Glass is one of the most satisfying materials to make in Blender, and one that trips up beginners because it depends on your render engine. Get the two key settings and the right engine, and you will have convincing glass in under a minute.
Step 1: Use Cycles
Glass works by letting light pass through and bend (refract). The Cycles render engine simulates this properly, while Eevee only approximates it.
In Render Properties, set the Render Engine to Cycles, and switch your viewport to Rendered shading so you can see the result.
Step 2: Set up the material
- Select your object and add a material (Material Properties > New).
- On the Principled BSDF, set Transmission to 1. This lets light pass through the surface.
- Set Roughness to 0 for perfectly clear glass.
That is genuinely all it takes for clear glass in Cycles. Base Color tints the glass if you want colored glass.
Frosted or colored glass
- Frosted glass: raise Roughness to around 0.1 to 0.3. This scatters the light for a soft, translucent look.
- Colored glass: change the Base Color to a light tint. Keep it pale, since strong colors darken glass quickly.
Making it look real
- Real glass has thickness. A single flat plane looks fake. Model glass as a solid object, or add a Solidify modifier to give a thin panel real walls.
- Glass looks best with something to reflect and refract, so pair it with good lighting or an HDRI environment.
Eevee note
If you must use Eevee, enable Screen Space Refraction in Render Properties, then tick Raytrace Refraction on the material’s settings. Cycles is still the simpler, better route for glass.
Keep going
Materials like glass are part of look development. Our Blender Texturing and Animation course goes deep on materials and shading, and you can start with the free Blender course.