How to Multiply Two Textures in Blender

Multiplying two textures in Blender allows you to combine details, create complex shaders, layer patterns, or blend grayscale masks seamlessly. This guide covers how to use math-based nodes—specifically the Math node for grayscale values and the Mix Color node for full-color images—to multiply textures in Blender's Shader Editor.

Choosing the Right Node

Blender provides two primary nodes for mathematical operations on textures, depending on whether your images contain color or scalar (grayscale) data:

  • Math Node: Best for single-value, black-and-white data such as roughness maps, metallic maps, bump maps, or procedural noise inputs.
  • Mix Color Node: Best for full RGB color textures (in Blender versions prior to 3.4, this was named MixRGB).

How to Multiply Grayscale Textures with the Math Node

To combine two black-and-white textures using pure scalar math:

  1. Open the Shader Editor window.
  2. Press Shift + A and navigate to Converter > Math to add a Math node.
  3. Click the operation dropdown menu inside the Math node (which defaults to Add) and select Multiply.
  4. Connect the output socket (such as Color or Fac) of your first texture to the top Value input of the Math node.
  5. Connect the output socket of your second texture to the bottom Value input of the Math node.
  6. Connect the Value output of the Math node into your target shader input (such as the Roughness or Alpha socket on a Principled BSDF).

How to Multiply Color Textures with the Mix Color Node

Because standard Math nodes convert color inputs to single grayscale values, use the Mix Color node when working with full RGB color textures:

  1. Open the Shader Editor.
  2. Press Shift + A and select Color > Mix Color.
  3. Change the blending mode dropdown from Mix to Multiply.
  4. Connect the Color output of your first texture to the top A (or Color1) input socket.
  5. Connect the Color output of your second texture to the bottom B (or Color2) input socket.
  6. Set the Factor slider to 1.000 for full multiplication, or adjust it down to blend the effect.
  7. Connect the Result output to your shader's Base Color input.

How Texture Multiplication Works

  • Value Behavior: In digital imagery, black has a value of 0 and white has a value of 1. Multiplying any texture area by white (1) keeps the original texture unchanged, while multiplying by black (0) results in total black.
  • Darker Output: Multiplying two non-white textures will always produce a darker result than either original texture, as multiplying two numbers between 0 and 1 results in a smaller number.