Texturing & materials · Beginner

Material slots

Numbered places on an object where materials plug in, so one object can use several

Also called Material slot

What are material slots?

Material slots are numbered places on an object where materials plug in, so one object can wear several materials at once. Each face is assigned to one slot. In Blender, the slot list sits at the top of the Material Properties tab, and the Assign button in Edit Mode sends selected faces to the chosen slot.

Think of it like this

Like the wells of a paint palette: each holds one color, and you decide which areas of the picture take paint from which well.

Where it fits in a 3D project

  1. Create
  2. Surface
  3. Rig
  4. Animate
  5. Render
  6. Export

Surface: Giving the shape its color and material: UVs, textures and shaders.

How material slots work

  1. 01Open Material Properties and press + to add a slot.
  2. 02Pick an existing material for the slot, or press New to make one.
  3. 03In Edit Mode, select faces, choose the slot, and click Assign.
  4. 04Faces remember their slot, so swapping the slot’s material updates them all.

Material slots vs materials

PropertyMaterial slotsMaterials
What it isA numbered place on the objectThe surface recipe itself
Belongs toOne object or meshThe file, shared by any object
Faces point toA slot numberNothing directly
Swap it andThose faces change look at onceEvery object using it updates

Slots decide which faces get which material; the material decides how those faces look, and one material can sit in slots on many objects.

Where material slots are used

  • Giving a car body, glass and tires different materials in one object
  • Switching every face of one material to another in a single click
  • Exporting models with several materials to game engines

Beginner tip

Name your materials before export. Many tools read material slots by name, and a slot called Material.003 tells nobody what it should look like.

Terms related to material slots

Material slots FAQ

Where are material slots in Blender?
In the Properties editor, open the Material Properties tab, the red sphere icon. The list at the top is the object’s material slots, with + and − buttons beside it to add and remove them.
How do I assign different materials to faces?
Add a slot for each material. Then in Edit Mode, select the faces, click the slot you want and press Assign. The Select and Deselect buttons beside it show which faces use each slot.
Can you have multiple materials on one object?
Yes. Add as many material slots as you need and assign faces to each. A face uses one slot at a time, so blending two materials on the same face is done inside the shader instead.
Why does changing a material change other objects too?
Because those objects use the same material in their slots, so one edit reaches all of them. Click the number beside the material name to make a single-user copy you can change on its own.

Updated October 29, 2026 · Browse all 3D terms