Introducing Patina
Our first material — procedural painted metal with rust you can dial in — and how we test it.
Patina is the first thing we’re shipping: a procedural painted-metal material for Blender with five controls — paint color, roughness, rust amount, texture scale and surface detail. No image textures, so it holds up at any scale.
Why painted metal
Worn paint is one of those surfaces that instantly makes a render feel lived-in, and one of the most tedious to fake by hand. Patina lets you slide from a fresh coat to something that’s been left outside for years, on any mesh, in a few seconds.
How we test it
Every render on the product page is a real Cycles render of the material — not a mockup. Before a release we check that the add-on registers cleanly, that each control does what it says, that the material survives save and reopen, and that it doesn’t leak onto linked duplicates. That last one was a real bug we caught and fixed before 0.1.0.
What’s next
Patina remains free. Version 0.1.1 now has desktop installation, sidebar controls, undo/redo and save/reopen evidence for Blender 4.5.13 on Linux. Other operating systems, Blender versions and Eevee remain unverified. The installation guide covers first use; support accepts private bug reports.