Embodiments of the technology described herein, make unknown material-maps in a Physically Based Rendering (PBR) asset usable through an identification process that relies, at least in part, on image analysis. In addition, when a desired material-map type is completely missing from a PBR asset the technology described herein may generate a suitable synthetic material map for use in rendering. In one aspect, the correct map type is assigned using a machine classifier, such as a convolutional neural network, which analyzes image content of the unknown material map and produce a classification. The technology described herein also correlates material maps into material definitions using a combination of the material-map type and similarity analysis. The technology described herein may generate synthetic maps to be used in place of the missing material maps. The synthetic maps may be generated using a Generative Adversarial Network (GAN).