Material Forge – Material & Shader Library Tool for Maya (Arnold)

Ravi Motwani
14 hours ago
2 min read

Video

Overview

Material Forge is a material asset library designed to store, reuse, and share material networks across multiple projects, artists, or studios.

Key Features:

Creates & Stores material networks as presets
Apply materials across multiple assets
Sharing materials becomes easy and hassle free
Maintain consistency across shots and projects

Software Used:

Autodesk Maya
Renderer: Solid-angle Arnold

Material Forge - Asset Material Library Maya Main Window

Library Management

Working with Multiple Libraries

Artists can create multiple material libraries and switch between them easily. Each library maintains its own categories, tags, and renderer configurations.

Material Forge - Asset Material Library Maya - Multiple Libraries

Adding Material Library using "+ Add New Item ..."

Material Forge - Asset Material Library Maya - Create Libraries

Importing Materials

Import Material

To import materials into the scene:

Select one or multiple materials in the library.
Right-click and choose Import Material.

This will import the selected material networks into the current scene.

Material Forge - Asset Material Library - Import Materials

Import and Assign Material

Materials can be imported and assigned to objects in a single step:

Select the target objects.
Select a single material from the library.
Right-click and choose Import and Assign Material.

Material Forge - Asset Material Library - Import & Assign Materials

Searching & Filtering Materials

Search Materials

A built-in search feature allows quick access to materials in large libraries.

Material Forge - Asset Material Library - Search

Filter Materials

Materials can be filtered using:

Categories
Tags
Renderer types

Each filter includes its own search option, making it easy to manage extensive filter lists.

Material Forge - Asset Material Library - Filters

Adding Materials to the Library

Add Material

To add a material to the preset library:

Select the shading node in the scene.
Click Add in the MaterialForge UI.

Material Forge - Asset Material Library - Shading Engine Select

Thumbnail Generation

After filling in the required parameters, pressing Add will render and generate a thumbnail for the selected material network.The Thumbnail option is enabled by default.