I was thinking exactly the same thing! Maybe time to return to TG2 cartoons at some point. I had fun making the cheesy Road Runner and the little alien ones!
Thanks for the input, Jo.
A colour function for a simple shape shader would be good but I see where the problem is with applying a specific area of a texture to it. That's where the shader array node is cool because you can easily move a set area of a shader around the world and duplicate it if you want to as well. I think a combination of the two shaders is easiest for me just now, for this purpose anyway. The simple shape creates a static mask at 0,0,0 for the fractal and the shader array acts as a transform shader to both, I always use the xyz=0 point of a shader when editing so, that's always going to be the part I want to move around anyway.
QuoteNote that limiting the effect area is an important optimisation. Although if set incorrectly it could lead to clipping the shader, taking the time to set it up could very well save you a chunk of render time.
It's also a good control because I'm limiting the instances to 1(whirlwind) and using boundary padding about the size of the simple shape mask, a little clipping was actually quite desirable at times because it has the effect of tightening up the cone shape if it was too wide. And you can easily find the outer limitation area because the padding has no effect if it extends past the shape mask.
I do like the shader array node but rotation parameters in a transform shader would be ideal all round for this purpose. Ideal for lots and lots, actually.
Cheers!
