Materials question... re: parametric mapping

WsCG

Hello

Just a quick material/texture mapping question...

Is it possible to have a material be mapped to an object based on the surface/normal direction?

Example might be to simulate snow accumulation on a boulder... horizontal/flatter areas facing up would show the snow texture, while steeper and/or surfaces facing down would show normal stone/rock?

Carrara's material system is powerful enough that I wouldn't be surprised if it does... I just can't work out how it might work. The Shader system is still confusing to me, so I"m probably overlooking something.

Thanks!

Diomede

Yes.

In the shader tree. there are options for texture map, mixer, etc.  There are a couple options that could help you.  

Start with a complex shader like layer list or multichannel mixer because they have a channel for blender control.  In the following example,I used a multichannel mixer of red and blue.  I used the environment option for slope to control where each shader is assigned within the mixer.  By varying the slope value in the shader tree, I can increase or decrease the amount of red and blue. You can use elevation, slope, a texture map, etc., etc., etc.  

 

Diomede

One more thing, for some blenders there is a choice for local position (the object itself) or global position (the scene).  If you get undesired results, that might be a place to check.

WsCG

Diomede_Carrara said:

Yes.

In the shader tree. there are options for texture map, mixer, etc.  There are a couple options that could help you.  

Start with a complex shader like layer list or multichannel mixer because they have a channel for blender control.  In the following example,I used a multichannel mixer of red and blue.  I used the environment option for slope to control where each shader is assigned within the mixer.  By varying the slope value in the shader tree, I can increase or decrease the amount of red and blue. You can use elevation, slope, a texture map, etc., etc., etc.  

 

A ha! Exactly what I was looking for.

I looked at that slope blending thing, and couldn't get it to work. Was obviously not doing something right heh. Like I said, materials/shaders in Carrara are still confusing to me. Selecting one option seems to open a whole can of worms, with further cans of worms inside it. Rough to get my head around and keep track of what's going on. I'll get it at some point I'm sure.

Anyway, thanks!

WsCG

Diomede_Carrara said:

One more thing, for some blenders there is a choice for local position (the object itself) or global position (the scene).  If you get undesired results, that might be a place to check.

Good to know! I'll def. keep that in mind.

Thanks!

WsCG

That did it! Perfect!

Super quick and ugly modeling and UV mapping job. I just wanted to confirm that I've got the basic steps down to make it work. Definitely need to spend more quality time with the UV mapping interface, though. Heh.

Okay, now to see if I can figure out how to "roughen up" the transition a bit, so it's not a perfect blend. Probably where the "layers within layers" thing will come into play.

Thanks again!