Glass Material

Glass materials make an object see-through. Light passes into the surface, bends on the way, and shows the scene behind it shifted and slightly magnified, while a glossy top layer picks up reflections of the surroundings. Put glass on a shape, a 3D model or a line of 3D text and it reads as a window, a bottle, a drop of water or a cut stone. The family has ten presets, and they all share the same set of controls, so any one of them can be pushed toward another.

What is in the family

• Clear and coloured panes: ClearGlass lets all light through with no blur at all, TintedGlass adds a pale blue cast, SmokeyGlass is dark grey and lets only part of the light through, StainedGlass is a warm orange with a slight haze.
• Soft and frozen: FrostedGlass blurs everything behind it into a soft glow, Ice adds a cold blue tint and a lighter blur.
• Liquids and resin: Water bends light gently, the way a glass of water does, and Amber turns everything behind it honey gold.
• Gem-like: Diamond bends light more than any other preset and reflects twice as strongly, and Emerald is a saturated green with bright reflections.

How the settings change the look

• Transmission is how much light goes through. At 1 the surface is fully clear; lower values let the Color show as a solid, more opaque body.
• IOR is how strongly light bends. Water sits at 1.33, window glass at 1.5, diamond at 2.42; higher values distort and magnify the background more.
• Thickness is how deep the glass behaves. Thicker glass bends the view behind it further.
• Roughness blurs what you see through the glass. 0 is sharp, 0.4 is frosted.
• Clearcoat and Clearcoat Roughness add a polished top layer with its own reflections, which is what gives glass its crisp highlights.
• Env Map Intensity sets how strongly the surroundings reflect in the surface.

How to choose

Start from what the object is in the real world: a window or display case wants ClearGlass or TintedGlass, a shower screen or lamp shade wants FrostedGlass, a drink or a fish tank wants Water. For mood, SmokeyGlass darkens a scene and Amber warms it. For jewellery and logos that should sparkle, use Diamond or Emerald; the crystal materials take the same idea further with a full set of coloured gemstones.

Glass needs something to look through and something to reflect. Place it in front of a coloured background, other objects or an environment so the bending is visible; a clear sphere floating in an empty dark scene shows almost nothing. Bright lights and an environment with contrast give the clearcoat highlights their sparkle.

Every setting can be changed live in the studio, and Randomize rolls a new mix of values when you want to explore.