Metallic vs. specular workflow

When you create a material with the Standard shaderA built-in shader for rendering real-world objects such as stone, wood, glass, plastic and metal. Supports a wide range of shader types and combinations. More info
See in Glossary you have the choice of using one of two shadersA small script that contains the mathematical calculations and algorithms for calculating the Color of each pixel rendered, based on the lighting input and the Material configuration. More info
See in Glossary: Standard or Standard (Specular setup). They differ in the data they take as follows:

Standard: The shader exposes a “metallic” value that states whether the material is metallic or not. In the case of a metallic material, the Albedo color controls the color of the specular reflection and most light reflects as specular reflections. Non-metallic materials have specular reflections that are the same color as the incoming light and barely reflect when looking at the surface face-on.

Standard (Specular setup): Choose this shader for the classic approach. Use a specular colorThe color of a specular highlight.
See in Glossary to control the color and strength of specular reflections in the material. This makes it possible to have a specular reflection of a different color than the diffuse reflection.

You can achieve a good representation of most common material types using either method, so for the most part choosing one or the other is a matter of personal preference to suit your art workflow. The following example shows a rubbery plastic material created in both Standard and Standard Specular workflows:

The first image represents the metallic workflow, where you set the metallic to zero (non-metallic). The second setup is nearly identical but you set the specular to nearly black (so you don’t get metallic mirror-like reflections).

In the world of Physically Based ShadingAn advanced lighting model that simulates the interactions between materials and light in a way that mimics reality. More info
See in Glossary you can use references from known real-world materials. For some examples of these references, see our Material Charts.