Material Merge 3D Node

Material Merge 3D merges two materials with a simple weighted blend - like a dissolve between two images. It is used to build shader networks by combining several layers (illumination + bump + reflect, for example).

It can also assign a Material ID to the resulting material for extraction as a Renderer 3D AOV.

• Effects Library: Tools > 3D > Material > Material Merge 3D
• Quick add: right-click in the Node Editor → Add Tool > 3D > Material > Material Merge 3D

• Background Material (orange) - required. Base material. Accepts a 2D image or a 3D material.
• Foreground Material (green) - required. Material to combine. 2D images are treated as diffuse texture maps.

Classic workflow - combining a Blinn with a Bump Map:

Blinn ──────→ Background
Bump Map ───→ Foreground
           → Material Merge 3D → Shape 3D (MaterialInput)

Or for a gradual blend between two shaders:

Blinn (red plastic) ──→ Background
Cook Torrance (gold metal) ──→ Foreground
                    → Material Merge 3D (Blend animated from 0 to 1) → ...

Blend (0.0 - 1.0, default: 0.5)

Contribution percentage of each input.

• 0.0 - 100% Background.
• 0.5 - 50/50 mix.
• 1.0 - 100% Foreground.

Works like a "dissolve" between two materials. Animatable to create a transition.

Material ID

Numeric identifier assigned to the resulting material. Used by the Renderer 3D when the Material ID AOV channel is enabled → lets you extract a material-specific mask in post.

Material Merge 3D (this node)

Simple: a single Blend slider, no per-channel manipulation, no spatial operands. 90% of material blending cases are solved with this node.

Channel Boolean (material)

Complex: per-channel control, math operations, access to positions/normals/UVs. For advanced cases where a simple Blend is not enough (e.g. blending by normal Y for a snow/rock effect).

Rule: Material Merge first. Channel Boolean only if you need spatial operands.

• Adding a Bump Map to a Blinn - Blinn as Background, Bump Map as Foreground. Blend at 1.0 for the full bump. The final material has the Blinn's illumination and the bump's relief.
• Animated transition between two shaders - red Blinn (Background) + gold Cook Torrance (Foreground), animate Blend from 0 to 1 → an object that turns from plastic into metal.
• Layering Blinn + Reflect for chrome - Blinn (base color) + Reflect (environment reflection). Moderate Blend to mix both contributions.
• Phong + Texture 2D hybrid - Phong as the main shader + a 2D image (logo, pattern) as Foreground, treated as a diffuse map.
• Extracting a material mask - assign a unique Material ID, then enable the Material ID channel of the Renderer 3D → a mask of the final material you can extract in post.

• Blend = 1.0 for a Bump Map - not a 50/50 blend, but full layering. The Bump Map changes the normals, the Blinn/Cook Torrance provides the illumination.
• A unique Material ID per material - if you want to extract separate masks, each material needs its own ID. Otherwise, they mix into the same mask.
• Chaining Material Merge nodes - you can chain several Material Merge nodes to stack 3+ materials.
• Simpler than Channel Boolean for a standard mix. Do not overthink it - Material Merge covers the vast majority of cases.
• Animate Blend for a slow "metamorphosis" effect (e.g. wood turning into metal, skin turning into stone).