Adding color as simple as it sounds consists of several steps you need to do to finally achieve adding color to a 3D mesh in Blender.
In this tutorial, I will take you along these steps and show what you exactly need to do so you can easily implement this in your workflow.
I will break adding a color to an object in Blender into the following steps:
- How to View Materials in the Viewport?
- Material Creation in Blender
- Material Color
- Assigning the Material to an Object
Let's jump right in!
Check out this list of the Top Blender Addons.
How to View Materials in the Viewport?
In order to actually see colors in Blender viewport we have to change the way the viewport shades out objects. By default, the shading type is set to Solid which does not show the material colors we have on our object.
So even if you have a material with colors if you have the wrong viewport shading type you won't be able to view that color.
To change the viewport shading type there are 2 ways:
- Using Shortcuts: Simply press the "z" keyboard to get a shading menu then choose "Material Preview".
- Using the Menu: You can simply click on the top right icon that looks like a sphere with a solid section for "Material Preview"(image below).
How to Create a Material in Blender?
Alright first let's create a Cube using Shift+A then choose a cube and it will be created at the center of your scene where the 3D Cursor is located.
Then we go to "Material Properties" in the right toolbar and click on the "New" button to create a new material.
and there you go now you have a new material created called "Material.004", Congrats on creating your first material.
How to Change Material Color?
Alright now that we created our first material the next step would be to actually change our material color and the simplest way to do that is to change the "Base Color" slot by just clicking on it and choosing a color.
By changing the color in the color swatch we can see that we see the result immediately in the viewport as the material is already assigned to our cube.
Learn how to Focus on Objects in Blender in this article.
How to Assign a Material?
With our example above we created the material while selecting our cube so the material was already assigned to that cube as we created the material itself.
Now I want to show you how to assign a second material to a new cube so you understand more how to assign materials to objects.
Let's create a second cube first, Shift+A, and then select cube. Move it so it's not directly above the old cube.
Alright now select the newly created cube Head over to "Materials Properties" Click on the sphere and it will give you a menu, then Choose the Green material we created.
This is how we assign already-made materials in Blender to new objects created.
As a fun small exercise create more cubes and more materials and create the scene below to practice what you have learned.
Conclusion
Adding color to an object in Blender as you saw requires a couple of steps and understanding how Blender actually shades objects in order to view them in the viewport.
The workflow is simple, first make sure your shading mode is "Material Preview" then add a new material in the "Material Properties" window and finally change the "Base Color" to a color of your choosing.
Related Article: Backface Culling in Blender