Cycles Nodes

•Color

•Converter

•Cycles Nodes

•Input

•Shader

•Texture

•Using the PrincipledBsdf Node

•Vector

Color

BrightContrast

Cycles BrightContrast node.

Inputs:

•Color: Input texture to be corrected.

•Bright: A multiplier. Positive values increase the overall brightness of the image. Negative values darken the image.

•Contrast: A scaling factor that makes brighter pixels brighter but keeps darker pixels dark. Higher values make details stand out. Negative numbers decrease the overall contrast in the image.

Outputs:

•Color: Adjusted color output.

Gamma

Used to correct lighting issues (such as light attenuation with distance, light falloff at terminators, and light and shadow superpositions). Gamma correction corrects similarly to how digital cameras correct photos. In other words, gamma correction is 0.45, not 2.2.

Cycles Gamma node.

Inputs:

•Color: Input texture to be corrected.

•Gamma: Enter an exponential brightness factor for correction.

Outputs:

•Color: Adjusted color output.

HSV

Changes the Hue, Saturation, and/or Value of a color or an image.

•A hue offset of 1 will achieve the diametrically opposite color. For example, a hue offset of 1 applied to blue will change the color to yellow.

•Grayscale images do not have hue. You can only adjust value to lighten or darken the image.

Cycles HSV node.

Inputs:

•Hue: Enter the desired adjustment factor for changing the Hue. The values of 0 to 1 represent a 360 degree rotational shift. A value of .5 produces no hue change. Entering 0 represents -180 degree rotation, and entering 1 represents 180 degree rotation, resulting in the same color shift.

•Saturation: Enter the desired adjustment factor for changing the Saturation. A value of 0 completely desaturates the image, turning it to grayscale. A value higher than 1 increases image saturation.

•Value: Enter the desired adjustment factor for changing the Value (brightness) of the image. Decrease the value to darken, increase the value to lighten.

•Fac: Enter the desired strength of the adjustment.

•Color: Input texture to be corrected.

Outputs:

•Color: Adjusted color output.

Invert

Inverts every pixel. Most commonly used to invert grayscale images.

Cycles Invert node.

Inputs:

•Fac: The strength of the inversion from 0 (no inversion) to 1 (full inversion). A value of .5 outputs a gray color.

•Color: The color or texture to be inverted.

Outputs:

•Color: Adjusted color output.

LightFalloff

Manipulates how light intensity decreases over distance. Output is in grayscale information.

Realistic lighting falls off quadradically.

 

Cycles LightFalloff node.

Inputs:

•Strength: Light strength before applying falloff modification.

•Smooth: Smooth intensity of light near light sources. This can avoid harsh highlights, and reduce global illumination noise. For no smoothing, enter 0. Higher values smooth more.

Outputs:

•Quadratic: Quadratic light falloff; leaves strength unmodified if smooth is 0.0 and corresponds to reality.

•Linear: Linear light falloff; gives slower decrease in intensity over distance.

•Constant: Constant light falloff, where the distance to the light has no influence on its intensity.

Linear or Constant falloff may cause more light to be introduced with every global illumination bounce, making the resulting image extremely bright if many bounces are used.

Mix

Mixes two inputs together. Mixing can be used for material layering.

Cycles Mix node.

Inputs:

•Fac: The amount of mixing between the two shaders. This represents the opacity amount of the foreground image (Color2). Low values increase the effect of Color1. High values increase the effect of Color2.

•Color1: Color or texture input #1 (Background image).

•Color2: Color or texture input #2 (Foreground image).

•Clamp: Restricts the output range to values between 0 and 1.

•Common Blend Types:

•Add: Adding blue to blue keeps it blue, but adding blue to red makes purple. White already has a full amount of blue, so it stays white. Use this to shift a color of an image. Adding a blue tinge makes the image feel colder.

•Burn: Burn mode inverts the pixel value of the lower layer, multiplies it by 256, divides that by one plus the pixel value of the upper layer, then inverts the result. It tends to make the image darker, somewhat similar to “Multiply” mode.

•Color: Combines the value of the background color (Color 1) with the hue and saturation of the foreground color (Color 2).

•Darken: With the colors set here, it’s like looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. It takes the smallest of the two values being blended.

•Difference: It takes out a color. The color needed to turn Yellow into White is Blue. Use this to compare two very similar images to see what had been done to one to make it the other; sort of like a change log for images. You can use this to see a watermark you have placed in an image for theft detection.

•Divide: Divide mode multiplies each pixel value in the lower layer by 256 and then divides that by the corresponding pixel value of the upper layer plus one. (Adding one to the denominator avoids dividing by zero.) The resulting image is often lighter, and sometimes looks “burned out”.

•Dodge: Dodge mode multiplies the pixel value of the lower layer by 256, then divides that by the inverse of the pixel value of the top layer. The resulting image is usually lighter, but some colors may be inverted.

•Hue: Shows you how much of a color is in an image, ignoring all colors except what is selected: makes a monochrome picture (style ‘Black & Hue’).

•Lighten: Like bleach makes your whites whiter. Used with a mask to lighten up a little.

•Linear Light: Linear burn blending (Color 2 plus Color 1  minus 1) is applied if the lightness of Color 2 is below .5.  Linear dodge blending (Color 1 plus Color 2) is applied if the lightness of Color 2 is above .5.

•Mix: Combines the two images, averaging the two.

•Multiply: Black (0.0) times anything leaves black. Anything times White (1.0) is itself. Use this to mask out garbage, or to colorize a black-and-white image.

•Overlay: Overlay mode inverts the pixel value of the lower layer, multiplies it by two times the pixel value of the upper layer, adds that to the original pixel value of the lower layer, divides by 255, and then multiplies by the pixel value of the original lower layer and divides by 255 again. It darkens the image, but not as much as with “Multiply” mode.

•Saturation: Low values desaturate the image, and make it more grayscale. Higher values oversaturate the colors in the image.

•Screen: Screen mode inverts the values of each of the visible pixels in the two layers of the image. (That is, it subtracts each of them from 255.) Then it multiplies them together, divides by 255 and inverts this value again.

•Soft Light: Soft light tends to make the edges softer and the colors not so bright. It is similar to “Overlay” mode.

•Subtract: Taking Blue away from white leaves Red and Green, which combined make Yellow. Taking Blue away from Purple leaves Red. Use this to desaturate an image. Taking away yellow makes an image bluer and more depressing.

•Value: Lower values darken the image, while higher values lighten the image.

•Comparison Types:

•Sign: Extracts the sign of Color1. All positive numbers will output 1.0. All negative numbers will output -1.0. And 0.0 will output 0.0

•Function Types:

•Absolute: Color1 is read with without regard to its sign. This turns negative values into positive values.

•Exp: Raises Euler’s number to the power of Color1

•Logarithm: Logarithm of Color1

•Power: Color1 by power of Color 2

•Sqrt: The square root of Color1

•Rounding Types:

•Ceil: Rounds Color1 up to the nearest integer

•Floor: Rounds Color1 down to the nearest integer

•Modulo: Outputs the remainder once Color1 is divided by Color2

•Round: Rounds Color1 to the nearest integer

•Trigonometric Blend Types:

•Cosine: The Cosine of Color1

•Sine: The Sine of Color1 • Tangent: The Tangent of Color1

•Poser-Specific Types:

•Bias: Takes two values, each between 0 and 1. Color1 is the input to be mapped (such as an image). Color2 is a bias factor that pushes the range of the input values toward 0 or 1. A bias of 0 is all black; .5 is no change; 1 is all white.

•Gain: Similar to bias, but Color2 is applied as an exponent around the center value so that the center stays locked. Smaller values lighten the image, and values higher than .5 darken the image.

•Smoothstep: Takes a single value (Color1) and returns a mapped value as if the step function is smooth between 0 and 1.  A value of .5 stays in place. Other values will smoothly transition using a hermite curve.

          •          

Cycles Mix examples.

Outputs:

•Color: Adjusted color output.

Converter

The Combine and Separate nodes split out an image into, or recombine from, its composite color channels. Each format supports the Alpha (transparency) channel. Several color spaces are supported.

Blackbody

Converts a blackbody temperature to RGB. Useful for materials that emit light at naturally occurring frequencies.

Cycles Blackbody node.

 

Cycles Blackbody Examples applied to a sphere

Inputs:

•Temperature: The temperature in Kelvin.

Outputs:

•Color: The adjusted RGB color

CombineHSV

Combines values of hue, saturation, and value (dark to light), often considered as more intuitive than the RGB system.  Nearly only used on computers.

Cycles CombineHSV node.

Inputs:

•H: the Hue of the color (in some way, choose a ‘color’ of the rainbow)

•S: the quantity of hue in the color (from desaturate - shade of gray - to saturate - brighter colors)

•V: (from ‘no light’ - black - to ‘full light’ - ‘full’ color, or white if Saturation is 0.0)

Outputs:

•Color: The adjusted color

CombineRGB

This node combines separate input images as each color channel, producing a composite image.

Use this node to combine the channels after working on each color channel separately.

Cycles CombineRGB node.

Inputs:

•R (Red), G (Green) and B (Blue). Values between 0 and 1 are expected.

Outputs:

•Image: The combined R, G, and B image

CombineXYZ

Combines the X, Y, and Z values of a vertex. The vector is not normalized.

Cycles CombineXYZ node.

Inputs:

•X, Y, and Z vertex coordinates.

Outputs:

•Vector: The combined vector values

Math

Performs mathematical calculations of between one and three inputs.

Cycles Math node.

Inputs:

•Value1: Input number 1

•Value2: Input number 2

•Value3: Input number 3.

•Clamp: Restricts the output range to values between 0 and 1.

Function Types:

•Absolute: Uses one value. The input value is read with without regard to its sign. This turns negative values into positive values.

•Add: The sum of two values.

•Divide: The product of two values.

•Exponent: Raises Euler’s number to the power of Value1.

•Inverse Sqrt: One divided by the square root of Value1.

•Logarithm: The log of Value1 with Value3 (Base ) as its base.

•Multiply: The product of Value1 and Value2.

•Multiply_Add: Multiples Value1 and Value2, then adds Value3.

•Power: The Base (Value1) raised to the power of Exponent (Value3).

•Subtract: The difference between Value1 and Value2.

•Sqr: The square root of Value1.

Comparison Types:

•Compare: Outputs 1.0 if the difference between Value1 and Value2 is less than or equal to Value3.

•Greater Than: Outputs 1.0 if Value1 is larger than Value2. Otherwise the output is 0.0.

•Less Than: Outputs 1.0 if Value1 is smaller than Value2. Otherwise the output is 0.0.

•Maximum: Outputs the largest of Value1 or Value2.

•Minimum: Outputs the smallest of Value1 or Value2.

•Sign: Extracts the sign of Value1. All positive numbers will output 1.0. All negative numbers will output -1.0. And 0.0 will output 0.0.

•Smoothmax: Smooths the unions between Value1 and Value2 with a maximum distance specified in Value3.

•Smoothmin: Smooths the unions between Value1 and Value2 with a minimum distance specified in Value3.

Rounding Types:

•Ceil: Rounds Value1 up to the nearest integer.

•Floor: Rounds Value1 down to the nearest integer.

•Fraction: Returns the fractional part of Value1. For example, if the value is 1.268, the fraction will be .268.

•Modulo: Outputs the remainder once Value1 is divided by Value2.

•Pingpong: The output value is moved between 0.0 and Value3 (the Scale) based on Value1.

•Round: Rounds Value1 to the nearest integer.

•Snap: Rounds Value1 down to the nearest integer multiple of Value3 (the Increment).

•Trunc: Outputs the integer part of Value1.

•Wrap: Outputs a value between Value2 (Min) and Value3 (Max)  based on the absolute difference between Value1 and the nearest integer multiple of Value3 (Max) less than the value.

Trigonometric Types:

•Arccosine: The Arccosine of Value1.

•Arcsine: The Arcsine of Value1.

•Arctangent: The Arctangent of Value1.

•Arctan2: Outputs the Inverse Tangent of Value1 divided by Value2 measured in radians.

•Cosh: The Hyperbolic Cosine of Value1.

•Cosine: The Cosine of Value1.

•Sine: The Sine of Value1.

•Sinh: The Hyperbolic Sine of Value1.

•Tangent: The Tangent of Value1.

•Tanh: The Hyperbolic Tangent of Value1.

Conversion Types:

•Degree: Converts the input from radians to degrees.

•Radians: Converts the input from degrees to radians.

Poser-Specific Types:

•Bias: Takes two values, each between 0 and 1. Value1 is the input to be mapped (such as an image). Value2 is a bias factor that pushes the range of the input values toward 0 or 1. A bias of 0 is all black; .5 is no change; 1 is all white.

•Gain: Similar to bias, but Value2 is applied as an exponent around the center value so that the center stays locked. Smaller values lighten the image, and values higher than .5 darken the image.

•Smoothstep: Takes a single value (Value1) and returns a mapped value as if the step function is smooth between 0 and 1.  A value of .5 stays in place. Other values will smoothly transition using a hermite curve.

•Step: Generates a curve based on two inputs. Value2 is used to control the curve. If Value1 is below Value2, the curve is 0. If Value1 is above Value2, the curve is 1.

Outputs:

•Value: The adjusted value

SeparateHSV

Separates the Hue, Saturation, and Value of a color or image.

Cycles SeparateHSV node.

Inputs:

•Color: The input image or color

Outputs:

•H: the Hue of the color (in some way, choose a ‘color’ of the rainbow)

•S: the quantity of hue in the color (from desaturate - shade of gray - to saturate - brighter colors)

•V: (from ‘no light’ - black - to ‘full light’ - ‘full’ color, or white if Saturation is 0.0)

SeparateRGB

This node separates an image into its red, green, blue and alpha channels.

Cycles SeparateRGB node.

Inputs:

•Color: The input image or color

Outputs:

•R (Red), G (Green) and B (Blue)

SeparateXYZ

Separates the X, Y, and Z values of a vector.

Cycles SeparateXYZ node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Standard vector input.

Outputs:

•The individual X, Y, and Z values of the vector

VectorMath

Performs mathematical calculations on two inputs of three dimensional vectors (or three numbers)

Cycles VectorMath node.

Inputs:

•Vector1: The first vector input.

•Vector2: The second vector input.

•Vector3: The third vector input.

•Scale: Input scale.

•Type: Choose one of the following types:

•Add: The sum of Vector1 and Vector2.

•Subtract: The difference between Vector1 and Vector2.

•Multiply: The entrywise product of Vector1 and Vector2.

•Divide: The entrywise division of Vector1 by Vector2. Division by zero returns zero.

•Cross Product: The cross product of Vector1 and Vector2.

•Project: The projection of Vector1 onto Vector2.

•Reflect: The reflection of Vector1 around the normal Vector2. Vector2 need not be normalized.

•Dot Product: The dot product of Vector1 and Vector2.

•Distance: The distance between Vector1 and Vector2.

•Length: The length of Vector1.

•Scale: The result of multiplying Vector1 by the Scale value

•Normalize: The result of normalizing Vector1.

•Wrap: Wrap.

•Snap: The result of rounding Vector1 to the largest integer multiple of B less than or equal Vector1.

•Floor: The entrywise floor of Vector1.

•Ceil: The entrywise ceiling of Vector1.

•Modulo: The entrywise modulo of Vector1 by Vector2.

•Fraction: The fractional part of Vector1.

•Absolute: The entrywise absolute value of Vector1.

•Minimum: The entrywise minimum from Vector1 and Vector2.

•Maximum: The entrywise maximum from Vector1 and Vector2.

•Sine: The Sine of Vector1.

•Cosine: The Cosine of Vector1.

•Tangent: The Tangent of Vector1.

Outputs:

•Value: Output value.

•Vector: Output vector.

Wavelength

Converts a light ray wavelength to RGB. Can be used to achieve a specific color on the light spectrum.

Cycles Wavelength node.

Inputs:

•Wavelength: The color wavelength from 380 to 780 nanometers.

Outputs:

•Color:  RGB color output.

Input

Camera

Outputs are determined by the distance from or angle to the camera. Can be used to change shading of objects that are further from the camera, or to make custom fog effects.

Cycles Camera node.

Inputs:

•none.

Outputs:

•View Vector: A Camera space vector from the camera to the shading point.

•View Z Depth: The Z coordinate of the object that the camera is viewing

•View Distance: Distance from the camera to the shading point.

Color

Outputs the specified color. Useful when you need the same color as inputs for several different nodes.

Cycles Color node.

Inputs:

•Color: The color to be output from the node.

Outputs:

•Color: The output color from the node.

Fresnel

 

The amount of light that is reflected off a layer. The rest is refracted through the layer.

Commonly used to mix or blend between two BSDF nodes, such as a glossy refraction and a glossy reflection, through a Mix shader node, which produces a simple glass material.

Cycles Fresnel node.

Inputs:

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•IOR: Index of refraction of the material being entered.

Outputs:

•Fac: A grayscale output indicating fresnel weight. Indicates the probability with which light reflects off the layer rather than passing through it.

Geometry

Returns information about the current shading point, using world space vector coordinates. For volume shaders, only the position and incoming vector are available.

Cycles Geometry node.

Inputs:

None.

Outputs:

•Position: Position of the shading point.

•Normal: Shading normal at the surface (includes smooth normals and bump mapping)

•Tangent: Tangent at the surface.

•True Normal: Geometry or flat normal of the surface (does not include smooth normals or bump mapping)

•Incoming: Vector pointing towards the camera.

Parametric: Parametric coordinates of the shading point on the surface.

Backfacing: Output of 0 if the face is viewed from the front side, or 1 if the face is viewed from the back side.

•Random Per Island: A random value for each connected component (island) in the mesh. Adds variations to meshes that are composed of separated units, like tree leaves, wood planks, or curves of multiple splines.

HairInfo

This node gives access to strand hair information.

Cycles HairInfo node.

Outputs:

•Is Strand: Returns 1 when the shader is acting on a strand, otherwise returns 0.

•Intercept: The point along the strand where the ray hits the hair strand. Output is between 0 (when the ray hits the root) and 1 (when the ray hits the tip).

•Length: Length of the strand.

•Thickness: The thickness of the strand at the point where the ray hits the strand.

•Tangent Normal: Tangent normal of the strand.

•Random: A random per-hair value ranging from 0 to 1. Can be used in combination with a color ramp to randomize the hair color.

LayerWeight

Output weights typically used for layering shaders with the Mix Shader node.

Cycles LayerWeight node.

Inputs:

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Blend: The amount of blend between the first and second shader (0 for black, 1 for white). Lower values increase contrast.

Outputs:

Fresnel: Like the Fresnel node, except that the input of this node is between the 0.0 to 1.0 range.

Facing: Weight that blends from the first to the second shader as the surface faces or grazes the camera.

LightPath

Determines the kind of incoming light ray being executed. Useful for tricks that are not physically-based.

Cycles LightPath node.

Inputs:

None.

Outputs:

•Is Camera Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a camera ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Is Shadow Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a shadow ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Is Diffuse Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a diffuse ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Is Glossy Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a glossy ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Is Singular Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a singular ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Is Reflection Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a reflection ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Is Transmission Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a transmission ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Is Volume Scatter Ray: Output of 1.0 if shading is executed for a volume scatter ray, otherwise output is 0.

•Ray Length: Distance traveled by the light ray from the last bounce or camera.

•Ray Depth: Returns the current light bounce.

Transparent Depth: Returns the number of transparent surfaces passed through.

 

Transmission Depth: Replace a Transmission light path after X bounces with another shader, (Diffuse, for example). Used to avoid black surfaces, due to low amount of max bounces.

ObjectInfo

Outputs information about the object instance. This can be useful for creating variations of a single material that is assigned to multiple instances. A Noise texture can give random colors, or a Color Ramp can give a range of colors to be randomly picked from.

Cycles ObjectInfo node.

Inputs:

None.

Outputs:

•Location: World space location of the object.

•Color: The color of the object.

•Alpha: Object alpha information.

•Object Index: Object pass index.

•Material Index: Material pass index for each object that uses this material.

•Random: Random number between 0 and 1. Unique to a single object instance.

Tangent

Generates a tangent direction for the Anisotropic BSDF shader.

Cycles Tangent node.

Inputs:

•Direction: Radial projects the tangent in a cylindrical manner. UV Map allows you to choose any UV map that is compatible with the figure.

•Axis: For Radial direction only. Choose X (left to right), Y (up and down), or Z (back to front) axis.

Outputs:

•Tangent: The tangent direction vector.

TextureCoordinate

Commonly used texture coordinates, to be used as inputs for the Vector input for texture nodes.

Cycles TextureCoordinate node.

Inputs:

None.

Outputs:

•Generated: Automatically-generated texture coordinates ranging from 0.0 to 1. 0 over the bounding box of the undeformed mesh

•Normal: Object space normal that stays fixed on the object as it transformed.

•UV: UV texture coordinates, with U corresponding to the X axis of 3D space and V corresponding to the Y axis in 3D space.

•Object: Position coordinate in object space.

•Camera: Position coordinate in camera space.

•Window: Location of shading point on the screen, ranging from 0.0 (for the left or bottom of the screen) to 1. 0 (for the right or top side of the screen).

•Reflection: Vector in the direction of a sharp reflection, typically used for environment maps

•Poser Window: Connect this output to a Vector input on the Cycles image node.

UVMap

Used to retrieve specific UV maps using the material.

Cycles UVMap node.

Inputs:

•From dupli: When the object has a parent with duplication faces enabled, check this option to sample the texture as if it is projected onto the parent object. Only one pixel will be sampled and projected the color onto the entire parent. Outputs:

•UV: UV texture coordinates, with U corresponding to the X axis of 3D space and V corresponding to the Y axis in 3D space.

Value

Outputs a constant value as specified. Useful when you need the same number as inputs for several different nodes.

Cycles Value node.

Inputs:

None.

Outputs:

•Value: Enter the desired numerical value to be output from the node.

Wireframe

Retrieve the edges of an object. Meshes are triangulated before being processed, so they will appear triangulated when viewed with the Wireframe node. Wires are white, everything else is black.

Cycles Wireframe node.

Inputs:

•Size: Thickness of edge lines.

•Pixel Size: Check this option to set the size of edge lines in screen space.

Outputs:

•Fac: A black and white mask showing white lines that represent edges according to the topology of the object.

Shader

AbsorptionVolume

This node allows light to be absorbed as it passes through the volume. Typically used for water and colored glass.

Cycles AbsorptionVolume node.

Inputs:

•Color: The color that is absorbed.

•Density: The amount of light that interacts with the volume (how much is absorbed and how much passes through). Values of 0 produce no volume. Values above 0 increase the amount of volume.

Outputs:

•Volume: Plug this output into the Volume input of the Cycles root node.

AddClosure

Add two shaders together. Mixing can be used for material layering.

Cycles AddClosure node.

Inputs:

•Closure1: First shader to add

•Closure2: Second shader to add.

Outputs:

•Closure: The mixed output of the two input shaders.

AmbientOcclusion

Ambient occlusion darkens shadow effects in gaps and crevices. With this option it’s possible to let only some materials be affected by AO, or to let it influence some materials more or less than others. This can be used to add weathering effects to corners only.

This shader is resource intensive and can slow down rendering times significantly. Adding a Geometry node with Pointiness setting, or baking Ambient Occlusion will make rendering faster.

 

Cycles AmbientOcclusion node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the tint color of the AO output (areas that are not occluded).

•Distance (Cycles only): Maximum distance that other objects are considered to occlude the shading point.

•Normal: The normal used for ambient occlusion. If nothing is connected, the default shading normal is used.

Outputs:

•Color: Ambient occlusion with color tint.

•AO: Ambient occlusion factor without color tint.

AnisotropicBsdf

Used to add a glossy reflection, with separate controls over U (horizontal) and V (vertical) direction roughness. The tangents are derived from the active UV map. If no UV map is available, the tangents are generated automatically using spherical mapping based on the mesh's bounding box.

Cycles AnisotropicBsdf node

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the color of the surface.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Tangent: Tangent used for reflections; The default tangent will be used if nothing is connected.

•Roughness: The sharpness of the reflection, with 0 being completely sharp and higher values being smoother

•Anisotropy: A value of 0 gives a rounder highlight. Higher values make the highlight elongated along the tangent.

•Rotation: Rotation of the anisotropic tangent direction. Values from 0 to 1 represent 0 to 360 degrees. For example, a value of 0.0 is 0 degrees, .25 is 90 degrees, and so on). Used to texture the tangent direction.

•Distribution: The type of microfacet distribution to use. Choices are Beckmann, GGX and Ashikhmin-Shirley.

Inputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

DiffuseBsdf

Adds Lambertian or Oren-Nayar diffuse reflection.

Cycles DiffuseBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the color of the surface (the probability that light is reflected or transmitted for each wavelength).

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Roughness (Cycles only): Surface roughness. Lower values make the surface more rough (value of 0 gives standard Lambertian reflection). Higher values make the surface more smooth (Oren-Nayar BSDF).

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

Emission

Used for light that emits from meshes. Used to add Lambertian emission.

Light strength for point, spot, and area lights is specified in Watts.

Cycles Emission node.

Inputs:

•Color: Color of the emitted light

•Strength: Strength or intensity of the emitted light. Unit is in watts for point and area lights. For materials, a value of 1.0 will ensure that the object in the image has the exact same color as the Color input.

Outputs:

•Emission: Plug this output into either a Surface input or the Volume Input of a material output node.

GlassBsdf

Glass-works similar to the transparent shader. Pure white makes it transparent. The glass shader tends to cause noise due to caustics. It helps to combine this with a transparent shader for shadows.

Cycles GlassBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the amount of transparency. White is fully transparent. Black is fully opaque.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Roughness: Influences sharpness of the refraction. A value of 0 is perfectly sharp. Higher values blur the reflections and transmissions.

•IOR: Index of refraction defining how much the ray changes direction. At 1. 0 rays pass straight through like transparent; higher values increase the amount of refraction.

•Distribution: Microfacet distribution to use. Sharp results in perfectly sharp refractions like clear glass, while Beckmann and GGX can use the Roughness input for rough or frosted glass.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

GlossyBsdf

Glossy reflection with microfacet distribution, used for materials such as metal or mirrors.

Cycles GlossyBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the color of the surface.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Roughness: Perfectly glossy at 0.0. Increase the settings to make reflections softer/ blurrier.

•Distribution: Defines the type of microfacet distribution to use. Sharp results in perfectly sharp reflections like a mirror (roughness will not apply in this mode). Beckmann, GGX and Ashikhmin-Shirley (all Cycles Only) use the Roughness input to soften/blur reflections.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

HairBsdf

Used to add shading for Hair.

Cycles HairBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: The color of the hair.

•Offset: Affects the angle of the“gap” between the hairs.

•RoughnessU: Determines the amount of glossiness along the length of the hair.

•RoughnessV: Determines the amount of glossiness along the width of the hair.

•Tangent: Input tangent.

•Component: Choose Reflection to set attributes for the hair surface, or Transmission to control how light passes through the hair.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

Holdout

Holds the surface from being exposed to the camera. Creates a transparent “hole” with zero alpha transparency in the render. This is useful for compositing.

Cycles Holdout node.

Inputs: none

Outputs:

•Holdout: Standard shader output.

MixClosure

Mix two shaders together. Mixing can be used for material layering.

Cycles MixClosure node.

Inputs:

•Fac: Blend weight to use for mixing two shaders. A value of 0 uses the first shader entirely. A value of 1 uses the second shader entirely. Input can be from a blend weight node.

•Closure1: First shader to mix

•Closure2: Second shader to mix.

Outputs:

•Closure: Standard shader output.

PrincipledBsdf

See Using the PrincipledBsdf Node

PrincipledHairBsdf

Used for rendering strand-based hair and fur, as created in Poser's Hair room.

Inputs:

•Color: The RGB color of the strand. Only used in Direct coloring.

•Melanin: The absolute quantity of pigment, with 0-1 values relating to 0-100%. A value of 0 (or 0%) = white hair. A value of .25 (25%) is for light blonde hair. A value of .5 (or 50%) results in reddish hair color. A value of .75 (or 75%) is brown hair. A value of 1 (or 100%) results in black hair. See also Melanin Concentration, below.

•Melanin Redness: Defines the ratio between pheomelanin (red or yellow hair pigments) to eumelanin (black or brown hair pigments).  Values of 0-1 correspond to 0-100%.

•Tint: The color that tints (or dyes) the hair after melanin is applied. Set to white for no tint.

•Absorption Coefficient: Attenuation coefficient.

•Offset: Tilts the glint of the hair by increasing the angle of the scales of the hair’s cuticle with respect to the hair shaft. Human hair usually has low values.

•Roughness: How much the glints are smoothed in the direction of the hair shaft. Too low values will smoothen the hair to the point of looking almost metallic, making glints look like Fireflies; while setting it too high will result in a Lambertian look

•Radial Roughness: How much the glints are smoothed in the direction of the hair tangent. Too low values will concentrate the glint; while setting it too high will spread the light across the width of the strand.

•Coat: Simulates a shiny coat of fur. Reduces the Roughness factor for the first light bounce by a percentage of the original roughness setting. Values of 0-1 correspond to 0-100%.

•IOR: Index of refraction defining how much the ray changes direction. At 1.0 rays pass straight through like in a transparent material; higher values give more refraction.

•Random Roughness: For each strand, randomizes both Roughness values. Settings of 0-1 correspond to 0-100% randomness.

•Random Color: For each strand, randomizes the melanin concentration. Settings of 0-1 correspond to 0-100% randomness.

•Random: Random number source used if no node is connected here.

•Normal: A tuple input representing X, Y, and Z values respectively.

•Method:

•Direct Coloring: Choose the desired RGB color and the shader will approximate the necessary absorption coefficient (below)

•Melanin Concentration: (see also Melanin and Melanin Redness, above). Defines the quantity and ratio of pigments found in hair and fur. The Melanin input defines the quantity, and the Melanin Redness defines the ratio between light and dark hair colors.

•Absorption Coefficient: This mode is intended mainly for technical users who want to use coefficients from the literature without any sort of conversion.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output

 

PrincipledVolume

Combines all volume shading compents into a single node. Includes scattering, absorption, and blackbody emission. Useful for smoke and fire.

 

 

 

      Cycles PrincipledVolume node.

Inputs:

•Color: Volume scattering color. Use this for smoke simulations. • Color Attribute: Volume grid for coloring the volume.

•Density: Density of the volume.

•Density Attribute: Volume grid to define the density.

•Anisotropy: Backward or forward scattering direction.

•Absorption Color: Volume shadow color tint.

•Emission Strength: Amount of light to emit.

•Emission Color: Emission color tint.

•Blackbody Intensity: Blackbody emission for fire. Set to 1 for physically accurate intensity.

•Blackbody Tint: Color tint for blackbody emission.

•Temperature: Temperature in kelvin for blackbody emission.

Outputs:

•Volume: Standard shader output

RefractionBsdf

Used for materials that transmit light. Adds glossy refraction with sharp or microfacet distribution, typically for materials that transmit light. For best results, mix this with a glossy node using a fresnel factor to reduce darkness at the edges.

Cycles RefractionBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the color of the refraction.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Roughness: Influences sharpness of the refraction; perfectly sharp at 0.0 and smoother with higher values

•IOR: Index of refraction defining how much the ray changes direction. At 1. 0 rays pass straight through like transparent; higher values increase the amount of refraction.

•Distribution: Defines the type of microfacet distribution to use. Sharp does not use roughness values. Beckmann, GGX and Ashikhmin-Shirley use the Roughness input to soften/blur reflections.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

ScatterVolume

Lets light scatter in other directions as it hits particles in the volume. Typically used to add fog to a scene, or used in combination with the Volume Absorption node to create smoke.

Cycles ScatterVolume node.

Inputs:

•Color: The color that is reflected. Unlike surface lighting nodes, this is not a color that is applied on top of the finished scattering calculation. It determines what color gets scattered and what color does not get scattered. The light that is not scattered is passed through the volume. For example, if white light passes through a volume that scatters blue, it will appear blue-ish where the light enters and scatters back, and yellow at the end where the light leaves the volume at the other end. The following figure shows more detail

•Density: The amount of light that interacts with the volume (how much is absorbed and how much passes through). Values of 0 produce no volume. Values above 0 increase the amount of volume.

•Anisotropy: Defines the direction that the light scatters. A value of 0 scatters light evenly in all directions. Negative values scatter light backwards, and positive values scatter mostly forward.

Outputs:

•Volume: Plug this output into the Volume input of the Cycles root node.

 

Simple subsurface multiple scattering, for materials such as skin, wax, marble, milk and others. Light penetrates the surface and bounces around internally before getting absorbed or leaving the surface at a nearby point.

Cycles SubsurfaceScattering node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the base color of the surface. Example for blood red color is R 102, G 0, B 0.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Scale: Scale factor for the scattering radius. Default value is .01

•Radius: The maximum distance that light can scatter. The scatter radius can be configured per RGB Color channel. For skin, red colors scatter further.  Three values are expected in the Radius input, representing Red, Green, and Blue scatter radius respectively (example:

.482, .169, and .109 are typical values for Caucasian skin.)

•IOR:  Index of Refraction for Subsurface Scattering.

•Anisotropy: Controls the directionality of subsurface scattering.

•Scatter Group ID: Can be used to prevent bleeding between two materials that have different scattering properties. For example, you might assign all skin materials to one scatter ID, and other areas like lips, eyes, or nails to other scatter group IDs.

•Method:

•Burley: Is an approximation to physically-based volume scattering.

•Random Walk: Provides the most accurate results for thin and curved objects. This comes at the cost of increased render time or noise for more dense media like skin, but also better geometry detail preservation. Random Walk uses true volumetric scattering inside the mesh, which means that it works best for closed mesh.

•Random Walk Fixed Radius: Provides accurate results for thin and curved objects.

Uses true volumetric scattering inside the mesh. Works best for closed meshes. Overlapping faces and holes in the mesh can cause problems.

Outputs :

•BSSRDF: Standard shader output.

ToonBsdf

Creates Diffuse and Glossy Toon BSDF for creating cartoon light effects.

Cycles ToonBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the color of the surface.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Size: Values between 0.0 and 1.0 give angles of reflection between 0 and 90.

•Smooth: This value specifies an angle over which a smooth transition from full to no reflection happens.

•Component: Diffuse makes the material act more like a diffuse shader. Glossy produces a more reflective surface.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

TranslucentBsdf

Adds Lambertian diffuse transmission to the surface.

Cycles TranslucentBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the color of the surface that is scattered outward.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

TransparentBsdf

Used to add transparency without refraction. Only pure white transparent shaders are completely transparent.

Cycles TransparentBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the amount of transparency. Black is fully opaque. White is fully transparent.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

Vector Displacement

Displaces the surface of the object along arbitrary directions. Typically used to apply displacement maps created by other sculpting software because it fully represents the high resolution detail when applied to a smooth base mesh. The Displacement method must be set accordingly.

 

Cycles VectorDisplacement node.

Inputs:

•Vector:The vector that specifies the displacement along three axes. You can connect a texture node here. Use a baked vector displacement map. The RGB colors in an Object Space map are interpreted as XYZ Offsets. For Tangent Space maps, R offsets the tangent, G offsets the normal, and B offsets the bittangent.

•Midlevel: A neutral displacement value that causes no displacement. With the default of 0, negative values push the surface inward, and positive values push the surface outward.

•Scale: Increases or decreases the amount of displacement.

Outputs:

•Displacement: Displacement offset to connect into the Material output.

VelvetBsdf

Reflection shader for velvet cloth materials. Generally used in combination with other shaders such as a Diffuse shader.

Cycles VelvetBsdf node.

Inputs:

•Color: Defines the color of the surface.

•Normal: Connection for a normal map. If nothing is connected, the default normal shader will be used.

•Sigma: Controls the sharpness of the peak of normal distribution, somewhat like a roughness control. Increase the settings to decrease the level and size of darkness in the velvet.

Outputs:

•BSDF: Standard shader output.

Using the PrincipledBsdf Node

Base Color

Using the Color chip for color input.

Using a Color Map for color input.

Metallic

Metallic inputs can either be a fixed value between 0 and 1 (with 0 being non-metallic and 1 being metallic), or a black and white texture map that identifies non-metallic areas in black and metallic areas in white. For an example of metallic maps connected to the PrincipledBsdf node, see Kitty2 Textures-Principled or Kitty3 Textures-Principled. Metallic texture maps should be set to a Custom Gamma Value of 1.0.

Subsurface Settings

The following screen shot shows how to connect subsurface scattering to the Principled Surface node. The first example shows SSS combined with specular and bump maps. Note that the Specular map is processed through a Gloss/Spec Conversion compound node. You can find this node in the Poser 13 Content > Runtime > Libraries > Materials > SuperFly > SuperFly Tileable > !Guide library.

Connections for SSS using Specular and Bump Maps

 

Connections for SSS using Roughness and Normal maps

The connections relating to Subsurface Scattering are as follows:

•Subsurface Color: You can either click the color chip to select the desired subsurface color, or plug in a texture map. In the previous examples I use an HSV2 node to lighten and slightly saturate the base color map, and then plug the output of the HSV2 node into the Subsurface Color input of the Principled BSDF node. This is a "one size fits all" solution that should work with most skin colors.  Alternatively, you can use a blood red color (R 102, G 0 B 0).

•Subsurface: The strength of the SSS effect. A setting of 0 turns SSS off in the material.

•Subsurface Radius: A tuple value that specifies the Red, Green, and Blue scattering distances in millimeters. The chart below may be helpful in choosing settings that are appropriate for the type of material you are creating, relating to the Subsurface value entered above.

•Subsurface IOR: Index of refraction for subsurface scattering.

•Subsurface Anisotropy: Controls the directionality of subsurface scattering.

When converting Blender SSS Scale to Poser Surface Scale, a scale value of 2.62128019 in Blender is equal to a scale value of 1 in Poser. 

 

When converting Poser Surface Scale to Blender SSS Scale, a scale value of 1 in Poser is equal to a scale value of 0.38149298 in Blender.

          Subsurface Radius (R, G, and B           Subsurface Radius (R, G, and B

Material

          values) at Subsurface of .01          values) at Subsurface of 1

Apple          .696, .640, .190          .00696, .00640, .00190

Chicken1          1.161, .388, .175          .01161, .00388, .00175

Chicken2          .944, .335, .179          .00944, .00335, .00179

Cream          .1503, .466, .254          .01503, .00466, .00254

Ketchup          .476, .058, .039          .00476, .00058, .00039

Marble          .851, .557, .395          .00851, .00557, .00395

Potato          1.427, .723, .204          .01427, .00723, .00204

Skim Milk          1.842, 1.044, .350          .01842, .01044, .00350

Skin1 (Darker Skin)          .367, .137, .068          .00367, .00137, .00068

Skin2 (Lighter Skin)          .482, .169, .109          .00482, .00169, .00109

Whole Milk          1.090, .658, .251          .01090, .00658, .00251

•SSS Method: Located at the bottom of the Principled BSDF node. Selects the type of microfacet distribution to use for the material:

•Burley: Is an approximation to physically-based volume scattering.

•Random Walk: Provides the most accurate results for thin and curved objects. This comes at the cost of increased render time or noise for more dense media like skin, but also better geometry detail preservation. Random Walk uses true volumetric scattering inside the mesh, which means that it works best for closed mesh.

•Random Walk Fixed Radius: Provides accurate results for thin and curved objects.

Uses true volumetric scattering inside the mesh. Works best for closed meshes. Overlapping faces and holes in the mesh can cause problems.

Scatter Group ID

The Scatter Group ID can be used to prevent bleeding between two materials that have different scattering properties. For example, you might assign all skin materials to one scatter ID, and other areas like lips, eyes, or nails to other scatter group IDs.

Specular and Specular Tint

The Specular value or image map determines the amount of reflection in non-metallic surfaces.

Recommended setting for non-metallic materials is .5.

The Specular Tint value tints the specular reflection using the base color while glancing reflections remain white. The Specular Tint parameter is not physically correct because normally non-metallic materials have colorless reflection. However, it can be used to fake the appearance of materials that have a complex surface structure.

Roughness

Roughness inputs can either be a fixed value between 0 and 1 (with 0 being very glossy and 1 having a matte finish), or a grayscale texture map that identifies more glossy areas in darker shades and more matte areas in lighter shades. For an example of roughness maps connected to the PrincipledBsdf node, see Kitty2 Textures-Principled or Kitty3 Textures-Principled. Roughness texture maps should be set to a Custom Gamma Value of 1.0.

Anisotropic, Anisotropic Rotation, and Tangent

The Anisotropic affects specular reflections. Higher values give elongated highlights along the tangent direction. Negative values shape the highlights perpendicular to the tangent direction. 

The Anisotropic Rotation setting rotates the direction of tne elongation such that values of 0 to 1 correspond to angles of 0 to 360. Enter a value of .25 for 90 degree rotation, for example.

The Tangent setting controls the tangent for the Anisotropic layer. Enter a tuple that represents X, Y, and Z coordinates, each value separated by a comma.

Sheen and Sheen Tint

Use the Sheen and Sheen Tint inputs to add a soft reflection near the edges of fabrics. The Sheen setting controls the amount of reflection, and the Sheen Tint setting controls the amount that the base color is mixed with white for sheen reflection.

Clearcoat, Clearcoat Roughness, and Clearcoat Normal

Clearcoat provides an extra white specular layer on top of the other layers. It is typically used for car paint and similar materials. As a example, if you want to create a metallic surface tthat has a clearcoat layer, set Metallic to 1, set Roughness to around .4, and set Clearcoat to 1.

The Clearcoat Roughness input controls the roughness of the clearcoat layer. You can plug a Roughness texture into the Clearcoat Roughness input to add scratches to the clearcoat layer, for example.

The Clearcoat Normal setting controls the normals in the Clearcoat layer. You can use a normal map or a bump map to raise or lower surfaces in the clearcoat layer.

IOR

IOR is the Index of Refraction value for light transmission, typically used with glass and metallic surfaces. Refractive indexes for many common materials can be found on Wikipedia's List of Refractive Indices page.

Transmission and Transmission Roughness

A Transmission setting of 0 is used for a fully opaque surface. A Transmission setting of 1 is used for a fully glass surface.

Emission

High emission values produce more light emission from the material. An emission value of 0 makes a material non-emissive. You can also use a grayscale texture map that identifies non- emissive and emissive areas in a texture map. For an example of emissive maps connected to the

PrincipledBsdf node, see Kitty3 Textures-Principled. Emissive texture maps should be set to a Custom Gamma Value of 1.0.

Alpha

The Alpha input setting controls the transparency of the surface. You can enter a numerical value of 0 for fully transparent, or 1 to fully opaque.

To use an image texture with the Alpha input, you can attach an image that has an alpha channel. However, this method only works when you use a Cycles image map texture node (New Node > Cycles > Texture > ImageTexture).

The following example shows a PNG of red dots. The background of the image is transparent, and the image is saved as a PNG with Transparency in Photoshop, giving it an alpha channel.  In this example, you connect the Color output of the Cycles image texture to the Base Color input of the PrincipledBSDF node to create the red dots, and connect the Alpha output of the Cycles image texture to the Alpha input of the PrincipledBSDF node to create the transparent areas.

Use the Cycles image map node to connect images with Alpha channels to the Alpha input of the Principled node

 

Normal

Normal inputs can either be a fixed tuple value representing X, Y and Z coordinates, or a tangent space OpenGL normal map. The normal map defines raised and lowered areas in the surface. For an example of normal maps connected to the PrincipledBsdf node, see Kitty2 Textures-Principled or Kitty3 Textures-Principled. Normal texture maps should be set to a Custom Gamma Value of 1.0.

Texture

BrickTexture

Procedural texture producing Bricks

Cycles BrickTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•Color1: Brick Color #1

•Color2: Brick Color #2

•Mortar: Mortar color

•Scale: Overall texture scale

 

Mortar Size: The Mortar size; 0 means no Mortar

•Bias: The color variation between the brick colors. Values of -1 and 1 only use one of the two colors; values in between mix the colors.

•Brick Width: The width of the bricks • Row Height: The height of the brick rows

•Offset: Brick offset of the various rows.

•Offset Frequency: Frequency of the offset. A value of 2 gives an even/uneven pattern of rows.

•Squash: Amount of brick squashing.

•Squash Frequency: Frequency of brick squashing.

Outputs:

•Color: Texture color output

•Fac: Mortar mask (1 = mortar)

CheckerTexture

Checkerboard texture.

Cycles CheckerTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•Color1: First checkerboard color.

•Color2: Second checkerboard color.

•Scale: Overall texture scale

Outputs:

•Color: Texture color output

Fac: Checker 1 mask (1 = Checker 1)

EnvironmentTexture

Used to light your scene using an environment map image file as a texture.

Cycles EnvironmentTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•Projection: Choose the type of texture projection you want to use for the material.

•Equirectangular: Uses XY coordinates.

•Mirror Ball: Uses spherical mapping.

•Image: Click to choose the texture that you want to use.

Outputs:

•Color: RGB color from the image.

•Alpha: Alpha output from the image. If the image has no alpha channel, output is white.

GradientTexture

A gradient texture based on an input vector.

Cycles GradientTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

Type:

•Point: (TBD)

•Normal: (TBD)

•Texture: (TBD)

•Vector: (TBD)

Outputs:

•Color: Texture color output.

•Fac: Texture intensity output.

ImageTexture

The Image Texture is used to add an image file as a texture.

Cycles ImageTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•Color Space: The type of data that the image contains

•__builtin_srgb: Most color textures and final renders are stored in sRGB format.

•__builtin_raw: Select RAW for images that do not contain colors (grayscale images such as bump, opacity, specular, etc), or for Normal maps.

•Projection: Choose the type of texture projection you want to use for the material.

•Flat: Uses the XY coordinates for mapping.

•Box: Projects texture onto 6 sides of a virtual cube.

•Tube: Maps the tube to a sphere, using the Z axis as the center.

 

•Sphere: Uses spherical mapping using the Z axis as the center.

•Extension: Extension defines how the image is extrapolated past the original bounds:

•Periodic: (Repeat in Cycles) Will repeat the image horizontally and vertically giving tiled-looking result.

•Clamp: (Clip in Cycles)) Clip to the original image size and set all the exterior pixels values to transparent black.

•Black: (Extend in Cycles) Will extend the image by repeating pixels on its edges.

•Mirror: Mirrors the image horizontally and vertically, giving seamless result.

•Interpolation:

•Closest: No interpolation, use only closest pixel for rendering pixel art.

•Linear: Regular quality interpolation.

•Smart: Only for Open Shading Language. Use cubic interpolation when scaling up and linear when scaling down, for a better performance and sharpness.

•Cubic: Smoother, better quality interpolation. For bump maps this should be used to get best results.

•Image: Click to choose the texture that you want to use.

Outputs:

•Color: Texture color output.

•Alpha: Alpha output.

MagicTexture

Creates a psychedelic color texture.

Cycles MagicTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•Scale: Number of iterations

•Distortion: Amount of distortion.

•Depth: Depth of the effect: Outputs:

•Color: Texture color output

•Fac: Texture intensity output

MusgraveTexture

Advanced procedural noise texture. May need some adjustments (multiplication and addition) in order to see more detail.

 

Cycles MusgraveTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•W: Texture coordinate to evaluate the noise at.

•Scale: Overall texture scale.

•Detail: Amount of noise detail.

•Dimension: The difference between the magnitude of each two consecutive octaves.

Larger values corresponds to smaller magnitudes for higher octaves.

•Lacunarity: The difference between the scale of each two consecutive octaves. Larger values corresponds to larger scale for higher octave.

•Offset: An added offset to each octave, determines the level where the highest octave will appear.

•Gain:An extra multiplier to tune the magnitude of octaves.

•Type: Choose multifractal, fBM, hybrid_multifractal, ridged_multifractal, or hetero_terrain.

•Dimensions:  Choose 1D, 2D, 3D, or 4D.

Outputs:

•Fac: Texture intensity output.

NoiseTexture

Procedural Perlin noise texture that produces a cloud pattern.

Cycles NoiseTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•W: Texture coordinate to evaluate the noise at.

•Scale: Overall texture scale

•Detail: Number of noise octaves. The fractional part of the input is multiplied by the magnitude of the highest octave. Higher number of octaves corresponds to a higher render time.

•Roughness: Blend between a smoother noise pattern, and rougher with sharper peaks.

•Distortion: Amount of distortion.

•Dimensions: Choose 1D, 2D, 3D, or 4D.

Outputs:

•Fac: Value of fractal noise.

•Color: Color with different fractal noise in each component.

SkyTexture

Procedural Sky texture for backgrounds.

Cycles SkyTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•Sky Type: Sky model to use. Preetham or Hosek / Wilkie

•Turbidity: A value that defines the amount of humidity in the atmosphere. Lower values result in clearer skies. Higher values make sky more hazy.  A value of 2 produces a clear sky. A value of 10 produces a hazy sky.

•Ground Albedo: The amount of light reflected from the ground

•Sun Direction: The sun direction vector. Enter three values in X, Y, and Z positions respectively.

Outputs:

•Color: Texture color output.

VoronoiTexture

Procedural texture producing Voronoi cells

Cycles VoronoiTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•W: Texture coordinate to evaluate the noise at.

•Scale: Scale of the noise.

•Smoothness: The smoothness of the noise. Higher values blur the noise.

•Exponent: Exponent of the Minkowski distance metric. Lower values create more variance. Higher values reduce variance.

•Randomness: The randomness of the noise. Increase values to create more randomness.

•Dimensions:

•1D: Evaluate the noise in 1D space at the input W.

•2D: Evaluate the noise in 2D space at the input Vector. The Z component is ignored.

•3D: Evaluate the noise in 3D space at the input Vector.

•4D: Evaluate the noise in 4D space at the input Vector and the input W as the fourth dimension.

•Distance Metric: The distance metric used to compute the texture. Options are Euclidean, Manhattan, Chebychev, and Minkowski.

•Feature: The Voronoi feature that the node will compute and return.

•F1: Compute and return the distance to the closest feature point as well as its position and color.

•F2: Compute and return the distance to the second closest feature point as well as its position and color.

•Smooth F1: Compute and return a smooth version of F1.

•Distance to Edge: Compute and return the distance to the edges of the Voronoi cells.

•Z-Sphere Radius: Compute and return the radius of the n-sphere inscribed in the Voronoi cells. In other words, it is half the distance between the closest feature point and the feature point closest to it.

Outputs:

•Distance: Distance.

•Color: Cell color. The color is arbitrary.

•Position: Position of feature point.

•W: Position of feature point.

•Radius: N-Sphere radius.

WaveTexture

Procedural bands or rings texture with noise distortion

Cycles WaveTexture node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Texture coordinate to sample texture at. If the socket is left unconnected, this defaults to Generated texture coordinates.

•Scale: Overall texture scale

•Distortion: Amount of distortion of the wave (similar to the Marble texture in Blender Internal)

•Detail: Amount of distortion noise detail

•Detail Scale: Scale of distortion noise

•Detail Roughness: Blend between a smoother noise pattern, and rougher with sharper peaks.

•Phase Offset: Position of the wave along the Bands Direction. This can be used as an input for more control over the distortion.

•Type: Point, Normal, Texture, or Vector

•Bands Direction: The axis the bands propagate from i.e. which axis they are perpendicular to. When using Bands a Diagonal axis is an option.

•Rings Direction: The axis the rings propagate from i.e. which axis they are perpendicular to. When using Rings the rings can propagate outwards from a single point by using Spherical direction

•Profile: Saw produces a sawtooth profile. Sine uses standard sine profile. Tri produces a blended gradient profile.

Outputs:

•Color: Texture color output

•Fac: Texture intensity output

Vector

Bump

Generates a normal map from a height texture.

Cycles Bump node.

Inputs:

•Height: Input image for the bump map.

•Normal: Method for mapping the bump map.

•Strength: Strength of the bump effect, interpolating between no bump mapping and full bump mapping

•Distance: Multiplier for the height value to control the overall distance for bump mapping

•Invert: Inverts the effect so that white pushes inward and black pushes outward.

Outputs:

•Normal: Standard normal output.

Displacement

Displaces the surface along the surface normal. Adds more detail to geometry.

 

Cycles Displacement node.

Inputs:

•Height: Distance to displace the surface along the normal. This is where a texture node can be connected.

•Midlevel: Neutral displacement value that causes no displacement. With the default 0.5, any lower values will cause the surfaces to be pushed inwards, and any higher values will push them outwards.

•Scale: Strength of the bump effect, interpolating between no bump mapping and full bump mapping

•Normal: Standard normal input.

•Space: Object Space maps work for static meshes, and will render slightly faster with less memory usage. Tangent Space maps can be used for meshes that will be deformed, like animated characters, so the displacement follows the deformation.

Outputs:

•Displacement: Displacement offset to be connected into the Material Output.

Mapping

Transforms a coordinate; typically used for modifying translation, rotating, and scaling texture coordinates.

Cycles Mapping node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Vector to be transformed

•Location: Moves a texture along the X, Y, or Z axis of the object.

•Rotation: Rotates a texture along the X, Y, or Z axis of the object.

•Scale: Scales a texture along the X, Y, or Z axis of the object.

•Vector Type: Choose one of the following types:

•Vector: Transforms a point, but with zero translation.

•Point: Translation moves the input along the local rotation axis. Rotation rotates the input around the origin of the space. Scaling scales the input along the global axis.

•Normal: Use when transforming normals. Performs the inverse transpose of the transformation and normalizes the result.

•Use Min/Max: Check this option to clip textures to the area within the Minimum and Maximum values entered.

•Minimum: Enter a minimum value for the transform.

•Maximum: Enter a maximum value for the transform.

Outputs:

•Vector: The input vector after it is transformed.

Normal

Generates a normal vector.

Cycles Normal node.

Inputs:

•Normal: Input a normal vector here.

Outputs:

•Normal: Outputs one vector.

•Dot: Dot product is 1 if two normals are pointing in the same direction. Dot product is 0 if two normals are perpendicular. Dot product is -1 if two normals are facing directly away from each other.

NormalMap

This is usually chained with an RGB normal map Image Texture node in the color input. For tangent space normal maps, the UV coordinates for the image must match, and the image texture should be set to Non-Color mode to give correct results

Cycles NormalMap node.

Inputs:

•Strength: Strength of the normal mapping effect

•Color: RGB color that encodes the normal in the specified space. Default value is R127, G127, B255

•Space: Can be in one of 4 spaces:

•Tangent: Support object transformation and mesh deformations. Most common normal map type used in Poser.

•Object: Stick to the surface under object transformations.

•World space: Do not stick to the surface under object transformations.

•Gradient Bump: Used for "old style" Poser bump maps.

Outputs:

•Normal: Normal that can be used as an input to BSDF nodes.

VectorDisplacement

Displaces the surface along arbitrary directions. Typically used to apply vector displacement maps created in other software.

 

The mesh must be subdivided sufficiently enough to bring out the detail in the displacement textures.

The PoserSurface and PhysicalSurface nodes put a Vector Displacement Node inline in the displacement channel to make it easier to plug in a map. The Cycles Surface node does not, and you will need to add one manually.

 

Cycles Displacement node.

Inputs:

•Vector: Vector specifying the displacement along three axes. This is where a texture node can be connected.

•Midlevel: Neutral displacement value that causes no displacement. With the default 0.0, any lower values will cause the surfaces to be pushed inwards, and any higher values will push them outwards.

•Scale: Strength of the bump effect, interpolating between no bump mapping and full bump mapping

•Space: Object Space maps work for static meshes, and will render slightly faster with less memory usage. Tangent Space maps can be used for meshes that will be deformed, like animated characters, so the displacement follows the deformation.

Outputs:

•Displacement: Displacement offset to be connected into the Material Output.

VectorTransform

Converts a Vector, Point or Normal between World, Camera, or Object coordinate space.

Cycles VectorTransform node.

Inputs:

•Vector: The input vector

•Vector Type: A point, a normal, or a vector.

•Convert From: Choose World, Object, or Camera.

•Convert To: Choose World, Object, or Camera.

Outputs:

•Vector: The transformed output vector.