fake stones and multiple shader additions

Started by Aenea, November 09, 2007, 09:48:32 AM

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Aenea

Hey together!

As I am working through my current problems...*lol*, a question occured suddenly.

Is it possible to add an image map shader (as surface shader) AND an image map shader as mask (as blending shader) AND a power fractal shader?

Me thinks normally you have to use a power fractal shader as blending shader but as this spot is already occupied......
Of course, I could relocate the image shader mask to the parent layer of the fake stones, but I detected that it is currently impossible (see other thread: mask layer part 2).
The question is how can I add a power fractal shader to get my rocks and stones a touch more realilty......
Or is there a completely different way?

puh, I think I want to much at once.....but as my former problem is nearly solved now.....I´m looking for a new one *lol*.


Only some general thoughts:
The problems that occure to me most of the time is when you have mastered one task and want another thing added, often it mixes up your whole work before.....

The one problem was the strange displacement of the image map shaders to the fake stones, once this was solved by making the fake stones childs of a layer so there were no colour mixing ups anymore.....the image mask came and I had to go through everything once again to look for a way to get everything I wanted but not by destroying the work before.....is this always the case? Do you experience something like that too????

A good weekend to everyone

Aenea


bigben

The short answer is you can do anything.  ;)

You can always create a surface shader that looks the way you want the surface of your fake stones to look and then simply connect it to your fake stones shader input.  The same goes for masks (which is why I make that preview shader... remember  ;)) You can make a mask up from many components... e.g. a power fractal blended by an image map connected to a surface shader with altitude and slope restrictions...

Don't forget with masking that you can also functions to combine masks (e.g. tree mask = tree distribution - mask - minus road mask ... to make sure there are no trees on water or in the middle of a road.)