Do you need an easy way to make a procedural rusted metal material for your project?

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make a procedural rusted metal material using the shader nodes in Blender for your project.

Base Texture

Make sure you have the Node Wrangler add-on activated in the Edit menu under Preferences

In the Shading Workspace, I add a new material and name it

Using SHIFT + A, I add a Bump node and connect it to the Normal of the Principled Shader

I use SHIFT + A to add a Noise Texture node

I connect the Color output to the Height input of the Bump node

I can now change the strength of the Bump node [0.3]

I also change the Scale and Detail of the Noise Texture [3, 12]

I select the Noise Texture and use CTRL + T to add a Mapping and Texture Coordinate node

I change the Texture Coordinate output from Generated to Object – this will mean that the texture won’t be dependent upon the UVs of the object

I use SHIFT + A and add a Color Ramp between the Noise Texture and Bump – this will be used to make some areas of the object smooth

If I move the White Color Stop, I can add some smoothing to the object’s surface [0.495]

I add a second Bump node and connect it to the Normal input of the first Bump node – this will make the smooth areas a bit less smooth

I use SHIFT + D to duplicate the Noise Texture

I connect the Color output to the Height input of the second Bump node

I can now change the Strength of the second Bump Node [0.15]

I now change the Scale and Detail of the second Noise Texture [6, 24]

I select the nodes (except the Principled Shader and Output node)

I use CTRL + J to join them together

I then right-click on the Frame and rename it

Adding Color

I use SHIFT +A to add a second color ramp and change the White Color Stop to a midtone gray [#858585]

I connect the Color output to the Base Color of the Principled Shader

I move the Black Color Stop toward the middle and the White Color Stop a bit to the Left [0.4, 0.75]

I use SHIFT + A and add a third Color Ramp and connect the Color output to the Base Color of the Principled Shader

I connect the Color output of the first Noise Texture to the Factor of the second Color Ramp

I change the Metallic to 1.0

I click on the Plus Icon and add a third Color Stop

I change this new Color Stop to a red [#832912]

I add a fourth Color Stop between the Black Color Stop and Red Color Stop

I change this Color Stop to a midtone orange [#8B310B]

I now move the Color Stops

I connect the Color output of the first Noise Texture to the Factor of the second Color Ramp

I use SHIFT + A and add a Mix Color node

I connect the second Color Ramp to the A input and the third Color Ramp to the B input

I connect the Mix Color node to the Base Color of the Principled Shader and make changes to the Color Ramps

I can change the Blending Mode – I will use Screen

If I change the factor, I can affect which of the Color Ramps has dominance

I select the Color Ramps and the Mix node

I use CTRL + J to join them together

I then right-click on the Frame and rename it