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What it does: Combines two shaders together.

Use it for: Almost everything. It mixing the properties of two

shaders together, which is important in the real world.

In the real world, almost no material in existence possesses

the qualities of just one shader. It's a mix of different
properties.

For example, a ceramic coffee mug has diffuse shading for

sure, but it's also shiny, so there's a glossy shader in there
too.

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Your wooden desk could be broken down similarly - the

wood itself is mostly diffuse, but also contains a rough
glossy reflection of it's own.

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Even a piece of thick glass isn't just reflective and

transparent - it's also slightly foggy inside (volume
absorption).

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What it does: Combines shaders together + adds their

lightness values together (effectively breaking the laws of
physics).

Use it for: Special materials that need to combine two light

values and aren't meant to be photorealistic.

In the real world, the amount of light that bounces off a

surface cannot be greater than the amount of light that hit it
in the first place. But the Add Shader will allow you to do
that.

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If we add a Diffuse and Glossy shader together, we would

have double the amount of energy that we started with,
which is physically impossible, but useful for some materials
like if you wanted to combine red, green, and blue glass
shaders to create a dispersion effect.

left: Add Shader combining Diffuse and Glossy (don’t do

this, energy is not conserved); right: Mix Shader, physically
correct (do this)

So if this Add Shader is so evil, why does it even exist?

Well, it's not that evil, it's just a misunderstood villain :)

It can be used in some places, but only where you know

that you're supposed to (or if you intentionally want to break
the rules for artistic freedom).

Some places where you should use the Add Shader:

To colour your Volume Scatter by adding a Volume

Absorption of the same colour.

For two shaders that are emitting light, like the Emission
and Background Shaders.

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Where you know for sure that energy is being conserved -

e.g. adding red, green and blue glass shaders to create
dispersion.

Well that's it folks! I hope you have a clearer understanding

of what Cycles Shaders do now.

Got a suggestion for how this post could be improved? Let

us know in the comments below!

PS. Blender Guru is looking for new authors! Click here to

apply.

PPS: If you're looking for a crazy in-depth book that covers

absolutely everything to do with Cycles, check out
BlenderDiplom's Cycles Encyclopedia.

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