Specular vs Metalness Workflows for PBR Shading in Blender

There has been a lot of confusion about what types of PBR maps do what.

In this video, we makes sense of metalness vs. specular workflows and their combination, plus an easy way to tell them apart (regardless of what software you are using).

CC Music: Demons by CDK

[paymansalehishafa]

Can't believe I hadn't seen this before. This is how tutorials should be done. Precise, Concise, Informative, and Accurate.

[wooshewoosher]

Thank you so much. For a beginner its hard for me to keep tract when they go off and give information that's off topic. With the pictures and short examples, I can finally say I am starting to get it. Just have to keep watching this video tell I fully understand Thank you so much!

[sidgeek]

Thanks so much for explaining the difference between gloss and reflectivity.

[mentionedfirebread]

Just practice and you'll understand workflow by heart!!!

[DesMonDLee]

this video clear up the confusion i had for many years.

[MainDoodler]

1:41 reflectivity is controlled by the base color
also some met/rough renders include specular highlight control

[komradkyle]

This was my roadblock for a while thanks for the explanation. Basically taking AO and shading detail out of the diffuse map and using the old specular maps for metal, or heightmaps I guess.

[konstantinoschtenelis]

CG cookie is so good. I really admire your work!

[guidodingemans]

Excellent tutorial. Very informative and straight to the point. Thank you!

[XMRPhilosophyX]

god thank you. this was killing me when picking up unity after working with cycles and arnolds workflows.

[MaledorPwned]

Please, it is possible that they added subtitles to the videos. Much of the community we want you very grateful. They do not even have to be in other languages, with the addition of English subtitles as enough. Thank you very much.

[drinnerd]

Fantastic CG Cookie! Thank you for this lesson!

[Najebanski]

I was wondering about this lately when I edit the 3D settings in sketchfab. Thanks for clearing things up!

[gringoamigo]

Very helpful. I supposed metalness makes more sense to use, since it uses significantly less memory, and I can hardly tell the difference between specularity and metalness.

[benzsuankularb]

Very great content. CG Cookie.

4:32 I'm confusing if Blender use metalness workflow and having specular for controlling reflectness.
How difference between roughness and specular in this case then?

[costaluca]

Very good explanation, many many thanks!!!

[SveGalabov]

super nice, thank you! Very straight and simplifyed usefull description! If you make it without music background all the time would be super cool :)

[nahnoxi]

I'm having trouble using the specular pbr workflow in Arnold 5. My metals render black since that's what Arnold sees in my albedo map, please help..

[motoservo]

Great video. However, I'm a little confused by your scenario at 4:22. It sounds like you're trying to determine, hypothetically, how to use a set of texture maps (perhaps some with no labels, or labels that don't match the input names)? Or, are you trying to determine how to use the node, given the inputs that are available? Or, are you just trying to determine if an existing patch (already setup) is metalness based on whether metal color is fed into Base Color?


Also, does Blender automatically determine it's a metalness workflow when color is included there? What would happen if a pixel has color both on the Base Color map and the Specular Map?

[masterchiappa]

cool, thanks! the music is kind of unnecessary and distracting though.