I’ve been trying to figure out how to emulate unstylized contemporary paper in Blender using only the principled BSDF. One requirement is that an image (or a page layout design as in the examples below) be fed into the base color of the BSDF.
As you can see in the example there is a pronounced texture or noise that get’s picked up in the photos and colored areas. That’s a real world flaw of paper called modeling right. And it get’s exasperated by a very thin clear coat that get’s applied especially to the colored areas to keep the ink from rubbing off on your fingers. All that to say how would you go about getting that noise or texture in Blender? That’s question 1.
Also for the keen eyed folks out there, what else do you see in this material that I may be missing. What other switches and dials would you fiddle with in the Principled BSDF to get a real modern day paper look?
You can just enable a noise texture…as a Bump Map…
The Ink is semi-transparent and also picks up some of the paper texture but also looks a bit mottled ( some of that is via the paper)…but if you add the noise to your paper and use Texture Paint and add a noise scaled like the Paper…then you can get similar effects…
I thought I might be able to use a color mix node to control where the texture is more pronounced. I’d like it more obvious in the darker areas and less so in the lighter or white areas. I’m hitting a wall in my understanding and my experiments are leading no where. Startig to think this is something easier to do in Photoshop. Before I abandon any thoughts on how to achieve in Blender? Here’s what I got.
Shouldn’t the additional ink make the paper more glossy… so you might use the alpha channel to mix a paper material with a “ink” material… or the influence of specualr and/or roughnesss… ??
Yeah, a tiny sheen is created by the ink and the coating. The paper is mottled all over but you really only see it where the ink/coating is. I could plug the texture into the specular or roughness and get the mottled look as you suggested. But would if I’m creating an alpha channel to do that wouldn’t I have to create a mask first?
I was hoping I could find a way in Blender to mimic the layer blending modes in Photoshop. Using blending modes it’s really quick to isolate a texture so it’s only effects the light or dark areas of a photo/art. But maybe an alpha channel isolates without a mask? I’ll look into that.
Well… for a full printed coverage there is no need for it because the ink is all over the place… i meant this more about those areas where there is simpler text or so where teh “underlying” paper is seen more…
The gloss of ink varies slightly depending on the color.
So you just have to convert the color image to black and white, and you just have to do it with Rougness. In this case, it is essential to check for incorrect gloss.
I don’t think I’m connecting the dots with the gloss concern. The roguhness is jacked way up anyway. I just want to get a noise texture into the darker areas of a UV. I can think of several ways of doing it in Photoshop using blendig modes and layers, but I don’t know Blender well enough to do that using nodes.
I simply write down my opinion with the information I can find.
The type of paper seems to be kraft paper ?
Rather than using nodes to reproduce materials that show irregular pulp particles on the surface, using high-definition images can give a natural pulp feel
The gloss of ink is most strongly expressed in black and red.
This is the nature of fine-dot printing, which may look different depending on the density difference.
※ In my personal opinion, I think black always has a high gloss.
Most of the time, if you convert the surface color to black and white and adjust the consistency, it will look similar.
The image below shows how to mix ingredients.
If you look at the image you showed as a sample without prior information, it seems that the white spots are printed like that.
If not, I think it’s a bumper texture caused by the texture of paper
※ There may be an incorrect expression because you are not an English user.
Add…
Download Paper Material
Please refer to the paper material production video and make it with the desired texture.
(Craft paper is often used as a packaging material.)
Used a Text Object ( no time to bake out an image texture)
The paper has the Bump Node and Noise Node with a high scale ( 1000 )
2 for detail and the rest default…
The Text Object needs to be adjusted so that the scaling fits the under texture of the paper…add a bit more gloss… Texture Coordinates and mapping to align with Paper…
For that last image, you posted where the Text looks worn off and mottled,
I used a color-ramp off of the Noise and ran it to the Alpha with Alpha Hashed set as the Blend type, which brings in a hint of the Paper Color…or you could add in another noise and do the same with different settings… all depending on lighting of course…
Thanks everyone. I’m learning more about procedural shaders by all of your responses. Going to to try your node set up next RSEhiers. But here’s where I’ve landed for now. I think it needs to be improved in the following ways:
-The noise texture on it’s own produces a texture that reminds me more of a leathered surface,. It’s not terrible but it’s not quite looking like a real uncoated paper like this paper from Mowhawk. Can a high-def sample of actual paper be used to create a custom noise? And would that interefere with the design/image I’m feeding into the BSDF Base Color? < Going to look into that.
-Also I’d prefer the noise texture be pronounced primarily in large areas of solid color and less pronounced in continuous gradations such as photos. I’m trying to avoid a mask, or painting the texture in because it’s another step and I have a lot of these to do. Not sure what the solution is for this.
What does “Alpha Hashed sset as Blend type” mean? I’m playing with this and when I crush the ramp together I get a paper flecking effect, which is cool in and of itself, but I want to make sure I’m not missing something else.
Also I don’t know how you did this but is there a benifit to connecting nodes like this?
And one other question RSEhiers, why did you start your node tree with Texture Coridinates and Mapping. I’ve see others do this, but what are the benefits of that trather than just starting with the noise node?
The different alpha blending types exist because ( as also in many other cases ) there are different possibilities… which might be usefull and so some of them are in the “options” ( obviously for textures with no alpha channel… tou don’t even need this… )…
Regarding Add → Layout - >Reroute for the lines between the nodes… well in this exampl itmight not be neccessary but image mutliple connectiosn all over the screen all individually connected to something on the left (and so crossing all over)… so with re-route you can “bundle” and lead the path a bit…
I set the Blend Node to Alpha Hashed because I could see some transparency in the INK on the Paper ( like Okidoki said, “It isn’t necessary”, but does give a bit of DEPTH to the ink. Since I used a Text object, not an image, it stops the shadow from the text showing also.)
As noted, it is a Re-route, I have the habit of adding one whenever I am going to use the output of a node several times so that by the end I can make the node tree READABLE.
Texture Coordinates and Mapping allow you to CONTROL how the texture is mapped to your object…it will depend on the object, and HOW you use them. See in this case it was set to Object Coordinate since it was a Text Object without a UV also notice I set Z rotation to 90 degrees, or it would have had an obvious distortion on the letters.
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