This document provides a tutorial for assigning materials to a 3D honeycomb model in Blender software. It demonstrates how to create multiple materials and assign them to different faces of the honeycomb object. First, a basic honeycomb mesh is generated and edited. Then several new materials are created and applied to selected faces, with different colors used to represent different materials. Rendered images of the textured honeycomb are shown at the end.

1. Blender software. Assigning a Material.
3D Honeycomb. Tutorial
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Tihomir Dovramadjiev
Technical University of Varna
MTF, Department Industrial Design
tihomir.dovramadjiev@tu-varna.bg
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.19097.47207
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331755941_Blender_software_Assigning_a_Material_3D_Honeycomb_Tutorial

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About Blender software
● Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D
pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion
tracking, even video editing and game creation.https://www.blender.org/
● Blender software. 2.79b Version. About, License & Development.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328677236_Blender_software_279b_Version_
About_License_Development
● Modern accessible application of the system Blender in 3D design practice.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312033613_Modern_accessible_application_of
_the_system_Blender_in_3D_design_practice

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Assigning a Material / Multiple
Materials
Materials available in the currently open blend-file can be investigated by clicking on the Materials icon material-icon
in the Properties editor Header. In this section we look at how to assign or remove a material to/from the Active
Object in Blender, either by:
● Creating a new material,
● re-using an existing material, or
● deleting a material.
● Creating a new Material
Every time a new Object is created it has no material linked to it. You can create a new material for the object by:
● Selecting the object.
● In the Properties editor, click on the object button.
● Click on the Materials button in the Properties editor header.
● Multiple Materials
● Normally, different colors or patterns on an object are achieved by adding textures to your materials. However, in
some applications you can obtain multiple colors on an object by assigning different materials to the individual
faces of the object.
● To apply several materials to different faces of the same object, you use the Material Slots options in the Materials
header panel.
● https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/blender_render/materials/assigning_a_material.html
CC-BY-SA 4.0 Int. License

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Multiple Materials
The workflow for applying a second material to some faces of an object covered by a base material is
as follows:
1. In Object Mode, apply the base material to the whole object (as shown in Assigning a material).
2. Create/select the second material (the whole object will change to this new material).
3. In the Active Material box, re-select the base material.
4. Go to Edit Mode and Face Select (a new box appears above the Active Material box with
Assign/Select/Deselect).
5. Select the face/faces to be colored with the second material.
6. In the Object Material Slots box, click the Plus to create a new slot, and while this is still active, click
on the second material in the Available Materials list.
7. Click the Assign button, and the second material will appear on the selected object faces.
You can also make this new material a copy of an existing material by adding the data-block:
● Select the object, get the material, RMB and Copy data to clipboard. When you have renamed the ma-
terial, click “Link: Data” to link to the existing material. Proceed to assign faces as required. NB: If
you change the material on the original object, the new object color changes too.
● https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/blender_render/materials/assigning_a_material.html
CC-BY-SA 4.0 Int. License

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Pixabay / The Real Honeycomb
ttps://pixabay.com/bg/photos/мед-гребен-прашец-шестоъгълник-2441542/
CC-BY-SA 4.0 Int. License

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Adding a Honeycomb
Object Mode. Add > Mesh > Extras > Honeycomb

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Default Honeycomb
Honeycomb: Num of rows: 2; Num of cols: 2; Cell diameter: 1; Edge Width: 0.1

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The Honeycomb model
Honeycomb: Num of rows: 4; Num of cols: 3; Cell diameter: 1; Edge Width: 0.1

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The Honeycomb model
Switching to Edit Mode

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Extruding
Extruding (“E” key)

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Make Edges/Faces
Selecting Edges

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Make Edges/Faces
Selecting Edges

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Make Edges/Faces
Selecting Edges and “F” Key

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Make Edges/Faces
Completed mesh

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Creating a new Material
Object Mode. 3D Honeycomb model > Material > Gold / Yellow Material

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Creating a new Material.002
Edit Mode. Selecting faces > +

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Creating a new Material.002
Edit Mode. Selected faces > Creating a new Material.002

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Assigning the new Material.002
Edit Mode. Selected faces > Assigning the new Material.002

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Creating a new Material.003
Edit Mode. Selected faces > Creating a new Material.003

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Assigning the new Material.003
Edit Mode. Selected faces > Assigning the new Material.003

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Creating a new Material.004
Edit Mode. Selected faces > Creating a new Material.004

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Assigning the new Material.004
Edit Mode. Selected faces > Assigning the new Material.004

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Result - 1

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Result - 1
Blender Render

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Result - 2

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Result – 2
Blender Render (3D Honeycomb + Subdivision Surface)

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References
● Blender Software
https://www.blender.org/
● Tihomir Dovramadjiev PhD. Modern accessible application of the system Blender in 3D design practice.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312033613_Modern_accessible_application_of_the_system_Blender_in_3D_design_practice
Blender software. 2.79b Version. About, License & Development. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.36167.75687
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328677236_Blender_software_279b_Version_About_License_Development
● Blender User Manual.Release 2.78. Blender Community. Mar 08, 2017
● Assigning a Material
https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/render/blender_render/materials/assigning_a_material.html
● CC-BY-SA 4.0 Int. License
● Pixabay. Free for commercial photos
https://pixabay.com/bg/photos/мед-гребен-прашец-шестоъгълник-2441542/
● Apace OpenOffice
http://www.openoffice.org/download/