Layer Type · Reference
Reference Layer
Reuse one layer’s pattern as the source for others — each with its own blend, opacity, mask and channel routing. It’s how you build a reusable smart material in Blender, with no baking.
One chip mask, referenced into base colour, roughness and bump at once.
What it does
A reference layer doesn’t generate its own pattern — it borrows another layer’s. The shape is shared, but the reference keeps its own blend mode, opacity, mask and PBR routing, so the same source can behave differently in each place it’s used.
Build a wear/chip mask once, then reference it to expose bare metal on Metallic, raise Roughness and add relief on Bump. Edit the source later and every layer that references it updates live — the “smart material” idea, without a bake step.
Why it matters
One source, many channels — edited in one place.
Reuse, don’t copy
Point at any layer and share its shape — no duplicated patterns to keep in sync.
Independent behaviour
Each reference has its own blend, opacity and mask.
Any channel
One driver can feed colour, metallic, roughness and bump separately.
Edit once
Change the source and everything referencing it follows, live.
In practice
One wear mask drives a worn-paint look.
- Driver a Voronoi / edge-wear layer = the chip mask.
- → Metallic reference it to expose bare metal on the chips.
- → Roughness + Bump reference it again for fresh, raised metal.
- Live — no baking, no texture round-trips.
- Acyclic — a reference can’t point at another reference.
- Raw or composed — borrow just the source’s raw pattern, or its full composited result.