This video shows how to make edge wear. You will learn how to use shader nodes to make procedural edge wear. The final composite and render was done in Blender 4.2.
Ambient Occlusion
If you are using version 4.1 or earlier, make sure you have ambient occlusion activated under the render tab
I add an Ambient Occlusion node and activate “inside” – this will detect convex shapes
I connect the color output to the base color of the principled bsdf
As I change the distance, I can now see the edges
I add a color ramp between the AO and principled bsdf – this will allow me to further control the edges
I change the interpolation to ease to make sure the edge is softer
I move the black color stop to around 0.6
Edge Wear
I duplicate the AO node and disable “inside”
I add a mix color node and change the blending mode to value – this combines the hue and saturation of the background color with the value of the foreground color
I connect the top AO node to the A input of the mix color node and the bottom AO node to the bottom input
I connect the mix color node to the color ramp
I add a second mix color node and connect the first mix color node to the factor of the new mix color node
I change the blending mode to mix
I add a noise texture and connect the factor to the A input of the second mix color node
I change the B input color of the second mix color node to white
I can adjust the black color stop as needed
As I increase the options of the noise texture, I can distort the edge wear
I add a brightness/contrast node between the color ramp and the principled bsdf
This node will increase the overall brightness of the material and the contrast makes brighter pixels, brighter and darker pixels, darker
I set the brightness to 1 and the contrast to 2
I select these nodes (except the principled bsdf and material output nodes) and use CTRL + G to group them
I connect the group input to the distance of each of the AO nodes
I also connect the new outputs to each of the noise texture options
I also connect the group input to the contrast input
If I use SHIFT + RMB and drag over the noodle, I can add a reroute node
With the reroute node selected, I can use the G-key to grab it and move it
This will help keep everything a bit neater and easier to read
I TAB out of the group and rename the group node to AO Edge
This will allow me to make any changes I need with just one node
Edge Wear Texture
I will be using a metal texture that I downloaded from AmbientCG – link is in the description
I add a mix color node
I add an image texture and open the color map
I connect the image texture to input A of the mix color shader and set the input B color to black
Base Texture
For the base color, I will use a second metal texture from AmbientCG
Metal 056C: https://ambientcg.com/view?id=Metal056C
Metal 055A: https://ambientcg.com/view?id=Metal055A
I add an image texture and open the albedo map
I connect this to the B input of the mix color node
I connect the AO edge group to the factor of the mix color and connect the mix color to the base color
I now import the roughness, metalness, and normals maps for both textures
I change each of the color space on the textures to non-color
I duplicate the mix color shader and connect each of these maps as needed – making sure to connect the AO map group to the factors
I also add a normal map node and connect the mix color node for the normal maps to the color input
I connect the normal map node to the normal of the principled bsdf and increase the strength