Materials

The Materials page holds every material you've created or imported into your workspace. A material describes how a surface looks and reacts to light - its base color, roughness, metalness, normal map, and other texture channels - independent of any specific model.

Reach it at Asset Library → Materials, or directly at /library/materials.

What a material is

In a 3D render, a material defines the finish of a surface: a polished metal looks different from raw wood not because the geometry is different, but because the materials assigned to those surfaces describe different optical properties.

Glossi materials are stored independently of any model so you can build a single library of finishes - leather, brushed steel, walnut veneer, brushed aluminum - and apply them to any product in the studio. A material you create once becomes a reusable building block.

What's on the page

• Toolbar - Count of materials, search, sort, and a Create Material button on the right.
• Asset grid - Material cards, each showing a preview sphere rendered with the material applied so you can read the actual finish at a glance.
• Card hover actions - Favorite, more menu (rename, delete), and a click-through to the details modal.

The preview sphere uses your workspace's default lighting environment - what you see is roughly what the material will look like on a model in the studio.

Creating a material

Select Add material. Choose the starting point that matches what you already have:

• Create from a surface photo when you have a finish reference. Add optional guidance before Glossi builds the material.
• Upload maps when you already have a texture set or individual maps. Choose files or a folder, or drop them into the upload area.
• Add from catalog when an existing material already fits the product.
• Pantone color when the finish is a solid color specified by a Pantone code. See Pantone materials.

Materials you create are workspace-scoped - every member of your workspace can use them.

Importing texture maps

Glossi matches common filenames to their map types. Check the assignments before selecting Add material. If a folder contains several material sets, choose one set to import. Files that need a decision remain available to assign or skip; replacing an assigned map requires choosing Replace.

Base color is required to create a material. Fill missing maps is optional and off by default, so importing your own maps does not automatically generate additional ones.

To update one map on an existing material, open its detail page and hover or focus a tile under Texture maps. Select Replace to upload that map. The change is saved as a new version. Missing map tiles have an Add action.

Pantone materials

Choose Pantone color under Add material to create a flat color material from a Pantone code. Enter the Pantone code (such as 281 C, or 19-4052 TCX for textiles) and the Color: the sRGB hex Pantone publishes for that code, which sets how the material renders. The name defaults to the Pantone code.

Any material can also record a Pantone. Open the material's detail page and choose Add Pantone in its Pantone section, then enter the code and hex and choose Save Pantone. Recording a Pantone does not change how the material looks.

Production files print the Pantone of each fabric zone's material and flag zones whose material has none.

Filtering and finding

• Search - Type what you're looking for, such as "brown leather" or "brushed metal". Search matches names and a description Glossi writes for every material, so a material called "Saddle Tan" still turns up for "brown leather".
• Filter - One menu narrows the library by:
  • Type - leather, fabric, wood, metal, stone and more. Glossi sorts each material into a type automatically. To set it yourself, choose a Material type when you create the material (under Add details when uploading maps); Glossi keeps your choice.
  • Finish - matte, satin, glossy or metallic, measured from the material's own maps.
  • Color - pick a swatch or any color, then choose how close a match must be. Results come back closest first, and a material with several colors matches any of them.
  • Tags - your own labels.
• Sort - Newest, oldest, or by color, which groups neutrals first and then runs around the color wheel.

Opening a material

Click any material card to open the Material Details modal. Inside you can:

• Rename the material
• View and adjust the channel maps - Inspect each PBR channel (base color, roughness, etc.) and replace any of them.
• Edit - Describe a change to the finish, compare the preview, then save it as a version or a new material.
• Delete the material

Applying a material

Materials are applied inside Glossi Studio, not from this page. While editing a project:

1. Select a model surface in the studio viewport.
2. Open the Materials panel from the right sidebar.
3. Pick any material from your workspace library and click to apply.

The material library inside the studio shows the same set of materials you see here - they're the same data.

Tips

• Build a base palette first - A small set of well-named materials (e.g., "Walnut", "Brushed Brass", "Charcoal Felt") goes a long way; you can always iterate on specific products from a base material.
• Iterate with AI edits - If a generated material is close but not quite right, use AI edit to nudge it ("make it slightly darker and more matte") rather than starting over.
• Favorite your most-used finishes - Surface them in the Favorites filter for quick access during studio sessions.

Related

• Asset Library Overview
• Editing Your Model - Where materials are applied in the studio.