Generalizing Materials (Refined)
Blender 5.2 allows empties to have geometry nodes modifiers, through which, materials can be assigned to the generated geometry.
However, empties themselves cannot have any materials. Which becomes problematic when it comes to modifying the materials assigned to their generated geometry. A workaround would be to assign the materials to a mesh that is disabled in renders. But this just adds another layer of unnecessary complexity to what could otherwise be a simple task.
So I propose empties be allowed to have materials .
But you may correctly argue that this makes the UI confusing . After all, if not using geometry nodes, one might wonder why the materials tab shows up in the properties editor when objects are selected that do not reflect them.
To approach a solution, let's first notice
Visible Tabs
. Added in the recent updates of blender, this menu allows users to choose which tabs they would like to see.*
On the left side of this menu, there are the icons and names of different tabs.
To extend the functionality of this menu, if some of the icons in it are clicked, they should each open up a sub-menu. In those sub-menus, there should be checkboxes for each object type that supports it, and the corresponding tab should only show up if the selected object is checked in the said sub-menu.
Let's now give a clear example that is also the solution to UI problem:
As mentioned earlier, empties should still support materials; therefore, it should be possible to create new materials in the shader editor while they are selected. But to increase access to these materials, by going to
Visible Tabsand clicking on the material icon, a sub-menu should open. Inside the sub-menu, there should beMeshCurveSurfaceMetaballTextPoint CloudVolumeGrease PencilandEmpty, each with a checkbox in front of it. To avoid confusion, the checkbox for empties should be unchecked by default, but users should still be able to check it to be able to access materials quickly through the properties editor.
3 Comments
Personally, I would suggest that it should be possible to edit materials without assigning them to an object.
This is also a really interesting idea. Still, having them assigned might make it a bit easier to find them than to search for them in a list. So it might be best to have the ability to modify them without assigning them but still be able to assign them if needed.
Interesting concept. "A workaround would be to assign the materials to a mesh that is disabled in renders. But this just adds another layer of unnecessary complexity to what could otherwise be a simple task." To this I wonder if it is because Empties do not have Vertex or UV information to satisfy whatever is going on with the mesh object that has the material. I had wondered at one point if it would be possible to paint on images in the 3d view using an Image Empty, but that turned out to need to be converted to a mesh plane with UV info and a material container.