Installation
Install the extension ZIP using Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions → Install from Disk. Select the ZIP without extracting it. Disable or remove older duplicate installations before upgrading. Blender 4.2 or newer is required by the extension manifest; this build has primarily been developed against Blender 5.x.
Where to find it
In the Shader Editor, press N and open the Car Paint sidebar. The panel title includes the installed version. Select the intended mesh and active material slot before building. Categories use native Blender icons.
Build your first material
Choose a Category, then select a Material and click Apply Automotive Preset to load starting values. Click Build / Update Material to create or update the active material. The Paint & Carbon category also contains its original paint-specific controls and finish builder. Auto Update Material can rebuild the active shader when settings change.
Paint & Carbon
The original paint system includes Matte, Metal Flakes, Metallic, Pearlescent, Glossy, Satin, Carbon Fiber and Illustration. Control color, clearcoat, orange peel, flakes, pearls and stylized effects using the paint-specific controls. Metal flake OSL effects require Cycles with OSL enabled; they do not work as OSL in Eevee.
Carbon fiber
Six bundled 4K carbon patterns: 2×2 Twill, Plain Weave, Herringbone, Forged Carbon, Chopped Strand and Hex Weave. Adjust pattern scale and rotation, fiber and resin color, tint, contrast and bump. Textures are bundled with the extension. If a material turns pink, reinstall the complete ZIP and reopen the file to allow carbon-path repair.
Liveries & decals
Load a livery image with alpha or grayscale mask, choose UV or Generated mapping and control opacity, inversion, strength and decal color. Use Original Color preserves the decal image; disable it to recolor. Use an accurate UV map for stripes, logos and race numbers.
Illustration mode
Flat Lighting, Silhouette Lines, Feature Creases, Panel Gaps, Halftones and Rim Highlight provide stylized automotive looks. Adjust line colors, widths, ink strength, halftone dots and spacing. Run Generate / Refresh Analysis when model topology changes and use the debug view to inspect missing feature masks.
Rubber & seals
Tire rubber, racing slicks, weathered tire surfaces and flexible seals. Surface controls adjust color, roughness, grain, texture scale and bump.
Vulcan Black | Tire Rubber · Race Slick Rubber · Weathered Tire Rubber · EPDM Door Seal · Window Gasket Rubber · Flexible Bellows Rubber
Interior & exterior plastics
Soft-touch plastics, dashboard vinyl, injection-molded ABS, satin polymers, grained trim, bumper TPO, wheel arch liners, grille plastics and piano-black trim. Molded-grain presets use different procedural microstructure from soft-touch surfaces.
Soft Touch Interior Plastic · Grained Exterior Trim · Pebbled Dashboard Vinyl · Injection Molded ABS · Satin Interior Polymer · Textured Bumper TPO · Wheel Arch Liner · Satin Grille Plastic · Piano Black Trim
Automotive metals
Polished chrome, brushed and cast aluminum, anodized red aluminum and brake iron. Tune metal tint, roughness and microstructure. Tinted anodized metal is also available separately in Specialty Finishes.
Polished Chrome · Brushed Aluminum · Cast Aluminum · Anodized Red Aluminum · Cast Brake Iron
Glass & Fresnel headlamps
Clear and smoked automotive glass, red taillight lenses and polycarbonate headlamp lenses. Headlamp Fresnel controls include IOR, optional grazing-angle edge tint, tint strength, falloff, clearcoat and coat roughness. Use a closed lens mesh with thickness for realistic refraction.
Automotive Clear Glass · Smoked Automotive Glass · Clear Headlight Lens · Fresnel Headlamp Lens · Smoked Fresnel Headlamp · Aged Polycarbonate Lens · Red Taillight Lens
Headlamps & neon
Emissive LED, halogen and amber lamp elements, plus RGB, cyan and purple neon underglow. Emission shaders make the material luminous; Create / Update Helper Lights adds illumination to surrounding surfaces, especially useful in Eevee. Bloom/glare is a separate compositor effect.
LED Headlamp Emitter · Warm Halogen Headlamp · Amber DRL / Turn Signal · RGB Neon Underglow · Cyan Underglow · Purple Underglow
Specialty finishes
Candy lacquer, four-angle chameleon color shift, prismatic/holographic flakes, tinted anodized metal and aged/oxidized paint. Each finish has dedicated controls. Weathered paint has distinct paint, primer and corrosion layers, chipped boundaries and optional geometry displacement for close-up rendering. True displacement requires a suitable Cycles material setup and sufficiently dense mesh.
Deep Candy Lacquer · Spectral Color Shift · Prismatic Flake · Tinted Anodized Metal · Aged & Oxidized Paint
Interior CMF materials
Leather, microsuede/Alcantara, woven seat fabric and automotive carpet. Use the Surface Color & Pattern section to upload a diffuse image, adjust its mix and repeat and apply it to the selected mesh. The base surface uses the selected color texture; textile fibers can inherit the pattern.
Black Automotive Leather · Charcoal Microsuede · Woven Seat Fabric · Black Automotive Carpet
Custom UV mapping
For interior color textures choose Generated or UV Map, and enter the correct UV layer name. UV mapping follows the source mesh layout. Generated mapping needs no UVs. UV-based fiber color is sampled at strand roots using a limited palette, so fine gradients may be approximated rather than perfectly continuous.
Diffuse-derived bump
Enable Generate Bump from Diffuse to convert color-image luminance into additional surface height variation. Adjust Bump Strength, Bump Distance and Height Contrast. This is an artistic height estimate, not a physically correct normal map. It changes shading but does not change fiber geometry.
Physical textile fibers
Available for carpet, woven fabric and microsuede, not leather. Enable Physical Fibers, then click Build / Refresh Physical Fibers. Controls include Amount, Density, Thickness, Length, Curl, Tip Taper, Taper Profile, Length Variation, Maximum Strands and Random Seed. Generated strands are separate curve objects parented to the source mesh. Rebuild after changing strand settings or source pattern. Very high counts affect viewport and render performance.
Factory & user presets
The Paint & Carbon section includes factory colors such as British Racing Green, Nardo Gray, Frozen Black, Soul Red Pearl, Midnight Purple, Porsche Chalk Satin, Cyan / Purple Pearl and Illustration Yellow. Use the separate User Presets area to save, load and delete custom JSON presets. Back up preset files when moving computers.
Multiple objects & shared materials
The builder targets the selected object’s active material. When two objects share one Blender material datablock, edits to that datablock affect both. Make materials single-user for independent finishes. Fiber generation is tied to the source mesh and should be refreshed after geometry changes.
Troubleshooting
Pink carbon: check the bundled textures and reinstall the complete ZIP. Missing fibers: select the original mesh, not its CPS Fibers child; check Maximum Strands and inspect the generated strand count. Missing UV pattern: verify the UV layer name and image path. OSL flakes missing: use Cycles with OSL enabled. Displacement missing: check Cycles and subdivision. Unexpected shared edits: make the material single-user. Extension won’t activate: remove duplicate installations and check Blender’s System Console.