Open PainterMaterial aging
Age material construction through environment history, use, maintenance and events while preserving manual edits.
On this page 5 sections
Give an asset a history. A steel cabinet left by the coast, a wooden door exposed to rain and a well-used leather seat age differently. Material Aging uses construction, environment, age and use to build editable fading, coating loss, corrosion, dirt and other effects.
Age a material
- Open Material Aging in the Painter sidebar and check Applied to.
- Choose Material Construction: substrate, conversion coating, primer, paint color and top coat. Catalog materials initialize this construction and, for a set not already aged, a matching history.
- Choose an Environment and set Age in Years. Adjust use and maintenance if needed.
- Bake AO and Curvature, then click Age Material. Position and World Normal are optional but improve gravity, ground and orientation placement; after adding them, rebuild when prompted.
- Leave Follow Edits Live enabled to drive the folder as settings change, or use Re-age to apply changes manually.
Construction and material response
| Family | Examples and response |
|---|---|
| Metals | Steel, stainless steel, iron, aluminum, copper, brass, bronze, zinc and titanium; rust, tarnish, patina or white oxidation depend on the substrate. |
| Wood | Oak, pine, walnut, mahogany, plywood, MDF and treated wood; greying, bleaching, checking and biological growth. |
| Polymers | ABS, PVC, polycarbonate, polypropylene, polyethylene, nylon, rubber and silicone; fading, yellowing and embrittlement. |
| Mineral surfaces | Concrete, brick, plaster, marble, granite and ceramic; staining, deposits and erosion. |
| Textiles and leather | Canvas, denim and wool fade, fray, pill and mildew; leather also burnishes and cracks. |
Optional conversion coatings include galvanization, anodizing and chrome plating. Primers, oil/acrylic/powder/polyurethane/epoxy/enamel paint, clearcoat, varnish and oil finishes change protection and failure. Coating Condition can start with an already worn film.
Environment, history, use and care
Environment presets include Indoor, Storage, Humid Interior, Outdoor Urban, Coastal, Arid, Industrial, Tropical, Alpine and Underground. Exposure sliders represent relative UV, humidity, rain, temperature, temperature cycling, salt, pollution, soil and wind. Editing a preset marks it Custom. Reset Environment restores it.
Environment History composes periods with separate environment, usage and maintenance. Periods scale to the total age and their order matters. Usage distinguishes handling, abrasion, impact and cleaning. Maintenance controls cleaning frequency, protection, polishing, rust removal and wood treatment.
Add dated events for Repaint, Clean, Rust Removal, Polish, Protective Treatment or Wood Treatment. A repaint can renew a film while leaving older dents. Events beyond the current age have not happened yet. Randomize History changes the seed.
Keep manual edits and animate age
The Simulated State reports outcomes such as fade, gloss loss, coating loss, substrate exposure and corrosion. Art Direction applies Corrosion, Fading, Damage and Dirt multipliers after the simulation. The readout distinguishes the adjusted value from the underlying estimate.
Ordinary re-aging preserves recognized manual overrides and added layers. Rebuild Folder, or a construction change that triggers rebuilding, replaces the generated folder and its contents. Keep hand-authored finishing layers outside that folder before rebuilding. Reset Art Direction hands driven values back to the model; Reset Aging Setup is separate. Removing aging removes its folder.
Age in Years can be keyframed, so the material ages across a shot. Duplicated sets and portable materials retain settings, history and overrides. Geometry effects can follow aging outcomes, making flakes or moss change with the material.
Coating wear and surface detail
Paint, primer and the underlying metal share a growing damage pattern. Paint loss reveals the layers underneath, and corrosion develops on exposed substrate. Weathering Front shapes the spread of damage, Corrosion Grain adds fine rust texture and Runoff Trails follows the surface's position and occlusion maps.
Placement and relief have separate scales, so broad corrosion patches can carry fine grain. Cracks, scratches, salt deposits and polished wear add smaller details. Older aging folders keep their existing look until you choose Rebuild Folder; keep any hand-painted finishing layers outside the generated folder when rebuilding.
Reference: material aging.