Plastic Materials

Plastic materials give any object in your scene the look of a moulded polymer: a basic shape, an imported product model, or a line of 3D text. The library has fourteen, and they fall into three groups: solid glossy plastics, solid matte plastics and rubbers, and see-through plastics.

How the plastic materials work

Every plastic is a non-metallic surface that responds to the lights in the scene. What separates a toy from a tyre is mostly the finish. A low Roughness gathers light into a small, bright highlight and reflects the surroundings, which reads as shiny injection-moulded plastic. A high Roughness spreads the light across the surface, which reads as matte plastic or rubber. The see-through plastics lower the Opacity so objects behind them show through, faded by the plastic's colour.

The three groups:

• Glossy solids: Glossy Plastic, High Gloss White, Nylon and Vinyl. Roughness between 0.05 and 0.35. For toys, appliances, consumer electronics and anything that should look new.
• Matte solids: Matte Plastic, Rubber, Polypropylene, ABS and PVC. Roughness from 0.45 up to 0.95. For functional parts, housings, grips, packaging and 3D-printed objects.
• See-through: Acrylic, Colored Acrylic, Polycarbonate, Silicone and Frosted Plastic. Opacity from 0.95 down to 0.7. For displays, signs, lenses, light covers and translucent cases.

The see-through plastics fade what is behind them; they do not bend or blur it. For refraction, thickness and true frosting, use the glass family instead.

Settings

• Color: the plastic's colour. Plastics take saturated colours well, so this is where most of the design happens.
• Roughness: 0 is a mirror gloss, 1 is fully matte. The single biggest change to how the plastic reads.
• Env Map Intensity: how strongly the scene's surroundings reflect in the surface. It needs environment lighting to show. Glossy plastics sit between 0.6 and 1.2, matte ones between 0.05 and 0.4.
• Opacity: 1 is solid. Lower it for clear or tinted plastic.
• Metalness: 0 on every plastic. Raising it moves the surface toward painted metal.

Choosing a plastic

Decide first whether the object is solid or see-through. For a solid object, pick the finish: glossy for toys, gadgets and anything bright and playful; matte for professional, technical or understated products; Rubber for tyres, grips and soft-touch parts. Then set the colour.

For see-through objects, Acrylic and Polycarbonate are nearly clear, Colored Acrylic adds a strong tint, Silicone is almost solid with a hint of transparency, and Frosted Plastic is a milky, half-transparent white.

A common product setup uses two plastics on one model: a glossy shell with a Rubber grip, or a matte body behind a clear acrylic window. Keep the roughness values well apart so the parts separate on screen. Everything is set up in the studio with no code, and the scene is live the moment you publish it.