Documentation
🪄 Invert Blend — Flip the blend direction on any object for complete control and creative flexibility.
🎨 Vertex Group Mask : Precisely paint exactly where blending happens, giving full control over your effect.
🧭 Normal Direction Filter : Restrict blending to surfaces facing a specific direction, ideal for snow, moss, dirt, and more.
🪨Displacement Blending : Seamlessly blend displacement between two materials for smooth, realistic surface transitions.
🐛 Banding Artifacts Fixed: Sharp stripes are gone; blends now transition smoothly across any geometry.
🎛️ Custom Blend Style : Fully accessible with dedicated controls for amplitude, threshold, and radius, giving you ultimate precision.
✨ Advanced material blending system with dynamic proximity-based effects for Blender 4.0+
Created by Egret
It’s a non-destructive and real-time solution for environment artists, procedural designers, and shader developers — helping you achieve natural, adaptive material blending with minimal setup.
🔄 Dynamic Proximity Blending: Materials blend automatically based on distance
🎨 Multiple Blend Styles: None, Noise, and Height-based blending options
⚡ Real-time Preview: Instantly visualize blend changes in the viewport
🧱 Non-destructive Workflow: Add, remove, or reconfigure blends anytime
🎚️ Distance & Falloff Controls: Fine-tune how far and how smoothly blends occur
🪶 Lightweight: Minimal performance impact, fully optimized
🧠 Smart System: Automatically manages modifiers and nodes behind the scenes.
🖱️ Select your target objects (these receive the blend)
🔹 Shift-select the source object (this provides the blend material – must be the active object)
⚙️ In the PermaBlend panel (N-Panel sidebar), click “Create a Permablend”
🎚️ Adjust Blend Distance and Falloff for desired softness
🎨 Choose a Blend Style (None, Noise, or Height)
That’s it! The selected objects will now blend their materials dynamically based on proximity.
Download permablend.zip
Open Blender → Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions
Click the dropdown ⌄ → Install from Disk
Select permablend.zip
Enable the addon
Press N in the 3D Viewport → Go to the Permablend tab.
Main operator that generates a proximity-based blend between selected objects.
Requirements:
At least two objects selected
Each object must have an existing material
The active object (last selected) becomes the source material
Apply 🧱 : Makes the blend permanent, removing temporary modifiers
Remove ❌ : Deletes all Permablend data and restores original materials
Controls how far the effect extends from the source.
Higher = smoother, wider blending
Lower = tighter, more localized blend
Fine-tune transition softness and scale per object for detailed control.
Select how the blend behaves:
None: Smooth gradient transition
Noise: Adds procedural breakup for natural variation
Height: Uses geometry height to drive blend
Show/Hide Blend Mask – Toggle visibility of blend influence
Color Ramp View – Visualize the gradient strength
Levels Preview – Check intensity and smoothness.
Permablend uses Blender’s modifier and data transfer systems to create non-destructive blends:
🧩 Proximity-Blend Modifier: Computes vertex weights based on object distance
🎨 Vertex-Color Transfer: Applies blend data as vertex colors
🧭 Normal & UV Handling: Ensures consistent shading and texture mapping
⚙️ Shader Integration: Connects directly to material nodes for smooth transitions
All these operations are handled automatically — no manual node setup required.
💨 Real-time feedback with minimal lag
🧠 Smart modifier stacking: optimized order and updates
🪶 Lightweight system, designed for large environments
🔒 Apply blends when satisfied to “bake” results and boost performance
Blender 4.0 or higher
Objects must have valid materials
Works with Eevee and Cycles
Mesh objects only (no curves or volumes)
❓ Blend not appearing?
Ensure both objects have materials
Check that the source object is active (last selected)
Try increasing the Blend Distance
⚠️ Modifiers not behaving?
Do not manually edit Permablend modifiers
Use the Remove button and recreate if needed
🐢 Performance issues?
Collapse modifier panels
Apply blends once finalized
Avoid excessive high-poly objects.
Invert Blend: Flip the blend direction on any target object, starting from the far edge instead of the contact point.
Vertex Group Mask: Precisely control where blending occurs using a vertex group; only painted areas will be affected.
Normal Direction Filter: Limit blending to surfaces facing a specific direction, perfect for top-down effects like snow or moss; threshold and softness are fully adjustable.
Displacement Blending: Seamlessly blend displacement outputs when both materials use displacement for realistic physical transitions.
Volume Passthrough: Materials with volume shaders now retain their volume through the blend correctly.
Bake to Textures : Export your finished blend to texture maps (Diffuse, Normal, Roughness, Metallic, AO, Emission) in one click; set resolution and output folder for game engine or other workflow use.
Custom Blend Style : Fully accessible with Amplitude, Threshold, and Radius controls for total creative freedom.
Custom Blend Style: Fully accessible with Amplitude, Threshold, and Radius controls for total creative freedom.
Banding Artifacts Fixed: Sharp concentric stripe patterns on blended objects are gone; transitions are now smooth regardless of geometry density.
Context-sensitive panel: only displays controls relevant to your selected object.
Setup options are visible before creating a blend; blend controls appear afterward for streamlined workflow.
Blend Mode (Simple / Advanced) is now integrated into the Blend Style section.
New Blend Mask section consolidates Invert Blend, Normal Direction Filter, and Vertex Group Mask in one place.
Apply and Remove buttons appear only when a blended object is selected
PermaBlend v1.0
© 2026 Egret Studios LLC
Licensed under GPL v3.0