Click a material to see its parameters, all in linear color space. Use the engine selector in the header to switch between Arnold, Karma / MaterialX, and RenderMan (PxrSurface) — labels, which real field each routes to, and values update to match. Hover any RenderMan label for why it routes where it does.
Most materials have a condition blender below the preview. Click + Add condition to stack multiple effects together (e.g. Rusty + Wet). Order matters: layers apply from top to bottom, each on top of the previous result, so drag a layer's ⠿ handle (or use ▲ ▼) to reorder and compare — a few materials (Water, Skin, gemstone colors) use a single dropdown instead, since their states are alternatives, not combinable layers.
Greyed, collapsed sections mean that parameter is inactive (zero) for this material — click the section title to expand and confirm. Under RenderMan, a parameter with no real equivalent in that shader is hidden entirely rather than shown as a dead row.
Use Compare with to see any two materials' full parameter sets side by side, with differing values highlighted — useful when choosing between similar options.
Click any value in the parameter tables to copy it to your clipboard — ready to paste into Mari, Maya, Houdini, or RenderMan directly. Reading Mode is built for a second screen beside your 3D software, for typing values in by hand where copying is blocked: large numbers that scale with the window (A− and A+), a tick box per value so you can work down the list, and a dark or light theme. Press / to search for another material without leaving; the Adjust panel lets you change the finish and add, reorder or strengthen conditions while the values update. Colours can be shown as Linear 0–1 (the default), sRGB 0–1, sRGB 0–255 or Hex, and the row label always says which; check which form your shader field expects. The page remembers your last material, format, theme and size.
The sphere is a display aid, not a render: it is lit in a grey studio so a metal's colour and roughness read the way they would on a lookdev ball. The readout under it, What changed in the shader, is the real information: colour, metalness and roughness from bare to now. Exaggerate on sphere (on by default) pushes each condition further so it reads clearly; it never changes the values. Compare renderers (preview), under the sphere, shows the classic renderer next to a GPU (WebGL2) version of the same look, with timings measured on your device. Finishes show their surface (hammered dents, brushed streaks, powdercoat grain); coatings such as paint, plating or anodizing show as a crescent covering a quarter of the sphere over the material underneath. Each condition appears as a noise map whose coverage and opacity both follow its slider: 0% is invisible and 100% covers everything. Each condition spreads the way it really would: rust grows as colonies, dirt and damp collect in random patches with only a slight downward drift, oil is wiped on as dark glossy smears, patina runs in streaks from the top, salt dries to a gritty crust, damage cracks, UV fade leans towards the sun-facing top, frost grows in from the rim, and heat radiates from a hot spot that differs from material to material. Heat tint, UV fade and patina have soft edges, dirt and rust medium ones, damage sharp ones, and every layer has its own offset so layers do not hide each other. Heat tint, anodize and patina spread their colour gradient across that pattern (cool colour at the edge of the affected area, hottest at its core) without losing the surface underneath. In the Pairing tab a strip shows the base material, the partner and the reaction seam where they meet.
Incandescent Glow is heat applied to a material that glows: a temperature slider like Heat Tint, with the same gradient strip and PNG download. It is offered for metals, glass, fired ceramics, fire brick, some stone and gems, and, as embers, for wood and coal. Visible glow begins at the Draper point, 525 °C (the slider starts at 500 °C with no glow). The slider stops 10 °C before the material melts (the solidus for an alloy), reaches its softening point (glass has no melting point and sags under its own weight), exceeds the firing temperature that formed it (clay) or decomposes (limestone and marble); the note under the slider gives the point, the basis and an evidence grade (A: read in a cited source, B: handbook value not re-checked, C: estimate). Temperatures and colour names follow the steel chart of Chapman (1972), corroborated by the 1905 Stirling chart. Up to 1040 °C the colour is the blackbody (Planck) colour; above that the eye white-balances a bright glow, so it moves towards yellow and white. It sets the shader's emission and its colour. On the sphere a solid shows the chart colour all over (embers as glowing cracks over char), with reflected light dimmed as in a dark forge.
Save Preset names and saves the whole look you're viewing: the material, its conditions in order, and every finish, dye, plating, paint and figure choice. Tick ★ Favourite and it appears in the ★ Favourites shortcut in the header for one-click access later. Presets opens your saved library (rename, favourite, delete, download) and can load a preset from a file. Presets are kept in this browser; use Download file to keep or share one elsewhere. Each preset belongs to the engine you saved it in (Arnold, Karma or RenderMan) and only shows while that engine is selected; use Copy to… to duplicate one into another engine. Nothing is converted: the same recipe (material, conditions in order, finishes) is simply applied in the other engine's view. Presets saved before this split show under every engine until you click Assign, and Show presets from all engines reveals everything. Export JSON downloads the full material dataset at once.
IOR values are single-wavelength reference figures (589.3nm, sodium D-line) for consistency across the dataset. Real materials are spectrally dispersive — IOR shifts with wavelength, which is why prisms split light and gemstones show fire/color flare. Treat these as a starting point, not a fixed constant.
Use the era filter to scope materials to a time period (e.g. WWII), and search or collapse categories to navigate faster.
Use the sector filter to scope materials to a specific industry (Automotive, Aerospace & Space, Luxury & Jewellery, etc.) — general-purpose materials (steel, wood, glass) are included by default in every sector since they genuinely apply across all of them; check "show only sector-specific materials" to narrow to just that sector's explicitly-tagged materials.
The detail panel is organised into tabs (Material / Finish & Tint / Patterns / Conditions / Evidence) — only tabs with real content for the selected material are shown. The Evidence tab answers "why this value?" for every parameter, with a real A-E evidence grade, and shows a Material Pairing note where relevant (e.g. which real dissimilar metal causes galvanic corrosion on this one).
Systems ↗ browses every condition, pattern, construction, and tinting system in one place and which materials each applies to. Health ↗ shows evidence-grade distribution, provenance completeness, and runs a live validation pass across every material and condition on demand.
Release Notes▶
v1 — First release. 600 materials across 12 categories, spanning prehistoric through contemporary and worldwide/historical sourcing, in linear color space throughout, with real-world environment/infrastructure materials (asphalt, concrete finishes, roofing) alongside the core set. Arnold, Karma/MaterialX, and RenderMan (PxrSurface) via an engine selector in the header — RenderMan's mapping is verified against Pixar's own official parameter documentation, not inferred: real Artistic/Physical Fresnel routing for both metals and dielectrics, real per-metal extinction coefficients (k) for Physical-mode metal reflectance, real Layer Thickness and Absorption Tint for the materials that use Clear Coat, and fields with no real PxrSurface equivalent (confirmed, not assumed) hidden entirely rather than shown as dead rows. Metal and dielectric IOR values sourced at a consistent reference wavelength (589.3nm, sodium D-line).
The data itself lives in a structured, versioned schema (ATLAS_MATERIAL_DATA) with real parameter-level evidence grading (A-E) — a material's colour, roughness, and IOR can each carry different real evidence strength, surfaced per-material in an Evidence tab ("Why this value?"). A formal Compatibility Registry documents the real physical/chemical reasoning behind every condition exclusion (e.g. why Rust isn't offered on non-ferrous metals).
Stackable multi-layer condition blending (Dirty/Worn/Damaged/Wet/Rusty, plus material-specific states like Charred wood, Cooling lava, and Fitzpatrick skin tones), including real documented corrosion/weathering modes (Pitting Corrosion, Paint Chalking, Algae/Biofilm, Galvanic/Bimetallic Corrosion, Rising Damp, Glass Crizzling, UV Oxidation Haze, Delamination) and condition interactions that model real combined effects (Rust+Water accelerating oxidation, Dirt+Grease binding and darkening). A Material Pairing reference (in the Evidence tab) documents real dissimilar-metal and material-contact effects — galvanic corrosion, metallic bleed staining onto stone, iron-tannin wood staining — for recreating correctly in your own scene, since this tool renders one material at a time.
Pattern guides include four real, independently-distinct exotic leather textures (Python, Ostrich, Peccary, Carpincho), a Fresnel lens profile, retroreflective microprism structure, hot-dip galvanizing spangle, and generic digital woodland camouflage (deliberately not reproducing any specific military pattern).
Reading Mode (a distraction-free checklist for manually keying values into locked-down systems), Compare view, Save/Load Preset, a shared Studio Library for studio-added custom materials, live search, and collapsible categories. Detail panel organised into Material/Finish/Patterns/Conditions/Evidence tabs with collapsible accordion sections. An era filter (7 real historical sub-eras, from Prehistoric/Stone Age through Contemporary) scopes materials to a time period. A sector filter (21 real industry sectors) includes general-purpose materials by default in every sector view, narrowing to sector-exclusive only via an opt-in toggle. A Systems Reference view browses every condition/pattern/construction system and which materials use it. A Data Health dashboard reports evidence-grade distribution, provenance completeness, renderer-mapping completeness, and runs a live validation pass across every material and condition on demand. Two materials (Granular Urea Fertilizer, Native Sulfur) are held back for a future release, with full data and wiring intact.
Studio Library▶
Materials added here are shared with everyone who opens this artifact — not just your own browser.