# Overview

Material Maker mainly consists of a center (project) panel and a few side panels that depend on the project type. Several projects can be open at the same time, and will be shown as tabs in the center panel.

Two types of projects are available:

- Material projects are used to describe PBR materials by connecting nodes in a graph. The main panel of a material project shows a graph editor.

- Painting projects are used to paint on a 3D model. The main panel shows a 3D view where the model can be painted, and a graph editor where brushes can be described.

Additional panels can be shown on both sides of the Project panel. Depending on the project type, a different set of panels will be shown. The following panels will be shown for both Material and Painting projects:

- The Library panel (by default in the top left corner) contains all available nodes that can be used to create materials and brushes. Library items are shown in a tree view.

- The Reference panel can be used to display images and generated textures, and pick colors and gradients

The following panels will be shown only when editing a material project:

- The Hierarchy panel (by default on the right side) shows the hierarchy of node groups of the current material graph.

- The 2D preview panel (by default in the bottom left corner) shows the first texture generated by the currently selected node

- The 3D preview panel (by default in the bottom left corner) shows the current material applied to a sample mesh in a sample environment

- The Histogram panel shows the tones histogram of the texture generated by the currently selected node

The following panels will be shown only when painting a 3D model:

- The Brush panel contains all predefined brushes that can be used to paint the model.

- The Parameters panel can be used to modify the parameters of the current brush.

- The Layers panel can be used to create, remove and modify layers.

The panels on the sides of the user interface can be moved around by dragging their title to their desired location and hidden using the View -> Panels