Easy Shaders
SuperhiveGumroad

Installation

Install Easy Shaders in Blender, choose where your materials are saved, and let it download everything it needs.

Install the addon

  1. Download the Easy Shaders zip file from Superhive or Gumroad.
  2. In Blender, open Edit → Preferences → Add-ons.
  3. Click Install (in newer Blender versions, Install from Disk) and select the zip file, then enable the addon.

Set the download directory

Still in Preferences, expand Easy Shaders and set the path where you want your materials to be saved. Every material you download is stored in this folder.

Tip Choose a drive with plenty of space. High-resolution texture sets add up quickly.

Install the dependencies

Once the path is set, press the Set and Install Dependency button. Easy Shaders downloads all the dependencies it needs. Wait until the download finishes before moving on.

Open the panel

When the dependencies are installed, the Easy Shaders panel appears in the 3D viewport sidebar. Press N to open it.

Installing the addon, setting the directory and installing dependencies videos/Installing.MP4

Shaders

Browse more than 1500 materials, download them at the resolution you want, and age them with wear and tear.

Load materials

Press Load Material to load all 1500+ thumbnails. Once loaded, you get a Refresh button, a Categories menu and a Search button.

Loading the material library videos/load-materials.mp4

Search materials

Press Search and the category menu turns into a search bar. Type anything and the thumbnails update instantly with matching names.

Searching materials by name videos/searching%20the%20material.mp4

Select, download and assign

  1. Select a category, then click a thumbnail to browse the materials inside it.
  2. Click a material and pick a resolution from the dropdown.
  3. Press Download. The material is saved to the directory you set in Preferences.
  4. When the download finishes, press Assign. A basic material setup is added to the active object, with all textures connected to a Principled BSDF.
Selecting, downloading and assigning a material videos/assign-material.mp4

The panel then shows two sections: Basic Controls and Wear and Mixtures.

Basic controls

Use Scale to change the texture scale. Below it are buttons for changing the base properties of the material.

Scale and base material controls videos/basic-controls.mp4

Wear and tear and global aging

Open Wear and Mixtures and press Add Wear and Tear. Easy Shaders bakes the maps it needs from your object and prepares it for detail effects. Baking takes a little time, then more options appear.

Wear and tear and global aging videos/add-wear-and-tear.mp4

Scale and Global

Scale
Scale of the wear textures.
Global
Ages the whole object. Move the slider to add more wear.

Effects

Below those you have Grunge, Scratch, Edge, Leaks, Dent, AO and CC. Each has its own settings, available through the small arrow beside it.

Randomise or choose textures

Press Randomise to pick a new texture for each effect, or choose one yourself from the thumbnail dropdown at the far right of the slider. The dropdown is available for Grunge, Scratch, Edge and Leaks.

Randomising and choosing effect textures videos/randomise-textures.mp4

Grunge

Scale
Scale of the grunge texture.
Color
Switches the grunge between black and white.
Roughness
Adds extra roughness following the grunge texture.
Grunge settings videos/grunge.mp4

Scratch

Scale
Scale of the scratch texture.
Normal
Adds a slight bump from the scratch texture.
Color
Makes scratches look darker or lighter on the surface.
Scratch settings videos/scratch.mp4

Edge

Scale
Scale of the edge wear texture.
Color
The color of the edge wear.
Edge Fade
How much of the texture mixes in along the edges of the object.
Roughness
Roughness value of the edge mask.
Bump
Bump value of the edge mask.
Edge settings videos/edge.mp4

Below these is an Edgewear button. On objects where the edge wear map doesn’t generate well, use it to draw the edge wear by hand.

Leaks

Scale
Scale of the leak textures.
Color
Color of the leaks.
Fade
How soft the leaks fade out.
Position
How far the leaks run from top to bottom.
Leaks settings videos/leaks.mp4

Dent

Dents are generated with a procedural texture.

Scale
Scale of the dent texture.
Color
Color of the dent.
Seed
Changes the dent pattern.
Detail
How much detail the dent has.
Roughness
Roughness of the inside of the dent.
Expand
How large the dent or peeling effect becomes.
Dent settings videos/dent.mp4

AO

Color
Ambient occlusion color.
Value
How much of the surface the occlusion covers.
AO settings videos/AO.mp4

CC

The main slider changes the hue. Inside you also get Saturation, Value, Brightness and Overlay for basic color correction.

Color correction settings videos/CC.mp4

Bake

Fine-tune the edge and AO masks, then bake your finished material into textures.

The Bake tab works on materials that already have Easy Shaders applied. It has two sections: Edge and AO Preparation and Material Baking.

Edge and AO preparation

Adjust the edge and AO map properties used to make the masks. Below the settings you can choose the texture size of the mask and the samples used for baking.

Edge and AO settings, preview and rebake videos/Edge%20and%20AO%20preparation.mp4

Preview and rebake

  1. Click Preview to see the edge wear on your object.
  2. Change the settings until it looks right.
  3. Press Exit Preview to return to your materials.
  4. Press Rebake. Your existing material is rebaked, reassigned and updated automatically.

Material baking

Set the texture resolution and samples, then choose how the UVs are made:

Auto UV
Smart unwraps your object.
Manual UV
Lets you pick a UV map from the available list.

Then choose what to bake:

Bake Single Object
Bakes the selected material slot only.
Bake All in One
Bakes all available material slots into a single texture.
Material baking videos/bake-single-and-all.mp4

Press Bake to start. When it finishes, you can switch quickly between the baked material and the original material.

Decals

Place decals on your object, stack them as layers and adjust how they blend with the surface.

Add decals

Browsing the library, adding decals and using custom images videos/add-decal.mp4

Decal library

The Decals tab shows decal categories and a Refresh button to reload the library. Below them is a thumbnail preview where you can check each decal.

Add a decal or use your own image

Under the preview you have two options:

Add Decal
Enters decal add mode.
Folder icon
Lets you choose your own image and use it as a decal.

In add mode, an empty follows your cursor. Move the cursor over the selected object and the decal is placed according to the face normals.

The panel also shows which material you are working on.

Decal layers

Every decal you add appears in the layer list.

Eye button
Turns the decal on or off.
Up / Down
Moves the decal up or down the list.
Remove
Removes the decal and its parented empty.
Managing decal layers videos/decal-layers.mp4

Decal properties

Below the list you can set roughness, bump, metallic, color and noise-based texture variation.

Roughness
Roughness of the decal texture.
Metallic
Metallic value of the decal texture.
Bump
Bump of the decal outline.
Texture Bump
Detail bump from the decal texture.
Color Adjustment
Simple color correction for the decal texture.
Color 2
An overlaid color.
Decal property settings videos/decal-properties.mp4

Texture variation

Adds noise and a radial gradient around the decal so it blends into the surface.