(this same document is on the website, http://www.des-web.net/html/details.html, with pretty pictures)
Ok, here is the documentation- a brief explanation of each slider, checkbox, radio button and doo-hickey. I know some of the interfaces are complicated- sorry, a bit of the engineer peeking through. ;-)
Don’t forget that most every control that has a number (sliders and text boxes) can be animated.
Previews- note that CS does not pass the entire scene into the shader room preview window. So if you are using a shader that refers to another object (Proximity, Iridescence, Fresnel, Lit, or Angle) what you see in the preview window may not be accurate. Check the scene preview window instead.
Super Mixer is now available in the Complex Shaders list- so each sub-shader can now be a multi-channel shader of its own. Otherwise it functions exactly as the old SM, with the exception of the lack of an Add mode- just didn’t seem to make sense. Rather than copy all that info, just seem the SM doc below. Note that if you have chunks of your object “undefined” (no shaders picked for that grayscale range) it may cause your object to vanish. Don’t worry, it’s still there. Just finish setting up your shader and it will be back. (Or use the autorange function)
Shadow Pass
Shadow Pass is under Complex Shaders. It will make an object invisible during rendering while leaving its shadow in place.
Fallout from the interesting effect of vanishing objects discovered during Super Mixer Complex testing. With a little simplification, a new shader is born!
Shadow Pass checkbox
Check this box and the object will vanish from renders, leaving only its shadow.
Shader
This is the actual shader for your object.
Drip make a single user controllable ripple. Typically put in the bump channel, it returns a grayscale value.
Radius
Radius controls the diameter of the ripple. If you want the ripple to grow over time, you should animate this control from a small value to a large one.
Height
Controls the height of the ripple- larger values are taller. If you want your ripple to fade out over time, you should start with a high value and animate to a lower.
Height offset
This control adds an offset to the height, so you can get dips as well as peaks. You would not typically animate this. Since this is added to the Height, you would typically pick the two settings so that they add to one where you want the highest point to be. Otherwise you may get clipping.
Width
Controls width of the ripple, the area being perturbed. Typically would start small and grow somewhat as the ripple spreads.
Ripple Shaping Checkbox
Setting this turns on a smoothing function that is applied to the ripple. This smoothing function will allow the ripple to drop below zero. If you want this effect to show, you need to use the Height offset. Also activates Inter-ripple banding slider.
Inter-ripple banding
If the Ripple Shaping checkbox is set, this slider will cause the ripple to have multiple peaks within the active band. An easy way to add some complexity.
Auto spread checkbox
Overrides the need to animate the Width control by making the width grow proportionaly to the Radius. Width still needs to be set to a non-zero value.
The center of the drip is specified in UV coordinates.
U u coordinate of the center point of the drip.
V v coordinate of the center point of the drip.
Show draws a cross centered
on the uv coordinates (instead of a ripple). This is intended to aid in
positioning the drip- you will want to un-check the box to go back to regular
mode. (Unless you want to render little crosses ;-) If you are using the bump
channel, the effect may be very subtle.
Adds a secondary wave that trails the primary in size and time. This is to simulate that little drop of water that is projected up out of the center of a drip and then falls back.
Rebound Size
Sets the size of the rebound wave (both width and height) relative to the original wave.
Rebound
Distance
Controls how close the rebound wave is to the original
Location lets a shader react to where it is in global (or local) space with control over all three axes. Originally designed for making easy cut-away views.
These checkboxes control which axes are included in the calculations.
The values in these boxes define the range of the transition. Between the values, the shader will run from 0 to 1. Outside the values, the shader will be 1 or 0.
This setting determines where the shader will go to zero. If it is set to Greater, then any coordinate larger than the largest value in the Range boxes will return a 0.
These buttons determine how the cuts on the various axes are combined. In AND mode, in order for a point to return a 1, all three axis controls must individually return a 1. In OR mode, only a single axis control need return a 1 in order for the whole shader to return a 1.
Controls whether Global or Local corrdinate space is used for the axis checks.
Enables the Randomize shader.
Sets the strength of the random effect. Large numbers make it more difficult for the value to get to white.
A way to add some extra control to the transition region. Try turbulence or noise.
Proximity lets a shader detect and react when another object is close by. It returns a value- 1 or white, when the object referenced is close by.
This is the object whose proximity to the point being shaded will affect the shader value. The closer the point to the object, the whiter (closer to 1) the value returned.
If this box is checked, the first object in the scene that exactly matches Object to reference will be used for the distance calculations. If it is NOT checked, ANY object in the scene whose beginning matches the Object to reference will influence the proximity shader. For example, if the Object to reference is Sphere, and single is not checked, Sphere 1, Sphere w34234 and Spheretacular will all be included in the distance calculation. Whichever object is closest will determine the value.
Distance from the center of the Object to Reference to the specified point on the object being shaded that the shader starts to return a value other than black (0). For example, if you set a DTBF of 20 units, and your object is 25 units away, you will get nothing (0, black) back from the shader. When you get inside that 20 units, the shader returns the percentage of how close you are. . . so at a distance of 10 units, you will get a .5, or 50% gray. At a distance of 5 you will get .75. If the two points co-incide, you will get a 1, or full white.
Shaders are called for each point on the surface of an
object. . .so if the DTBF is 10 units, and your object is 20 units long,
the front of it could be returning a 1 while the back of it is still
returning a 0, since the front could be 0 distance from the center of the
object being approached, while the back is still 20 units away.
If a box is checked, then that axis is used in distance calculation. If it is not checked, the axis is disregarded.
Offset is subtracted from the distance. Since the distance can be measured from the center of the object, a large object might not cause the desired results. Offset gives a simple way to make an adjustment to the distance.
Enables the Randomize shader.
Sets the strength of the random effect. Large numbers make it more difficult for the value to get to white.
A way to add some extra control to the transition region. Try turbulence or noise.
These buttons determine which part of the shaded object is used for the distance calculation:
Surface Point- each point is checked individually. This means that the object could be partially affected.
Center Point- the center of the object controls the shading for the whole object. A single value will be returned for the entire object.
Hot Point- same as center, but the user can move the hotpoint to gain more control.
This version of the fresnel shader will do scientifically accurate fresnel shading, but with a simplified interface.
This shader comes to us courtesy of Alan Stafford.
For typical use, this shader would be used in the Transparency and Reflection channels. Click the button for the appropriate channel to automatically get the correct function. (Feel free to experiment too! ;-)
This is usually going to be your rendering camera, but you may get other effects by referencing other objects here.
Smooth Mix will cause an even transition of the fresnel effect, as you would see in a perfectly flat surface. By using the Shader Mix and inserting a shader in the Edge Control slot, you can easily add noise or other effects.
The Medium is the object you are shooting rays through. For realistic effects, this will usually be air, although many other picks are available in the presets pull down.
These boxes will automatically update with any picks made in the presets pulldown. If you have a custom medium that require different values, you may enter them directly.
The Object is the thing you are shading. Again, the presets pulldown will get you started with some common materials.
These boxes will automatically update with any picks made in the presets pulldown. If you have a custom object material that require different values, you may enter them directly. The sliders allow for easy tweaking of the values. They are relative to the value currently in their respective box.
Controls the polarization of the lighting. 50% is normal. You can change the blend between Reflection and Transparency by moving the slider.
This version of a fresnel shader will do scientifically accurate fresnel shading, as well as performing dispersion functions with a simple technique. Dispersion is the physical effect that makes a rainbow appear when you shine sunlight (or any other multi-spectral light) through a prism. See the sample files and tutorials on the website for this complex function.
This shader comes to us courtesy of Alan Stafford.
For typical use, this shader would be used in the Transparency and Reflection channels. Click the button for the appropriate channel to automatically get the correct function. (Feel free to experiment too! ;-)
This is usually going to be your rendering camera, but you may get other effects by referencing other objects here.
Smooth Mix will cause an even transition of the fresnel effect, as you would see in a perfectly flat surface. By using the Shader Mix and inserting a shader in the Edge Control slot, you can easily add noise or other effects.
The Medium is the object you are shooting rays through. For realistic effects, this will usually be air, although many other picks are available in the presets pull down.
These boxes will automatically update with any picks made in the presets pulldown. If you have a custom medium that require different values, you may enter them directly.
The Object is the thing you are shading. Again, the presets pulldown will get you started with some common materials.
These boxes will automatically update with any picks made in the presets pulldown. If you have a custom object material that require different values, you may enter them directly. The sliders allow for easy tweaking of the values. They are relative to the value currently in their respective box. The Refraction values are specified in both real and imaginary components. For now, the real component is the only one actually in use.
This sets the white point for the light you are shining on your object. The text box shows the actual value. Custom values may be inputted to the text box. Used for dispersion.
In the transparency channel checking this box will return the color indicated by the Wavelength slider. This can be used as part of automating the dispersion function by animating the Wavelength slider and then summing the resulting pictures. (The object will be colored in a shifting manner as the refractive index shifts, such that the light passing through will be colored, and each color will be refracted slightly differently)
This value is set when a preset material is chosen. Dispersion controls how strongly the colors separate when multi-spectral light is used. To exagerate the effect, use large values.
The color chip reports the average color of the light chosen by the White Point pulldown or the Illuminant Temperature text box. It may be opened to extract the color values, but it is output only.
These are the CIE 1931 coordinates of the white point for the selected Illuminant Temperature. Output only.
Controls the polarization of the lighting. 50% is normal. You can change the blend between reflection and transparency by moving the slider between the || (parallel) and _|_ (perpendicular) settings. This has the same effect as moving a light, without really moving it.
This slider has two functions, both related to dispersion. In order to use the Color checkbox function, it should be animated starting at the left at frame 0 and going all the way to the right at the last frame. This causes the object color to be shifted frame by frame. The secondary function is to determine the Refraction values. Again, for the dispersion animation, when the slider is all the way to the left (first frame), look at the calculated n2 values, and copy them up to the Object Material boxes. Move the scrubber to the last frame, move the Wavelength all the way to the right, and copy the values up again. Now the index of refraction will shift as the color shifts. By compositing the resulting frames together, a correct dispersion effect is achieved.
These are the refraction values calculated by changing the Wavelength slider in the Lighting box. They are copied up to the Re and Im boxes in the Object material box in order to do dispersion renders.
This gives the output of the Wavelength slider as a color and as RGB values, if you wish to use an animated colored light instead of using the Color checkbox and coloring the object.
Lit is a shader that can detect whether a light is pointing at it. It handles distant lights (including Sun and Moon), bulbs, and spots. It does not handle obscuring objects, (it isn’t a ray tracer! ;-) Anything Glows, sky lights, etc. In default mode it returns a value- lit areas return 1, or white. Non-lit areas return 0, or black.
This is where you enter the name of the light you want to affect your shader.
These buttons determine which part of the shaded object is checked for the lighting calculation:
Surface Point- each point is checked individually. This means that the object could be partially affected.
Center Point- the center of the object controls the shading for the whole object. A single value will be returned for the entire object.
Hot Point- same as center, but the user can move the hotpoint to gain more control.
This slider controls which facets are checked for light impact. The left marker indicates where to start falling off, and the right indicates the point at which no lighting check is performed. The number is the angle of the facet normal to the light ray.
Instead of returning a grayscale value, the color of the light is returned.
Flips the grayscale. No effect on color mode.
If your shaded object has two surfaces (like a sphere or cube, for instance), this checkbox will make the FAR side (away from the light) get the lighting effect rather than the near side. Useful for faking translucence.
Angle returns a grayscale value based on the angle of a ray drawn from one object, to the shaded object, and then to a third object. In typical usage, this would be from a light, to your shaded object, to the rendering camera. Useful for faking translucence.
This is where you enter the name of the light you want to affect your shader. Doesn’t HAVE to be a light, can be any object.
This is where you enter the name of the camera you want to affect your shader. Doesn’t HAVE to be a camera, can be any object.
Linear or Bezier radio button- determines how the transition between the angles is treated.
Ease In/Out slider- allows the bezier curve to be adjusted. (sorry, no preview)
Flips the grayscale output
Allows you to define a range of angles that you want to be affected. Any angles between the numbers set by the tabs will be white.
These buttons determine which part of the shaded object is checked for the angle calculation:
Surface Point- each point is checked individually. This means that the object could be partially affected.
Center Point- the center of the object controls the shading for the whole object. A single value will be returned for the entire object.
Hot Point- same as center, but the user can move the hotpoint to gain more control.
This shader controls color saturation.
You can only select one. Grayscale does a luma-preserving total de-saturation of the Input Shader (which can, of course, be more complex than the Texture map illustrated)
Desaturate activates the sliders in the box, allowing finer control over the color saturations.
Moves saturation of all colors simultaneously. Acts in tandem with the color Saturation Modifers. Positive numbers increase the saturation, negatives decrease it.
Moves the saturation of each color independently. Positive numbers increase the saturation, negatives decrease it. Acts in tandem with the Master slider.
Iri looks at the angle between the point being shaded and the object referenced. It can return a color based on that angle, or it can return a simple grayscale.
A zero here indicates that the normal points right at the Vector. The unit is degrees- the range is 0 to 90. This is so you can set up any number of bands (up to 7) spaced however you want.
Smaller numbers are wider bands, larger numbers indicate faster falloff, narrower bands.
Color pickers to set the color for each band.
Hit this checkbox to make the falloff from the 1st box apply to all the others (saves having to copy the value when you want even bands, the most common case)
Anything that falls beyond 90 degrees picks up the last color.
Controls the way the bands interact. Smooth mix uses a simple sine curve to blend them. Shader mix uses values from the Edge Control shader to add some control to how they are blended. Turbulence and Noise type shaders are good for adding a little randomness.
Shader mix uses values from the Edge Control shader to add some control to how the bands are blended. Turbulence and Noise type shaders are good for adding a little randomness.
Instead of using any of the center, falloff, and color information. a grayscale value is returned. Inverting it allows you to have either black or white be the 0 vector (where the normal points right at the vector). Especially useful for CS3 with the new Gradient shader.
Light Vector means to point at the object referenced in the text box. Usually a light which would be pointed at the object with the iridescence shader, but it can be any object. Reference Vector lets you define a specific vector. Good for distant lights, just copy the yaw and pitch values in.
Angles for determining the reference vector. Degrees.
Super Mixer allows for 10 shaders to be combined in two different ways- a simple addition (good for multiple masks or cutouts), or a more complex grayscale controlled mode that lets you mix shaders based on another shader’s grasyscale value.
These sliders set the range of luma (returned from the Mix Shader) that map to the Shader picks below. For example, in the above image, if the Mix Shader returns black (zero luma), the Super Mixer will return the value from Shader 1 (red, in this case).
These are the sub-shaders mixed in by Super Mixer. They can have any structure.
Setting this checkbox will fill any values NOT covered by a range set with the Shader sliders with Shader 10.
Mixer mode uses the Mix shader and influences to determine the value returned. Add mode simply adds all the shaders together- useful for combining masks.
Smooth Mix uses a sine-type blending of overlapping shaders. Shader Mix uses input from the Blend shader to control the blending of overlapping shaders.
Allows the edges of the shaders to be feathered down.
Controls how quickly the edges feather down.
Uses a slower curve to feather the edges down.
A little time saver. If you click Auto, the shader will find how many of the Shader channels are populated, and set up the influences such that they are evenly distributed. You can’t change them until you switch back to manual.
Weave allows for an arbitrary over-under pattern of threads or ribbons. The individual threads may be constructed of any shader.
These sliders set how many times to tile the base weave pattern.
These set the spacing between the threads. Spacing and thread widths are RELATIVE not absolute.
These sliders set the widths of the threads. Thread width and spacing are RELATIVE not absolute. (Ie 10, 10, 20 is the same as 1,1,2)
These are the shaders for the threads. They can be simple or complex. You MUST fill from shader 1 to shader 5 without skipping any! Blank shader entries cause the plugin to think it has reached the end of the data. If you want stripes, just leave U1 or V1 blank while populating the other.
Values from this shader are used where there are no threads.
Shader compression allows you to sample a shader down such that it will fit within a thread. If you check Across, the shader will be sampled down across the thread. If you check Along, each segment of the thread, where it runs on top of the cross threads, will have the sampled down shader. If you check both, the entire sub-shader will be sampled down into each segment. Note that this shader is UV based- if you try to sample a shader that is not based on UV space, it will not sample down.
Basic Mode is a quick way to do a simple weave. It uses U1 and V1 only. None of the other shaders or widths are used. The On top checkbox matrix is also overridden. (If you haven’t figured it out yet, those are all of the controls below the line. ;-) Adanced mode enables all controls.
These checkboxes allow you to make any arbitrary pattern of crossovers.
Enable 3-D shading when used in Color channel. Enable bump when used in Bump channel.
Set how strong the across and along effects are. Smaller numbers are less intense.
These sliders control two distortion modes. Wiggle is a large scale distortion wapring. Edge distortion adds effects along the edges of the threads. The base values are taken from the Wiggle and Edge shader channels and then modified by these slider settings.
These shaders control two distortion modes. Wiggle is a large scale distortion wapring. Edge distortion adds effects along the edges of the threads. The base values are taken from these shader channels and then modified by the corresponding intensity slider settings.
These checkboxes allow easy mask generation, with all threads black and all spaces white, or vice-versa. It overrides any color choices made in the U, V, and Background shader channels. Very useful for the Transparency channel