# Materials

**Materials** define the appearance of 3D model surfaces and how they react to light. Without materials, models are simply shapes, blank canvases.

![media/material-layers-2.png](media/material-layers-2.png)

Materials can affect both the geometry of a model (vertex shading) and its colors (pixel shading).

You can use [multiple material layers](material-layers.md) to build more complex materials.

In practice, materials generate partial definitions of shaders integrated as part of the shading of models ([lights and shadows](../lights-and-shadows/index.md)).

## In this section

* [Material maps](material-maps.md)
* [Material attributes](material-attributes.md)
    * [Geometry attributes](geometry-attributes.md)
    * [Shading attributes](shading-attributes.md)
    * [Misc attributes](misc-attributes.md)
        * [Clear-coating shading](clear-coat-shading.md)
* [Material layers](material-layers.md)
* [Material slots](material-slots.md)
* [Materials for developers](materials-for-developers.md)