Shader Editor

The Shader Editor is used to edit materials which are used for rendering. Materials used by Cycles and EEVEE are defined using a node tree. Therefore, the main window of the Shader editor is a node editor.

Shader Editor with the default material node tree.

A list of all shader nodes is available in the rendering section.

Header

Shader Type

The type of data whose shader nodes are being edited:

Object:

Edit shader nodes for the active object’s Material.

World:

Edit shader nodes for the World background.

Line Style:

Edit shader nodes for Freestyle Line Styles

Use Nodes Line Style

Use shader nodes to define the texture for the freestyle line style.

Slot

The Slot menu can be used to select the active material slot on the active object. The material selector to the right of it can change the material that is in the selected slot.

/ Pinned

Keeps the current material selection visible in the Shader editor even when another object or material is selected elsewhere.

Sidebar

Options

The Options panel in the Sidebar region contains the same settings that are also available in the Material tab in the Properties. They differ depending on the selected render engine. The settings are duplicated to make it possible to edit the entire material from the Shader editor.