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Materials (MatCap)

Learn how to use MatCap (Material Capture) shaders in Sketchfab to set complete surface materials and lighting, customize tints and curvature, and import custom MatCap images

Written by Elaine

MatCap (Material Capture) shaders are complete materials, including lighting and reflections. They work by defining a color for every vertex normal direction relative to the camera. You can switch the renderer to MatCap in Scene Settings. You can also switch a Lit model to MatCap in the Model Inspector.

After setting the renderer, you can edit the MatCap from the Materials tab.

MatCap Image

The default MatCap is "skin_soft". There are 6 MatCap images available to all users. Switch between them in the list.

MatCap Tint

Use the color picker to apply a color to the MatCap material.

Separate Materials

Disable Apply to all materials to use a different MatCap for each material. Switch between them in the dropdown.

Curvature

Use the Curvature slider to increase the contrast of details, including normal maps. It requires smooth-shaded vertex normals on geometries.

Importing Custom MatCaps

Pro members and above can import custom MatCap images by clicking Import MatCap Image. The maximum file size per MatCap image is 4MB.

Free MatCap Resources

You can download MatCaps from lots of different online resources, for example, this library of free MatCaps from nidorx on GitHub.

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