Three.js Materials

Use this skill for mesh surface semantics and cost. Route image maps/UVs/HDR assets to threejs-textures, lighting and shadow setup to threejs-lighting, and custom GLSL to threejs-shaders.

When to use this skill

• Select a material type that matches unlit, classic-lighting, PBR, stylized, or custom work
• Configure base color, metalness, roughness, normal/AO/emissive maps, and environment response
• Fix transparency sorting, invisible backsides, unexpectedly shared edits, or material leaks
• Reduce material variants, shader complexity, or draw-call fragmentation after profiling

Instructions

Step 1: Choose the simplest material that expresses the intent

Start with MeshStandardMaterial for normal PBR work, then add physical features only when their visual benefit justifies the shader cost and renderer support.

Step 2: Set PBR inputs coherently

const material = new THREE.MeshStandardMaterial({
  color: 0x9ca3af,
  metalness: 0.65,
  roughness: 0.28,
  map: baseColorTexture,
  normalMap,
  roughnessMap,
  metalnessMap,
  envMapIntensity: 1,
});

Base-color textures need the correct color-space configuration; data maps such as normal, roughness, metalness, and AO do not use the same display color treatment. See threejs-textures for map loading and UV-channel requirements. Evaluate material values under representative lights and an environment map, not in an unlit empty scene.

Step 3: Handle transparency explicitly

Use transparent: true only when alpha blending is necessary. Set depthWrite, side, alphaTest, and renderOrder based on a diagnosed visual requirement; broad render-order overrides can hide an underlying sort problem. Prefer alpha test for hard-cut foliage/decals when it satisfies the desired appearance.

Step 4: Respect material ownership

Materials are commonly shared. A mutation to mesh.material.color changes every consumer of that material. Clone before per-object changes, keep the clone's lifecycle explicit, and call dispose() when its final consumer leaves.

const uniqueMaterial = sharedMaterial.clone();
mesh.material = uniqueMaterial;
uniqueMaterial.color.set("#3b82f6");

Step 5: Verify look and cost

• Test direct light, environment response, shadows, and a neutral background.
• Test transparent objects overlapping one another and opaque geometry.
• Inspect whether a change creates many distinct material/program variants.
• Test cleanup for replaced or cloned materials and their owned maps.

Examples

Metal product surface

Use MeshStandardMaterial, a calibrated base color, metallic/roughness maps, and an HDR environment. A metallic object with no environment has little to reflect; adding arbitrary point lights is not a substitute for the missing IBL signal.

Per-object highlight

Clone a shared material only if the highlight cannot be represented through a uniform, instance attribute, outline pass, or other non-duplicating mechanism. Restore/dispose it when selection changes.

Best practices

1. Match material choice to the rendering intent before adjusting many parameters.
2. Keep texture color-space and UV-channel rules correct; a wrong map interpretation is not fixable with roughness guesses.
3. Minimize material variants in repeated geometry.
4. Measure expensive physical/transmission features on target devices.
5. Dispose clones and their feature-owned textures, but never dispose shared assets early.

References

• Three.js Materials source coverage
• Materials documentation
• Three.js manual: materials