How to Use Transparent BSDF in Blender

The Transparent BSDF node in Blender allows creators to render fully or partially see-through surfaces without light refraction or bending. This guide covers how to add the Transparent BSDF node in the Shader Editor, blend it with other materials using alpha maps or the Mix Shader node, and configure the necessary render settings for both the Cycles and EEVEE rendering engines.

Adding the Transparent BSDF Node

  1. Select your object and open the Shader Editor workspace.
  2. Ensure you have a material assigned to the object.
  3. Press Shift + A to open the add menu.
  4. Navigate to Shader > Transparent BSDF and click to place the node in your graph.

By default, the Transparent BSDF node is set to pure white, which renders the surface completely invisible to light. Changing the color box toward black increases opacity, while adding a color tints the light passing through the object.

Combining Transparent BSDF with Other Shaders

Because the Transparent BSDF node makes an entire surface invisible on its own, it is typically combined with other nodes (like the Principled BSDF) using a Mix Shader or an alpha map.

Creating an Alpha Mask (e.g., Decals, Leaves, Cutouts)

  1. Add an Image Texture node containing a PNG with an alpha channel.
  2. Add a Mix Shader node.
  3. Connect your main material (e.g., Principled BSDF) to the first Shader input of the Mix Shader.
  4. Connect the Transparent BSDF to the second Shader input.
  5. Connect the Alpha output of your Image Texture node directly into the Fac (Factor) input of the Mix Shader.
  6. Connect the Mix Shader output to the Material Output surface node.

(Note: If the non-transparent areas appear inverted, swap the order of the two shader nodes connected to the Mix Shader).

Engine Settings Configuration

Setting up the node graph is often not enough to make transparency work, especially when using EEVEE.

Setting Up Transparency in EEVEE

EEVEE requires you to explicitly tell the engine to compute transparency per material.

  1. Select your object and go to the Material Properties tab (the red sphere icon on the right panel).
  2. Scroll down to the Settings section.
  3. Change the Blend Mode from Opaque to one of the following:
    • Alpha Clip: Best for hard edges (like leaves or fencing). Fast and low memory cost.
    • Alpha Hashed: Ideal for semi-transparency or hair cards with soft edges. Prevents sorting issues.
    • Alpha Blend: Best for smooth gradients, but can suffer from depth-sorting artifacts in complex scenes.
  4. (Optional) Set Shadow Mode to Alpha Clip or Alpha Hashed if you want the object to cast realistic transparent shadows.

Setting Up Transparency in Cycles

Cycles handles transparency automatically out of the box without changing Blend Modes. However, if you are stacking many transparent layers (like dense grass or trees):

  1. Go to the Render Properties tab.
  2. Expand the Light Paths dropdown, then expand Max Bounces.
  3. Increase the Transparent bounce limit if your transparent objects render with black artifacts where many layers overlap.