ForMaterials · v0.1.0
ForMatter's downloadable PBR materials library.

WHAT THIS IS
A self-contained bundle of 217 physically-based materials, each with
a sphere-finish recipe, citations, and exports in industry-neutral formats.
Drop into Blender or Rhino on macOS via the install scripts. Or import the
.mtlx files directly into Houdini, Karma, Renderman, V-Ray, Octane, Maya.

Same source data that drives the in-app spheres at renato.design/formatter.
The recipes for gemstones (Beer-Lambert absorption), metals (spectral tint
+ anisotropy), woods (procedural grain albedo), and auto-paint (metallic
flake) are physically-grounded — IOR per gem species from GIA, metal F0
from Disney's Principled BRDF table, etc. Citations live in each material's
.json record.

WHAT'S IN THE BUNDLE
  /manifest.json              every material indexed
  /README.txt                 this file
  /LICENSE                    MIT (code) + CC BY-NC 4.0 (material data)
  /materials/<id>.json        ForMatter's PBR record per entry
  /materials/<id>.mtlx        MaterialX 1.38 (standard_surface)
  /install/install_blender.py drop materials into Blender
  /install/install_rhino.py   drop materials into Rhino
  /install/install.sh         host detector — runs the right one(s)

INSTALL — BLENDER (macOS)
  1. Unzip somewhere stable (e.g. ~/ForMaterials/).
  2. Open Blender.
  3. Text Editor → Open → install/install_blender.py.
  4. Click Run Script. Blender saves the bundle to its user asset library.
  5. Asset Browser → ForMaterials catalog appears. Drag onto an object.

INSTALL — RHINO 8 (macOS)
  1. Unzip somewhere stable.
  2. Open Rhino 8.
  3. Tools → Python Scripts → Run Script... → install/install_rhino.py.
  4. Materials land in the active document's render-material library.
  5. Save your template if you want them permanent.

INSTALL — ANY MATERIALX RENDERER
  The .mtlx files are spec-correct against MaterialX 1.38 standard_surface.
  Houdini, Karma, Renderman, V-Ray, Octane, Maya, USD-aware tools — all
  ingest directly. See materials/<id>.mtlx.

LICENSE
  Install scripts + build pipeline: MIT.
  Material PBR data + citations + sphere palettes: CC BY-NC 4.0.
  When using a ForMaterial in a published render, animation, paper, or
  product photo, please credit "ForMatter (renato.design/formatter)."

VERSIONING
  This is v0.1.0. ForMatter is young — recipes are tuned for gem,
  metal, wood, auto-paint families today; other families still use the
  base PBR scalars. Recipes are added per release.

Phil Renato + Claude · renato.design · 2026-04-30
