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I saw a video where the person copied a material from one object to another (Cycles).

How can I accomplish this?

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3 Answers 3

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Select all target objects and also the source object (the source object needs to be active, so either select it last or select it again after you selected all target objects).

Go to the Material tab, select a material slot and click the specials menu button.

Click Copy Material to Others to copy.

Copy Material to Others

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  • $\begingroup$ @CoDEmanX I used your suggestion & it worked but... How do I select an object if I've got all selected? becuase if I right click it, it unsellects all others. I've used Shit + right, but in the video I saw, he uses just right. Besides, why Copy Material to othe doesnt appear when I press space bar in 3D view (in the video it appears). Maybe it's the version (I'm using 2.72 & the video 2.65). Thanks. $\endgroup$ Oct 12, 2014 at 15:10
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    $\begingroup$ @CoDEmanX: "... and click the specials menu button." Please can you explain a little bit better how to access the special menu for textures because I can't find anywhere. Thank you. $\endgroup$
    – user15824
    Jul 22, 2015 at 7:20
  • $\begingroup$ It's Shift + RMB in vanilla Blender, either once or twice (selected object but not active > selected and active > unselected > selected and active > ...). Copy Material to Others does not appear in spacebar menu, because it is flagged internal, see operator definition. $\endgroup$
    – CodeManX
    Jul 22, 2015 at 11:29
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    $\begingroup$ To access the menu shown in the image, on the far right side of the materials list, click the "down arrow" underneath the + and - symbols. $\endgroup$ Sep 21, 2018 at 4:49
  • $\begingroup$ Where is this option in Blender 3.x? $\endgroup$ Sep 18, 2023 at 3:25
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You can also do this by pressing CtrlL> Materials with the target objects selected and the object with the source materials active. You can select multiple objects at once with ShiftRMB.

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  • $\begingroup$ That is the way to copy (actually link) lots of materials or modifiers to other objects at once. $\endgroup$
    – mlt
    Jan 11 at 21:19
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Actually this is all wrong. So wrong on so many different places because blender tuts obviously don't know the meaning of the word copy^^. A copy is a copy and not a reference!

You are creating references (at least it does that in my version 2.79). if i change a material of one object, the other objects are changing too. This is not quite what I want and what your title actually says ;)

I just looked further and can tell anyone who wants to actually copy it how it's done.

You actually follow above steps. So:

  • Shift-RightClick all objects you want to have the same material too
  • You Shift-RighClick the object that has the material already last
  • In the Material Tab you do as above and click on this special button (below the plus and minus buttons right side of material name)
  • Now all have the same appearance.
  • Select an object you might want the material to be slightly different
  • Now there's the name of the material twice. One time in the list and a second in an "input" field. Next to that input field is a button labeled "2" and another one with "F". Next to that is another "+" button. If you push that one it makes a copy of the reference and you can edit this material without having any impact on the other objects mats ;)

Hope I wrote it as clearly as possible =)

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    $\begingroup$ Nothing is wrong with answers, this is more about word usage. There isn't term "reference" for material in Blender in this context but result of Copy Material To Others is like linking materials generally. Unlinking is very well documented here blender.stackexchange.com/questions/23386/… $\endgroup$
    – Mr Zak
    Jun 28, 2018 at 23:18

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