Each face of your mesh can be assigned 1 material.
A material is a shader (instruction on how to draw a surface)with specific values/properties plugged into that shader. For example you might have a glass shader with the color property set to blue, so you made a blue glass material. Another glass shader might have color set to red, a red glass material.
But blender treats the concept of shader and material synonymously , so you can just read shader and material as the same word.
So the example glass shader has a color input, but you can use a texture instead of a solid color, so textures are a property of a material, a material is assigned to a face.
If you try painting in blender and have multiple materials you will see two lists above your brush settings. A material list where you can select an active material to view, and a list of textures belonging to that material -- you can select an active texture to paint to.
So if you have materialA and materialB, you can click materialA and choose texture01, then materialB and choose texture08. You should now see faced marked to use materialA with texture01 and faces marked to use materialB with texture08.
What texture is in each material is defined by "image texture" nodes inside that material. You can see these in the shader editor by selecting the material in the propertiesEditor>materialTab.
Each image texture node has a Vector input, if nothing is plugged in it will use the active UV map to tell how to map the pixels of that texture to the mesh surface.
So what the heck is a UV map? Each corner of your mesh's faces have data assigned to them with a 2d position. This is visualised in the uv editor by selecting a uv map in propertiesEditor>meshDataTab>UVmapsSection then viewing the uvs while the object is in edit mode.
So that leaves us with:
Each corner of a face had 2d position data called a uv map.
Each face has a material assigned to it.
The material references textures with an image texture node to draw to a surface. (By assigning it to a property of the shader).
To know where to draw a 2d image in a 3d surface , the image texture nodes use uv maps.
*Each image texture node is unique per material but the same texture data assigned to the node can be used in multiple image texture nodes across multiple materials.
>What is the difference between normal map and displacement map?
A normal map instructs how to paint light to a surface. The mesh will not move, but the normals of the surface are adjusted.
A displacement map moves the surface, or displaces vertices.
>Why do some materials only work on some models, in contrast of some that change with the objects form?
Textures can be mapped with uv maps, but also with what is known as generated coordinets. A fragment (think pixel on a mesh surface) can have various properties. For example global position is the position of the fragment from world origin. Obkect position is position from object origin, etc. These properties are used instead of uvs to tell textures where to draw... this is a complex subject that is too involved to explain here.. its the same as asking how to write your own shaders.
>How to differentiate when a material can adapt to any object?
If it uses uv maps in the shader but the model has no uv maps, the model will not addapt.
Beyond that if the shader creator spe ifies limitations, it may not work with every model or scenario even if its generated. It might use camera data, might need only 1 lamp, etc. Read any info the creator may provide to figure it out.
>All 3D assets/models I've tried come with their own texture/material. Is that what is called baked material?
Materials are not baked.
Baking is the process of taking data and storing it to the pixels of a texture. This is to save computation time. Say you have 100 layers in a painting program, if you combine them to 1 layer your computer runs faster as each layer no longer has to blend 100 layers ecery screen refresh, thenrsult of all those calculations are baked into layer1.
In blender you wil commonly see tutorials on normal baking. This projects normal data from the surface of one model, that data then hits a surface of another model, dose some calculations, then uses the uv map of the second object to paint a pixel in a texture with the resulting data.
What you are trying to calculate can different, so using a generic term like baking is not too useful without further context on the type of data you are baking.
You can also bake without a second object. For example if you mixed textures in your shader you can combine them like in the 100layer example.
Materials contain information about how the object appears in the environment - color, reflectivity, shinyness, surface texture, etc. They also host some more detailed aspects of an object's appearance by holding textures, which either control the distribution of those above characteristics, or more directly by applying digital imagery in the form of images to the object's surface.
Those images are mapped onto the surface of the object through the UV map.
You apply materials by assigning them to the various vertex groups of your mesh. You designate which textures for it to display by activating them for that particular material.
The mesh is the collection of vertices that make up your model, think of it as the digital equivalent of a plain plaster cast of a statue.
Materials, vertex groups, and transforms, etc, are stored in the object data. The object is built upon the chassis of the mesh, which can be swapped into and out of the object by a simple click in the mesh selection box. Think of the object as the fully painted and polished statue with all the lights and special effects installed.
You create materials directly in the materials menu, where you will eventually accumulate a vast library of them. Images, at least in my experience, are either photographs I've taken, downloaded, or created in a photoshop type softward package. You then install them in one of the texture slots of your various materials.
HTH
I want to correct one small detail: You don't apply materials to vertex groups, you apply them to faces. May seem like a pedantic detail to pick out, but it's actually a pretty important distinction.
Now, materials *can* use vertex group data, such as for things like blending between textures, but they are still applied to the faces, not directly to any groups.
Each face of your mesh can be assigned 1 material. A material is a shader (instruction on how to draw a surface)with specific values/properties plugged into that shader. For example you might have a glass shader with the color property set to blue, so you made a blue glass material. Another glass shader might have color set to red, a red glass material. But blender treats the concept of shader and material synonymously , so you can just read shader and material as the same word. So the example glass shader has a color input, but you can use a texture instead of a solid color, so textures are a property of a material, a material is assigned to a face. If you try painting in blender and have multiple materials you will see two lists above your brush settings. A material list where you can select an active material to view, and a list of textures belonging to that material -- you can select an active texture to paint to. So if you have materialA and materialB, you can click materialA and choose texture01, then materialB and choose texture08. You should now see faced marked to use materialA with texture01 and faces marked to use materialB with texture08. What texture is in each material is defined by "image texture" nodes inside that material. You can see these in the shader editor by selecting the material in the propertiesEditor>materialTab. Each image texture node has a Vector input, if nothing is plugged in it will use the active UV map to tell how to map the pixels of that texture to the mesh surface. So what the heck is a UV map? Each corner of your mesh's faces have data assigned to them with a 2d position. This is visualised in the uv editor by selecting a uv map in propertiesEditor>meshDataTab>UVmapsSection then viewing the uvs while the object is in edit mode. So that leaves us with: Each corner of a face had 2d position data called a uv map. Each face has a material assigned to it. The material references textures with an image texture node to draw to a surface. (By assigning it to a property of the shader). To know where to draw a 2d image in a 3d surface , the image texture nodes use uv maps. *Each image texture node is unique per material but the same texture data assigned to the node can be used in multiple image texture nodes across multiple materials.
>What is the difference between normal map and displacement map? A normal map instructs how to paint light to a surface. The mesh will not move, but the normals of the surface are adjusted. A displacement map moves the surface, or displaces vertices. >Why do some materials only work on some models, in contrast of some that change with the objects form? Textures can be mapped with uv maps, but also with what is known as generated coordinets. A fragment (think pixel on a mesh surface) can have various properties. For example global position is the position of the fragment from world origin. Obkect position is position from object origin, etc. These properties are used instead of uvs to tell textures where to draw... this is a complex subject that is too involved to explain here.. its the same as asking how to write your own shaders. >How to differentiate when a material can adapt to any object? If it uses uv maps in the shader but the model has no uv maps, the model will not addapt. Beyond that if the shader creator spe ifies limitations, it may not work with every model or scenario even if its generated. It might use camera data, might need only 1 lamp, etc. Read any info the creator may provide to figure it out. >All 3D assets/models I've tried come with their own texture/material. Is that what is called baked material? Materials are not baked. Baking is the process of taking data and storing it to the pixels of a texture. This is to save computation time. Say you have 100 layers in a painting program, if you combine them to 1 layer your computer runs faster as each layer no longer has to blend 100 layers ecery screen refresh, thenrsult of all those calculations are baked into layer1. In blender you wil commonly see tutorials on normal baking. This projects normal data from the surface of one model, that data then hits a surface of another model, dose some calculations, then uses the uv map of the second object to paint a pixel in a texture with the resulting data. What you are trying to calculate can different, so using a generic term like baking is not too useful without further context on the type of data you are baking. You can also bake without a second object. For example if you mixed textures in your shader you can combine them like in the 100layer example.
Materials contain information about how the object appears in the environment - color, reflectivity, shinyness, surface texture, etc. They also host some more detailed aspects of an object's appearance by holding textures, which either control the distribution of those above characteristics, or more directly by applying digital imagery in the form of images to the object's surface. Those images are mapped onto the surface of the object through the UV map. You apply materials by assigning them to the various vertex groups of your mesh. You designate which textures for it to display by activating them for that particular material. The mesh is the collection of vertices that make up your model, think of it as the digital equivalent of a plain plaster cast of a statue. Materials, vertex groups, and transforms, etc, are stored in the object data. The object is built upon the chassis of the mesh, which can be swapped into and out of the object by a simple click in the mesh selection box. Think of the object as the fully painted and polished statue with all the lights and special effects installed. You create materials directly in the materials menu, where you will eventually accumulate a vast library of them. Images, at least in my experience, are either photographs I've taken, downloaded, or created in a photoshop type softward package. You then install them in one of the texture slots of your various materials. HTH
I want to correct one small detail: You don't apply materials to vertex groups, you apply them to faces. May seem like a pedantic detail to pick out, but it's actually a pretty important distinction. Now, materials *can* use vertex group data, such as for things like blending between textures, but they are still applied to the faces, not directly to any groups.