color. The grey and blue represent numeric values and height

information, respectively.

Regarding material previews, you can view how the material looks in two

locations:

1. At the Material tab, you will see a Preview field that will display the

materials in a geometrical primitive.

2. You can also use the 3D Viewport by choosing either the

Rendered or Material Preview shading mode. Press the Z key and

choose Rendered. For real-time previews, make sure you are

using Eevee for rendering. That is the default renderer for Blender.

Even if you swap for Cycles later, you can use Eevee for fast

material previews.

The Material tab shows all the important options in a vertical list of

settings. However, you can also use the Shader Editor for much better

flexibility in material creation.

5.2.1 The Shader Editor

The Material tab gives us many options to craft and design materials for

any 3D object, but when it is time to create complex surfaces and mix

multiple options, we need something more advanced. One of the only

ways to get that flexibility is with the Shader Editor.

That is a special type of Editor in Blender that displays data in a

workflow style using Nodes for data like Shaders. A Node is a small box

that collects information about a function, effect, shader, etc. With the

Shader Editor, you have options to edit not only materials but also your

environment and even post-processing effects for rendering.