Fabric

Construction

Lay a fabric finish (velvet, chenille, silk, suede or cotton) over your finished material, and set how strong it is and how glossy your raised parts stay.

Current release: Matelume 2.0 · 30 October 2026

A construction is a finish layered over your finished material: the pile of a velvet, the soft yarn of a chenille, the sheen of a silk, the nap of a suede, the weave of a cotton. It adds to what you made in the steps before and never changes them: your design, its relief and its stitches stay underneath. The step is optional. Your material keeps your material exactly as you prepared it, with nothing on top. It is not offered when the cloth relies on a construction (Ground): pick one of the fabrics to continue.

The first time you open the step, the Studio builds the real maps of your material ("Building the real maps..."). The construction is then laid on top of them.

Using the step

Under Which construction, pick a family card: Velvet, Chenille, Silk, Suede or Cotton. Each card says how many kinds it offers.
Under the next heading, named after the family (for example Which velvet), pick a kind. The note under the cards describes it and says where its gloss comes from.
Under How much velvet (again named after the family), set Strength, from 0 to 100 %. It starts at 100 %. At 0 % the construction has no effect.
Under Your raised parts, set Glossier than the cloth (see below).
Leave Show the glow (optional glow maps) on, or switch it off (see below).
Press and hold Hold to see it without velvet (named after your family) to compare. While you hold it, the 3D view shows your material without the construction; let go to see it again. The button works once the comparison is ready.

Glossier than the cloth

Your raised parts stay glossier than the cloth around them, as stitched thread is on a real fabric. Glossier than the cloth (0 to 95 %) sets by how much. It starts at your material's own value, marked "(as built)", and the hint under it tells you that value. Higher makes your raised parts shinier than the cloth; the construction keeps that difference over its own gloss.

Some kinds give your design a finish of their own. For those kinds the slider does not appear.

The glow

Pile and nap catch the light at grazing angles: velvet, chenille and suede add a soft glow, and silk a shine along the weave. Show the glow (optional glow maps) shows it in the 3D view and adds it to your export as optional maps, saved in the export's extras folder. The note under the switch says what your family ships: Blender, V-Ray and Corona can use these maps, and the standard maps work everywhere without them. With the glow off, the 3D view shows the material the way a program without a sheen slot will.

What it changes

Relief: the construction adds its own relief, such as pile or ribs. Your raised parts keep their relief underneath.
Gloss: the construction's gloss comes from a real scan. Your raised parts stay glossier than the cloth, by the amount you set.
Glow: a soft glow or shine, as described above, when the glow is on.
Colour: your colours keep their hue. They only get a little lighter or darker in places, so a red stays red.

The Picture pills let you check this:

What it changes: bright or coloured areas are the ones the construction changed. Its label tells you whether your colours' hue is kept and how much the brightness changed. Click the picture to see it bigger.
The maps: the maps with the construction on, captioned Colour (your hue, shaded), Normal, Roughness (real scan), and the glow map (or the height map when there is no glow).

Everything in this step goes into your export at the strength you set, and your choice of construction also decides which extra imperfections the next step offers.

Gloss in the 3D view

Each construction sits at its fabric's gloss level: silk is much glossier than cotton. While you move the view, it can hide part of the gloss difference on bumpy areas; stop moving and the refined view shows your maps' real gloss. Your exported maps carry it in full.

Tip: Velvet, chenille and suede show themselves in side light. Turn the object, or use Light to turn the lights, and watch the edges.