Creating realistic metal materials in Blender doesn’t require image textures – procedural nodes can do all the heavy lifting. In this tutorial, you’ll build a rich, slightly imperfect gold material using Blender 5.1. Instead of a flat metallic look, we’ll introduce subtle variation in color, roughness, and surface detail to mimic how real gold behaves under light.
Step 1: Start with a Basic Material
1. Select your object and create a new material – naming it appropriately
2. Keep the default Principled BSDF
3. Make sure you have the Node Wrangler add-on activated
4. Make sure you are in material preview so you can see your material
Step 2: Create Gold Color Variation
1. Use SHIFT + A to add a Color Ramp node and connect it to the Base Color
2. Use SHIFT + A to add a Noise Texture and connect the Color output to the Color Ramp
3. Select the Noise Texture and use CTRL + T to add Mapping and Texture Coordinate nodes
4. Change the Texture Coordinate to Object
5. Adjust Noise Settings:
Scale: 1
Detail: 8
Roughness: 0.9
Distortion: 3.5
6. Adjust Color Ramp:
Black → Orange [#CD7D24FF]
White → Yellow [##B1964FFF]
7. Move the white color stop closer to the center
Step 3: Control Metallic Properties
1. Use SHIFT + A to add a Color Ramp
2. Connect the Color Ramp to the Metallic input of the Principled Shader
3. This will allow us to use the color stops to control the Metalness of the material
Step 4: Add Roughness Variation
1. Use SHIFT + A to add another Color Ramp
2. Connect the Color Ramp to the Roughness input of the Principled Shader
3. Use SHIFT + A to add a new Noise Texture and connect it to the Color Ramp
4. Select the Noise Texture and use CTRL + T to add Mapping and Texture Coordinate nodes
4. Change the Texture Coordinate to Object
5. Change the Noise Settings:
- Scale: 2
- Detail: 8
- Roughness: 0.9
6. Bring the black color stop closer to the center of the Color Ramp [0.25]
Step 5: Add Surface Bump Detail
1. Use SHIFT + A to add a Bump Node
2. Connect the Bump Node to the Normal of the Principled Shader
3. Use SHIFT + A to add another Color Ramp and connect it to the Height of the Bump Node
4. Use SHIFT + A to add a Noise Texture
5. Select the Noise Texture and use CTRL + T to add Mapping and Texture Coordinate nodes
6. Change the Texture Coordinate to Object
7. Connect the Noise Texture to the Color Ramp
8. Change the Noise Texture settings:
- Scale: 1
- Detail: 8
- Roughness: 0.9
- Distortion: 3.4
9. Change the Bump Node strength to around 0.75
Conclusion By layering noise textures and controlling how they affect color, roughness, metallic values, and bump, you’ve created a believable procedural gold material. The key isn’t just making something “yellow and shiny” – it’s introducing controlled imperfection.