This video shows how to create a procedural sand material using Blender 4.1. You will learn how to use the shader nodes to produce a sand material using Blender. The final render was done in Blender.
Sand Base
I am using a beach scene I downloaded from Sketchfab
I will also be using the Node Wrangler Add-on
Split the Viewport and open the Shader Editor
Add a new Material to the sand object and go into Material Preview mode
To make the wavy lines of the sand, add a Wave Texture – connecting it to the Principled Shader
Select the Wave Texture node and use CTRL + T to add a Mapping and Texture Coordinate node
For the Texture Coordinate, use the Object coordinate
Lower the Scale to decrease the number of Bands from the Wave Texture
To change the uniformity of the Bands, increase the Distortion and Detail of the Wave Texture
Change the Detail Scale and Roughness to add some more interest to the material
Change the Wave Profile to Saw
To add some more detail to the material, add a Noise Texture and a Mix Color node
Connect the Wave Texture and the Noise Texture to the Mix Color node
Increase the Scale, Detail, Roughness and Distortion of the Noise Texture
Select these five nodes and use CTRL + J to group them
Right-click on the group and rename the Frame
Sand Height
For the height of the sand, add a Color Ramp and a Bump Map node
Connect the Color Ramp to the Height of the Bump node and the Bump node to the Normal of the Principled Shader
Connect the Mix Color node to the Color Ramp and the Color Ramp to the Base Color of the Principled Shader
Change the color of the Color Stops and adjust the Bump node strength [B: #9B8A68, W: BCA77F]
Select these two node and use CTRL + J to group them
Right-click on the Frame and rename it