Unity 3d - ProBuilder Series - The "Material Editor" with quick keys to add materials fast

In this part of the Unity ProBuilder tutorial series, I'll show how to use the "Material Editor" tool in the ProBuilder interface. The material editor quickly allows you to add predefined materials to your shapes! Also check out How to Make a Bounce Game Series https://bit.ly/39HIYBU. Contents: 0

Continuing the ProBuilder series, this tutorial covers the Material Editor — the tool that lets you assign materials to individual faces of a mesh without leaving Unity or setting up submeshes by hand. It's also a good excuse to practice a few modeling operations along the way.

Step 1 — Build something to texture Create a ProBuilder cube and zero its position to 0, 0, 0. Switch to the Face tool, select one face, and drag it out to stretch the shape. Do the same on another side. The cube is now larger but still has only six faces, which keeps it easy to work with.

Step 2 — Add an edge loop A plain box is a dull test subject. Switch to the Edge tool, select one of the edges, then use Insert Edge Loop from the ProBuilder toolbar. This adds a new ring of geometry around the shape, giving you a horizontal division you can manipulate independently. Move that loop down toward the base.

Step 3 — Taper the bottom Switch back to Face selection and select the bottom face. Using the Scale tool, grab the center gray box so the scale applies uniformly on all axes, and scale the face inward. The result tapers toward the base — a shape that reads roughly like a small island. Simple, but it now has distinct top, side, and bottom faces to assign different materials to.

Step 4 — Open the Material Editor Click Material Editor in the ProBuilder window. The panel holds a set of material slots. To populate them, drag materials from your project folder directly into the slots, or click the small dot next to each slot to open the material picker and choose from everything available in the project. The first slot defaults to a lit material.

Step 5 — Dock the panel Drag the Material Editor into the editor layout and dock it somewhere convenient, then expand it. This isn't cosmetic — you'll be selecting faces in the scene and clicking materials repeatedly, and a floating window that keeps stealing focus makes that tedious.

Step 6 — Assign materials per face Select a face in the scene, then click a material's Apply button in the editor. That material is applied to just that face. Select the side faces and assign brick; select the top and assign grass; assign whatever you like to the bottom. The shape now carries several materials on a single mesh.

Step 7 — Use the quick commands The Material Editor slots are numbered and mapped to keyboard shortcuts — Alt+4, Alt+5, and so on. Once you know which material occupies which slot, you can assign materials by selecting a face and hitting the shortcut, with the panel closed entirely. For texturing a large level this is dramatically faster than clicking through a window for every face.

Step 8 — Apply to a whole object Selection level determines scope. If you select the entire game object rather than individual faces and then apply a material, it goes on every face at once. Selecting faces first restricts the assignment to those faces. That single rule covers both the "make this whole prop stone" case and the "just this one panel is metal" case.

Between per-face assignment and the keyboard shortcuts, the Material Editor turns texturing blockout geometry into something you can do at speed while the level is still taking shape.