Add variation to cycles texture

Support Materials and Textures
#1

Hi there,

I have been modelling some copper roof tiles for a building I am making, but I want to make them look worn so I have added a greenish texture (masked over the copper one) to them in cylces. The problem I have been having is that they all look the same because effectively they are all duplicates with the same texture, so I was wondering whether I could add variation to each one without having to use a separate material or unwrap them all individually.

Thanks.

#2

maybe experiment around with the random output of the Object Info node (found in the Input menu),
there’s also a Location Output in the same node, you could mix those with the Generated Coordinates too to get more random looking tiles.

#3

Thanks I will try that out. I googled it and found that the node is only in 2.64, which I haven’t got, so I will download that now.

edit: actually, where can I download 2.64 - I couldn’t find it on graphicall?

#4

it’s in all recent builds, they are still labled 2.63 on graphicall, because 2.64 isn’t out yet :wink:

#5

Thank you!

#6

I tried it, but it didn’t really give me the effect I was after. The pictures below show what I have at the moment + my node setup. It looks ok on individual tiles, but dreadfully repeated all over.

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/4997/screenshotpng.png

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/4500/screenshot2qpi.jpg

#7

if each object is individual, which is why it is repeating, just move the UV unwrapping for each of the tiles individually. May take awhile but it will be worth it!

For other variation in a recent project i’m working on, i’d join all the meshes together, create a clouds texture in photoshop or something, mix it into your color node as multiply blending mode, fac to around 0.2-0.5 (sometimes up to 0.8 is needed) to add slight darkening in blotches over all the tiles. Might help a little.

#8

i made you a small example file: http://pasteall.org/blend/15063

random.blend.png1920×1148 248 KB

#9

gexwing, I used your example and I don’t know how it works, but it has added variation, so thanks a lot.

http://img834.imageshack.us/img834/1342/screenshotpnga.th.png

#10

very interesting for a proc texture

but is it possible to do samething with infodoc using material for a UV image in cycles ?

any sample file available for showing this ?

like for a wood texture image of a plank for a floor

and use same texture but when copying get a small variation on each plank

thanks

thanks

#11

The node setup i posted uses the random output to generate some variety. It simply outputs a number between 0 and 1. The “Random” Goup i made is just for easier changing the material, it changes the range to Mean +/- Variance. I use this to manipulate the texture coordinates. you can shift them around, or like i did couple it with the object location, which i also scale and add to the normal coordinates. the red color also has a slight variation to it for more variation. i hope that explanation helps you somewhat :slight_smile:

#12

i just did a test with a plan wood iamge

and it seems to work

very nicely

thanks for this example

but may be there must be a way to do the same thing using the material from the infodoc node!

it would be interesting to see it

still not cetain what ll the math nodes are doing here
can you elaborate on the math side of things!

thanks

#13

instead of seperating all color and playing with each color

would there be a way to simply use vector directly and add a small variation to it may be!

i’ll try a test later on today

thanks

#14

did test wit vector and seem to also work

pln3.JPG1015×474 59.8 KB

salutaitons

#15

i think you’re a bit confused because of the color in/outputs, i just use those to scale location randomly (so there is variation in size and position of the texture). there’s no vector separate or combine, so i use the color ones: internaly they are both the same, 3 floatingpoint values. it’s confusing because you expect that the yellow dots are purely used for color, but yellow and blue actually do the same thing. Idealy there should be a Vector scaling node, but there isn’t so i had to make my own with this little hack.

#16

if you mulitply the vector by something it should work i think!

i tried the set up as shown with vectors and for what ever reason it gives some locations and color variations
even if this way is not logical
and it looks nice

so i can use it for my panels with one texture and still get some colors and good textures variation on several panels
which is exactly what i needed!

thanks

#17

Well it’s not that easy, the math node only does 1 dimensional math, so you can’t do numbervector, and the vector math only does vectorvector cross- and dotproduct, so not helpful here. i didn’t find a way to do it easier than separating the vector, multiplying each component then combining it again.

#18

strange cause it can do it when scripting!

but you could use dot product it will do a number times a vector !
i vaguely remember something about that!

only problem is that most var are between 0 and 1
and nodes are limited max = 1

so even if you multiply with big number it will simply saturate the output!

unless you use the Addshader instead of mix shader
but then you might get saturated values which are not naturel !

salutations