Blender 2.5 Materials and Textures Cookbook Review

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(More customer reviews)This is the book that was missing in the ever increasing collection of books on Blender. Because there is nothing more important to rendering believable scenes than convincing materials with the exception maybe of lighting, a book that systematically tackles the creation of materials was sorely missing.
Colin's book does a great job in filling this gap.
Not only does he provide you with numerous examples of natural and man made materials that are presented as ready to use recipes but he also shows which are the important bits in getting an effect across. This is enormously helpful in gaining insight into what makes a material work, insight that is essential if you want to create new materials yourself instead of simply following well travelled paths.
Blenders material system is tremendously powerful and the combination of a layer based approach with a node based system might be overwhelming at first. Many tutorial writers therefore focus on particular aspects and often the node based capabilities are more or less skipped altogether. Not in this book though. Every aspect is highlighted and even the compositor gets a share, even though it is not strictly a part of the material system but shares its node based abilities and can be a very powerful tool in getting that final look just right. Also, in Blender everything is animatable, and this is certainly true for the many attributes that make up a material. Many an example is about creating materials that can be used effectively in animations.
The best point of the book is not its breath or depth of coverage however, but the overall approach. It clearly depicts the process of how to create a material based on the effects you want to achieve. Sure, creativity and even simple trial an error can be part of this process but knowing what is possible with Blenders materials makes it possible to find what you are after in a systematic fashion instead of groping in the dark.
An excellent example is the material developed to mimic copper roof plating. A fairly simple man made material at first but Colin shows clearly the thinking behind evolving a material from a pretty shiny surface to a believable material that conveys both the origins of its manufacturing process in its many scratches and dimples as well as it weathering over time.
The many developers and contributors to Blender worldwide have always been eager to enhance Blender with the latest physical simulation and lighting techniques and even these are addressed comprehensively in this book. The uses of Ambient Occlusion and Subsurface Scattering are illustrated in an elaborate example on creating a realistic human skin material from photographic references and the final chapter is all about pyrotechnic effects, showing how suitable materials make all the difference between merely physically correct smoke and something that gets across the notion that it might leave you with blisters on your hands.
This is the book you need to rid the world of plastic car models and sterile stone walls.


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Each chapter in the book follows a themed approach to creating materials using the new Blender 2.5 features. As you read through each chapter you will learn approaches to create materials and textures. These materials and textures will help you to create a flawless simulation of real-world objects. You need not read the chapters in any particular order to learn to use the Blender 3D suite for materials simulation appropriately. Every recipe in this book will enable you to create a usable material or texture effect as well as teaching you techniques that save your time. If you are a Graphics Designer looking to master the features for materials and textures to create realistic looking models in Blender, then this book is for you. It can be read by both beginners and experienced Blender users; however, prior understanding of object creation and manipulation in Blender would be an advantage. This is a must-read for Blender users who want to learn the concepts and at the same time experiment with the different Blender Material and texture functions.

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