# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Multiple Materials Per Object

|previous=Quickie Material
|subcat=Basics
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!The finished render.
In this module, you\'ll create a beach ball with two alternating
colours. Along the way, you\'ll learn how to apply multiple materials to
a single object.

Many real-life objects have parts which are different colours, or are
even made of different materials. One way to model such objects is to
make each part a separate Blender object. However, Blender also allows
you to assign different materials to parts of a single object.


## Set the Scene

Begin by opening Blender and removing the default cube.

Now create a mesh for the beach ball:

1.  With the 3D View window active, press
    +)
    and choose *Add → Mesh → UV Sphere*.
2.  Expand the \"Add UV Sphere\" panel in the bottom left of the screen,
    then specify 8 segments and 4 rings.

    :   The initial result will be crude, but meshes with fewer vertices
        are easier to edit.

Make the mesh rounder and more organic using automatic subdivision:

1.  In the \"Properties\" editor, select the \"Modifiers\" context
    (wrench icon).
2.  Select \"Add Modifier\" and click *Generate → Subdivision Surface*.
3.  For the number of subdivisions, set both the \'View\' and \'Render\'
    count to **2**.

Get rid of that blocky look:

1.  Ensure you\'re in Object
    Mode.
2.  Click the object button at the top of the viewport.
3.  Select \"Shade Smooth\" from the list of options.

The ball is now round, but a bit prolate. To make it more spherical,
scale it by about 1.1 along the X and Y axes. To select the X-Y plane,
you select ′*not* **Z**′, by using the key combination
. The complete sequence is, then,
, ,
.

## Colorize Time

Now you\'re ready to begin adding colors to the object:

1.  Press  to put Blender into Edit
    mode.
2.  In the Properties editor, select the \"Material\" button
    ![](Materials_button.png "Materials_button.png").
3.  Press \"+ New\".

    :   A new material appears in the material slot list, and several
        additional panels appear below to edit the created material.
4.  In the \"Surface\" panel, click on the default white base color and
    change it to a nice yellow.

    :   At this point, the entire ball is yellow.

![](Blender259BeachBall_Yellow.png "Blender259BeachBall_Yellow.png")

In the \"Materials\" panel click the \"+\" button (indicated by the red
box in the picture, below) next to the material slot list to create a
new blank slot. The \"+ New\" button will reappear (indicated by the
blue box, in the picture below).

![](Blender259ObjectAddSecondMaterial.png "Blender259ObjectAddSecondMaterial.png")

Click the \"+ New\" button and a new material will be created and
assigned the empty slot in the materials slot list. Ensure that the new
material is selected, then change the base color to blue. Nothing will
happen to the beach ball, yet.

Now make a single blue stripe on the ball:

1.  All the vertices should still be selected from before; make sure the
    3D view is active, then hit  to
    deselect them.
2.  Switch to front view with , and to
    \"Face Select\" mode by selecting the face select button. Which is
    to the left of the \"view\" button in the top left of the viewport.
3.  Select a column of four faces that will make up one stripe of the
    beach ball (using , or
     depending on your selection
    key, on each face):

    :   ![](Blender259BeachBall_Selected.png "fig:Blender259BeachBall_Selected.png")
4.  In the \"Material\" property window, select the blue material slot
    in the list, then click the \"**Assign**\" button.

Rotate the view (e.g. ) so you can skip
past a yellow stripe adjacent to the blue stripe, and select the second
column that will become a blue stripe. Work your way around the ball to
do this three more times. (Remember we made the sphere with 8 segments;
four of these are yellow, and four are blue).

Now you see the benefit of making a sphere with only 4 rings: more rings
would have meant more faces in each stripe, and more clicking to select
them.

For help with rendering your beach ball, see our Noob to Pro/Render
Settings and Noob
to Pro/Quickie
Render

