Vein

| Texture | Vein | Advanced | Render Tree Usage

Shader Type: Texture

Output: Color (RGB) value

Creates a vein-like scalar texture space. You can control the vein thickness, complexity, and other visual styles. This shader can be animated using the Time parameter.

Name

The shader’s name. Enter any name you like, or leave the default.

Texture

Texture Space

Defines the texture space the texture will be applied to. The projection can be defined per object or to all objects in the selection.

Object Selection: When multiple objects are selected, defines whether changes are applied to all objects or a specific one. This control updates automatically as you select objects in the scene, as long as the property editor is not locked.

Property Selection: Lets you choose a Texture Support. If no texture support has been defined, you can create one by clicking New. If a texture projection is already defined, you can edit it by clicking Edit.

Edit: Opens the Texture Support property page for the defined texture projection.

New: Defines the new texture projection to be created. You can choose from the following:

UV: Projects the texture along the U and V.

Planar XY: Projects the texture on X and Y coordinates only.

Planar XZ: Projects the texture on X and Z coordinates only.

Planar YZ: Projects the texture on Y and Z coordinates only.

Cylindrical: Projects the texture as though it is a cylinder wrapped around an object.

Spherical: Surrounds the object with a spherical mapping across the whole surface with some distortion.

Spatial: The texture is centered on the scene’s origin.

Cubic: Applies the texture onto the object by first assigning the object’s polygons to faces of a cube, and then projecting the texture onto each face by default. The layout of a cubic projection can be completely customized using the options in the Texture Support property editor.

Camera Projection: The texture is mapped relative to the camera’s center. In this coordinate system, the camera is the center of the “world,” with an up vector, looking toward the negative Z axis. The result resembles an image projected from a camera. The texture will move with the camera and will be affected by any scaling, rotation, and translation.

Unique Uvs (Polymesh): Applies a texture to polygon objects by assigning each polygon’s UV coordinates to its own distinct piece of the texture so that no two polygons’ coordinates overlap each other.

Advanced: Opens the Create Texture Support property page from which you can explicitly define a texture projection.

Bump Mapping

Enable

Switches bump mapping on or off.

Bump Map Factor

Defines how “bumpy” the bump map will be. A negative value inverts the bump inward; a positive bump map factor bumps outward.

Use Alpha

Uses the texture’s alpha channel to achieve a bump map.

Vein

Colors

Color 1

Defines the first color of the fractal pattern.

Color 2

Defines the second color of the fractal pattern.

Alpha

Copy Alpha to RGB

Multiplies the RGB channels with the alpha channel by the factor defined in the Alpha Strength parameter.

Alpha Strength

Determines the factor by which the Alpha is multiplied with the RGB channels.

Thickness

Defines the veins’ thickness.

Complexity

Defines how complex and convoluted the curves of the veins will be. Low values (1-3) produce thick, flowing curves; higher values cause chaotic and choppy curves.

Falloff

Defines the falloff region around the veins.

Sharpness

Defines the falloff between the vein and the falloff region defined in the Falloff parameter. A value of 0.0 causes no noticeable step between the two regions; higher values create a definite transition.

Intensity

Defines the overall scaling of the intensity effect.

Time

Can be used to animate the texture by defining the current time.

Advanced

Bump Mapping

Step

Controls the U, V, and Z steps of a bump map. Use this parameter to “smooth” bumps or make them more jagged.

Alternate

U, V, Z

Specifies whether every other copy of the repetition should be reversed so that the successive copies of the texture are alternated.

Repeats

Texture Repeats

Contains the repetition factor in X,Y, and Z. A value of 2, for example, shrinks the texture so that it fits twice in a [0..1] interval.

UV Remap

Minimum, Maximum

Determines the remapping of the texture image. For a 2D image, only X and Y are used.

Render Tree Usage

Color parameters can be connected to other textures or image processing shaders. A texture’s scalar parameters can be altered to create interesting effects by applying Texture Generator shaders to them. For example, the Thickness parameter can be controlled with the Incidence shader to create an interesting effect, depending on camera angle.

A texture shader has seemingly limitless capabilities in a render tree. It can texture an object, be used as a camera or light projection, define bump or displacement maps, or be blended with any number of other textures to create any effect.



Autodesk Softimage v.7.5