material bases of the antenna, the rubber parts and the buttons, leaving everything ready for details, decals and labels in the next video.
You will add subtle roughness and edge variation to the antenna, isolate parts of a set material with groups and Mesh Island masks, build a dotted pattern with height, see auto-cache at work, add a Transmission channel to get glass buttons, and finish the big button with a hexagon pattern, a Blender decal and a link that reuses the decal as a height mask.
Step by step
-
Select Antenna in MatPlus Set Materials and rename its existing layer to
Base. Add a new fill layer that only affects roughness: in Fill Layer Settings leave just Rough enabled.Add a black mask and a Fill Effect, click Add Texture and pick a texture from the Roughness Imperfection category (the video uses
Roughness_58). Switch the view dropdown from Material to Roughness to see what you are doing, and in the effect's Settings tab adjust Balance and Contrast (about 0.92 and 0.18).In Coordinates, raise Tiling (about 1.75) so the variation is smaller. Back in Material view the antenna is no longer evenly glossy. Name the layer
Roughness variation. -
Add a new fill layer with a lighter gray tone. Add a black mask and, on top of it, an intelligent mask: click Choose Intelligent Mask and pick the curvature one, so the effect only appears on the antenna's edges.
In the mask settings lower Contrast a lot (down to -1.0, with Balance about 0.12). Then lower the opacity of the
Curvature 1mask in the layer stack (to about 21) so the effect stays really subtle.Keep the antenna simple
Two subtle effects are enough here: the complexity will go into other parts of the radio.
-
Select Rubber Parts and add a new fill layer with a slightly brighter green tone. Create a new folder named
Side Buttonsand move the layer inside it (the video names the layerSide Buttons Base).On the group, open the mask menu and choose Mask Mesh Island, then use Pick Mesh Island to pick both side buttons. Now everything inside this group only affects the side buttons, so you can change the other rubber parts without touching them.
In the layer, enable Metal and Rough to override those channels, so the buttons don't share the roughness and metallic information of the other rubber parts.
-
Inside the
Side Buttonsgroup, add a new fill layer with a darker green. Add a black mask and a mask generator, click Choose Generator and pick Dots. Raise Scale (about 323) to get a small dotted pattern.Enable Height on the layer and give it a small negative value (about -0.10) so the dots go inward. Enable Rough and make it much rougher (about 0.98), so the inside of the holes is rough.
Then select
Side Buttons Baseand make it a little glossier (Roughness about 0.3) to get some variation; check it in the Roughness view and go back to Material. Name the dots layerSide Buttons Holes. -
Rename the original rubber layer to
Main Rubber base. Add a new fill layer with a grayish tone that is rougher than the base (Roughness about 0.79). Add a black mask and a Fill Effect, click Add Texture and try different textures: the video tries a clouds texture and keepsDirt_1.Enable Height with a small negative value (about -0.04) to add some variation to the surface. In the effect's Coordinates, raise Tiling (it ends at about 2.77) so the dirt fills the rubber parts with a finer, more rubbery look.
-
While you drag Tiling you see the full-resolution texture; as soon as you release it, the layer is cached again automatically.
To finish, select
Main Rubber base, enable Metal and Rough, set Metallic to 0 and raise the roughness (about 0.34). Check the roughness variation in the Roughness view. In theDirt_1effect's Settings, adjust Balance (about 0.78) and Contrast, go back to Material view and save the project.Why auto-cache matters
Caching in real time lets you keep working efficiently while the project holds many complex elements and materials.
-
The buttons are split into material families: the cross pad and the main pad buttons share a glass look, the big button and the slider are treated separately, the three side buttons share one material, and the analog dials on top go together.
Select Buttons and, to see better, disable Floor in the viewport overlays. In the Layers panel open the Settings tab, click the + icon to add a channel and, in Add Selected Channels, check Transmission and click OK. A new Trans button appears in Fill Layer Settings.
Enable Trans on the existing layer and raise Transmission to 1.0, and make the color lighter. Switch the viewport to rendered (Cycles) to see the materials below through the buttons, then tune Metallic and Roughness (about 0.18 and 0.075). Name the layer
Glass Buttons Base.Check glass in Cycles
The transmission effect is properly visible in the Cycles rendered view, not in the regular material view.
-
Back in the material view, add a new fill layer named
Big Button base. Enable Trans, Metal and Rough to override them: a very dark color, no transmission, some metallic (about 0.14) and some roughness (about 0.29).Create a new folder named
Big button, move the layer inside, and give the group a Mask Mesh Island with only the big button picked. The transmission comes back on every button except the big one.Collapse the group and repeat the same process for the rest: a
Slidergroup, aSidegroup for the three side buttons and anAnalogicgroup for the dials (layerAnalogic Dials, very metallic: Metallic about 0.93, Roughness about 0.39), each one overriding Trans, Metal and Rough. Save and check the result in the Cycles view: transparent buttons, the main button, the slider and the dials on top of the radio.Sped-up section
Creating the groups for the remaining buttons is repetitive, so the video speeds it up. Pause the clip if you need to read the group names.
-
Inside the
Analogicgroup, add a new fill layer aboveAnalogic Dialswith a lighter tone, metallic and glossy (Metallic about 0.88, Roughness about 0.17). From the mask menu choose Mask UV, then use Pick UV Seam and pick two UV islands of the dials. You get a small variation on the dials' material. -
Inside the
Big buttongroup, add a new fill layer with a really dark color and enable Rough with a high value (about 0.79), so it looks quite matte. Add a black mask and a mask generator, click Choose Generator and pick Hexagons. Raise Scale to make them really tiny (500).Enable Height on the layer. You can try Invert to compare; the video keeps it off. Raise Smooth Corners a little (about 0.21) and Exterior (about 0.97). Finally lower the height to make it flatter (about 0.01) and name the layer
Pattern. -
The big button is imagined as a shortcut to launch Blender. Add a new fill layer named
Decal, add a black mask and choose Add Decal. In the library (Brushes And Icons, category Stickers and Decals) pick the Blender logo with text (WingsBlender txt). Move it onto the big button in the viewport and scale it down.Enable Height and change its mode from Add to Mix with a value of 0: this overrides the hexagon pattern, so the Blender logo sits flat on the surface. Also override Metal and Rough (the video leaves both at 0, a glossy logo). You can lower the opacity of the Height channel a little to let some of the pattern below show through.
-
On the
Decallayer, add a link and name itBlender, so you can call it from another layer. Scale the decal down a little more.Above it, inside the
Big buttongroup, add a new fill layer: disable Color and enable Height. Add a black mask and a Fill Effect, and in Fill Effect Settings click Add Link and choose theBlenderlink. Give the height a negative value (about -0.12) so the logo is pressed into the button.Finally add a filter, choose Blur and give it just a tiny blur (Blur Size about 0.15) to soften the edges.
What a link is for
A link turns the decal's mask into something you can call from a different layer, so the same logo drives both the color layer and a separate height layer.
The antenna, rubber parts and buttons now have their material bases. In the next part we dive into more complex details: decals, labels and much more.