Wood Materials

Wood materials give any object in your scene the colour and finish of a timber species: a basic shape, an imported model, a line of 3D text. The library has fourteen. The pale woods are Birch, Pine and Maple. The mid browns are Oak, Ash, Bamboo and Teak. The reds are Cherry, Cedar, Mahogany and Rosewood. The darkest are Walnut and Ebony. Polished Wood takes Oak's colour and gives it a varnished shine.

How the wood materials work

Each wood is a solid, non-metallic surface that responds to the lights in your scene. It brightens where light lands, falls into shadow on the far side, and carries a highlight whose size depends on how rough the finish is. The species differ in three things: the base colour, the roughness of the finish, and how strongly the surroundings reflect in it. There is no painted grain pattern. The wood reads through its tone and the way it takes light, which keeps it clean on small objects and on lettering, where a printed grain would stretch and distort.

That makes the finish the most important choice after colour. Pine, Birch, Cedar and Oak sit at the rough end, between 0.7 and 0.75, so light spreads into a broad, dull sheen like raw sawn timber. Maple, Ash, Walnut and Bamboo sit in the middle, around 0.6. Mahogany, Teak, Rosewood and Cherry are smoother, between 0.5 and 0.55, closer to oiled furniture. Ebony is smoother again at 0.4, and Polished Wood drops to 0.2 with the strongest reflections in the set, for a lacquered look.

Settings

• Color: the species tone. Change it freely; the finish stays the same.
• Roughness: 0 is a mirror-smooth lacquer, 1 is completely matte. Raw timber sits around 0.7, oiled wood around 0.5, varnished wood below 0.3.
• Env Map Intensity: how much of the scene's environment shows in the surface. It matters once the scene has environment lighting, such as an HDR. Turn it up for a waxed gleam, down for dry wood.
• Metalness: 0 on every wood. Raising it quickly makes the surface read as painted metal instead of timber.
• Opacity: 1 by default, fully solid.

Choosing a wood

Start from the space you are designing. Scandinavian and minimal interiors want Birch or Maple. Warm, rustic or cabin scenes want Pine or Cedar. A study, a boardroom or a spirits brand wants Walnut, Mahogany or Rosewood. For a product shot of a single object on a plinth, Oak is the safe neutral. When the brief says premium and black, use Ebony. When the object should catch reflections of the room around it, switch to Polished Wood.

Two woods in one scene read better than one: a dark Walnut frame around a pale Maple panel, or a Teak deck against Cedar cladding. Keep the roughness of neighbouring pieces a little apart so they separate under the same light.

Wood also works as a calm base for brighter materials. A wooden tabletop under a metal lamp, a glass bottle on a shelf, or a plastic toy on a Birch floor all let the wood carry the warmth while the other material carries the highlight. Every wood is set up in the studio with no code, and the scene goes live as soon as you publish it.