How to Add Emission Color to a Material in Blender

Adding an emission color to a material in Blender allows an object to emit light, making it glow or act as a light source within your 3D scene. This effect can be achieved quickly through the Material Properties tab using the default Principled BSDF shader, or through the Shader Node editor for more complex visual setups. This guide covers the step-by-step process for making any object glow in both EEVEE and Cycles render engines.

Method 1: Using the Material Properties Panel

This is the fastest method to add emission to an object without opening the Shader Editor.

  1. Select your object in the 3D Viewport.
  2. Go to the Material Properties tab on the right sidebar (the red sphere icon).
  3. Click New to create a new material, or select an existing material from the dropdown menu.
  4. Ensure the Surface type is set to Principled BSDF.
  5. Scroll down to the Emission section within the material settings.
  6. Click on Emission Color (or Emission in older versions) and select your desired glow color.
  7. Increase the Emission Strength slider above 1.0 to increase the intensity of the light glow.

Method 2: Using the Shader Editor (Nodes)

The Shader Editor gives you finer control over emission materials, allowing you to combine glowing effects with textures or procedural noise.

  1. Switch to the Shading workspace at the top of the Blender window.
  2. Select your object to display its node tree in the Shader Editor.
  3. Press Shift + A, go to Shader, and select Emission.
  4. Disconnect the default Principled BSDF node from the Material Output node.
  5. Connect the Emission output socket to the Surface input socket of the Material Output node.
  6. Click the color field on the Emission node to pick a light color.
  7. Set the Strength value to control how bright the light emits.

Rendering the Glow Effect

The visibility of the emitted light depends on your active rendering engine:

  • Cycles: Emission materials automatically cast real light onto surrounding objects without additional setup.
  • EEVEE: To see the glow visually spread in EEVEE, go to the Render Properties tab (camera icon) and check the box for Bloom (in Blender 4.1 and earlier) or enable Raytracing settings for light bouncing (in Blender 4.2+).