---
title: Material Panel
order: 1
---

The **Chisel Material** panel in *Material Properties* gives the active Chisel shape its colour, and edits its node tree in place. It shows while the render engine is **Chisel**.

![the Chisel Material panel with a Matcap Shader](../assets/material-panel.webp)

## Chisel Material

| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Browse | Pick an existing material from the file. |
| Name | The material's name. Double-click to rename. |
| Users | How many users the material has. Click it to make a single-user copy for this object. |
| Fake user | Keep the material in the file even when nothing uses it. |
| **New Chisel Material** | With no material, make one with the default tree (a Matcap Shader into the Material Output). With a material set, it only adds that tree if the material has none; it does not make a copy. |
| Unlink | Remove the material from the object. The shape renders in the default grey. |
| **Surface** | The shader behind the Material Output: **Matcap Shader** or **Mix Shader**. Picking one rewires the tree. |
| **Color** | The Matcap Shader's colour, multiplied into the [matcap](../render-engine/matcap.md). |
| **Blend** | How far this colour bleeds into a neighbouring shape across a seam, in world units. Default `0`. |

Colours show in *Material Preview* and *Rendered* shading, not in *Solid*.

## Create Node Tree

A material made outside Chisel has no node tree. The panel then shows a single colour:

![a material without a node tree: Color and Create Node Tree](../assets/material-panel-color.webp)

| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Color** | The shape's colour, multiplied into the matcap. Default `0.8, 0.8, 0.8`. |
| **Create Node Tree** | Build the default tree and show the **Surface** sub-panel. The new Matcap Shader starts at grey `0.8`; the colour set here is not carried over. |

## Mix Shader

With **Surface** set to **Mix Shader**, a second shader shows wherever another Chisel object is:

![the Surface sub-panel with a Mix Shader](../assets/material-mix-shader.webp)

| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| **Surface** | **Mix Shader**: two shaders blended by a field. |
| **Factor** | The Chisel object whose shape paints *Shader B* (a [Field](node-editor.md#field-input) node). |
| **Smoothness** | Width of the soft edge between the two shaders. Default `0.02`. |
| **Shader A** | The base shader: the object's own colour. |
| **Color** | *Shader A*'s colour. |
| **Blend** | *Shader A*'s colour-bleed width. |
| **Shader B** | The shader shown inside the *Factor* object. Must be a Matcap Shader for the mask to show. |
| **Color** | *Shader B*'s colour. |
| **Blend** | *Shader B*'s colour-bleed width. |

Each shader slot has its own dropdown, so a slot can hold another Mix Shader. A tree nested deeper than the panel can show reads *Deeper nodes: edit in the Node Editor*. The *Factor* object usually has *Render* off and is hidden, so only its shape paints; moving it moves the painted area.

![a Mix Shader on the box: a hidden sphere paints Shader B](../assets/material-mix-render.webp)

## Use Slot Material Instead

Chisel renders the material in this panel, not the one in Blender's material slot. When the slot holds a different material, the panel says so:

> Object slot holds: Brass
> Chisel renders the material above, not this.

**Use "Brass" Instead** makes the slot material the Chisel material.

> [!tip] Wider colour seams
> A smooth boolean blends the colours across its seam by itself. Raise **Blend** on both materials, or *Material Blend* on the [Boolean](../joins/boolean.md), to widen the colour seam beyond the geometry.

## Limits

> [!warning] Keyframed material values do not animate
> Chisel uses the value from your last edit of the material on every frame, in the viewport and in F12 renders.

- A [Carve](../joins/carve.md) pocket always keeps the host's material.