Material Normal Node - Dot product??

Support Materials and Textures
1

Hello Everyone,

From the release logs regarding material nodes, Normal:

Use the Normal Node to define a fixed normal, or to perform a dot product with this normal. When used for shading, this normal is in “camera space”.

Pardon my ignorance…What is a “Dot Product”

Thanks for your time!!

2

Dot product is a mathematical relationship between two vectors (normals are vectors).

Math Here

Basically its performing a dot product operation between the normal of the face and the vector from the camera that hits the face and reflects around the normal.

Not sure of its exact use though, seeing as its the projection of one vector onto another.

3

forTe,

Thanks for the reply. Although I am with you…Not sure of its exact use.