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·······································Procedural Textures Creating Textures 3. Double-click on the filter to open its options panel, and click on the button labeled Texture. This opens a Texture Editor window, just as we find when working on our surfaces in the Surface Editor. Notice that a layer has been created by default, as per usual. 4. Change this layer to Procedural Texture from the Layer Type list, and select Value from the Procedural Type list. You can change this color to anything you want, as it will form the underlying color for the texture. Of course, the color you select for this procedural texture will depend on whether this texture will be used for a color texture or for a texture for any of the other surface attributes. If the texture is to be used for a specularity or bump or reflection texture, or for any of the other surface attributes that use gray values, then you will naturally choose a base shade of gray. 5. On top of this base layer, you can now add whatever procedural textures you wish to use on your surface, and set them up as you want. If your Image Editor is still open, notice how the preview window shows the procedural textures that you have applied to this image. 137 Figure 8-4 Figure 8-5 Chapter 8············································ Part 3 6. Go to the Surface Editor of the object to which you wish to apply this surface. If we wish to apply it to the color attribute of a sur- face, for example, we would open up the color Texture Editor for that surface. Create a layer with Image Map as its Layer Type, and load the image that we just applied Textured Filter to from the Image list. Of course, the only thing to bear in mind when using this method is that the procedural tex - ture is now acting as an image and consequently requires projection settings. Because of this, your procedural texture will not be calculated as it would be if it were simply applied as a procedural texture in the Texture Editor. However, this can be useful for checking how the different settings of the texture will more or less look in terms of size and behavior in relation to your surface. So you could use this method simply to check that, and then copy the procedural straight into your Texture Editor as a procedural tex - ture layer. 138 Figure 8-6 Figure 8-7 ·······································Procedural Textures Creating Textures Texture Color and Texture Value When creating procedural textures, notice that the first option in each of their panels is the Texture Color or Tex - ture Value option. Note that this option is always labeled Texture Value unless the texture is applied to the color attribute of a surface, in which case it is labeled Tex - ture Color. This value determines the intensity of the texture at its strongest point. For example, if you apply a procedural with a value of 60% as its Texture Value to your specularity attribute, then that value determines the brightest point of specularity in the texture. Because procedural textures have a number of variations of tones within them, the brightest point that you determine with the Texture Value option is simply the most intense of a wide range of val- ues that are then calculated. So in this case you would get a range of values that would not exceed 60%. To assign a Texture Value to a proce- dural, simply type an amount into the field, or drag the spinner left or right with your mouse to decrease or increase the value respectively. Texture Scale When working with procedurals, as with images, we can alter the scale, position, rotation, and falloff of the textures. Because of the way in which procedurals are calculated, Position and Rotation are not generally neces - sary to change, unless you are animating them or holding them in world space using world coordinates. NOTE: See Chapter 13 for more information about the Scale, Posi - tion, Rotation, and Falloff options in the Texture Editor. However, the Scale value is quite important when working procedurally, as this can have a very drastic effect on the look of the procedural texture when it is applied to a surface, since this value determines the size of the fractal patterns within the texture. Figure 8-10 demonstrates the difference between two different scales using the same procedural texture. 139 Figure 8-8 Figure 8-9 Chapter 8············································ Part 3 In most instances, you use values that are smaller than the actual dimensions of the surface when using procedural textures; otherwise, they not only tend to look a little strange, but they also begin to look far too much like procedural textures. In other words, they begin to look a little fake. Once you have been doing 3D for a while, you tend to develop a good eye for spotting procedural textures, so this is why we have to be careful that our textures look natural and not mathematically created. Unlike using Scale with images, where we usually set the size ratio to more or less the same as that of the image itself, using different values for each of the Scale axes can produce some interesting results. As we know, stretching an image disproportionately along one of its axes will look terri- ble; however, stretching a procedural differently along its axis is absolutely fine, and you can use this to create the right look for your texture pretty easily. For example, if you wanted to use a procedural texture to create some streaky damage from rain or water that has dripped down the length of a surface, you could scale the y-axis of that tex - ture much larger than the other two axes, so that it would appear to be stretched length - wise, as shown in Figure 8-11. Using Procedural Textures Creatively As mentioned before, procedural textures need to be used very carefully so as not to produce an overly computer-generated look on your surfaces. Remember though, that just as with gradients and images, procedural textures are used not only to actually form solid texture layers on their own, but also to blend different texture layers together, or to enhance other lay - ers by using different blending modes. NOTE: Refer to Chapter 13 for more information on using different blending modes in the Texture Editor. 140 Figure 8-10 Figure 8-11: Image shows the y-axis scaled much larger than the other two axes. ·······································Procedural Textures Creating Textures Something you also need to bear in mind when using them is that due to their apparently random nature, placing them in the right areas of your sur - faces can be quite tricky. As opposed to an image map, where you would simply paint the different details where you want them to be, placing proce - dural textures can be a little more complicated. Because procedurals are calculated evenly across the expanse of a sur - face, you need to develop ways in which you can place certain procedural details onto specific areas of the surface. This can be done easily using weight maps in conjunction with gradients that can then act as alpha layers for the procedural texture or by creating actual images that you then use as alpha layers to limit the visibility of the procedural texture to certain areas only. Using methods like this is really quite important, as having procedural textures applied evenly across an entire surface usually looks pretty fake, because as we already know, surfaces in real life tend to develop details in fairly precise ways, not completely random ones. NOTE: Refer to Chapter 10 for more information and a tutorial on creating weight maps for the placement of procedural textures. Above all, probably the most important thing to be aware of when it comes to procedural textures is that very rarely do they work very well on their own. Generally, for the most photorealistic and believable looking surfaces, a combination of gradients, procedurals, and image maps may be required. Of course, there certainly are instances where a very cunning and complex procedural setup can suffice on its own, but this is not very common. In the end, it really comes down to your own discretion, because invariably you use whatever methods get the results that you are after. It is nevertheless important to note that you are not always likely to produce a totally satisfac - tory result using procedurals and nothing else. Using LightWave’s Built-in Procedural Textures LightWave obviously ships with a number of different procedural textures that you can use in your surfaces. There are a number of third-party proce - dural collections available for purchase as well, but for the purposes of this book we shall only examine the ones native to LightWave. Please note that in all of the following examples, the procedural texture is demonstrated using the Color attribute in the Surface Editor, unless oth - erwise stated. 141 Chapter 8············································ Part 3 Brick The first procedural texture in the list is the Brick texture. As its name suggests, this tex - ture makes…bricks. So it isn’t really one of the most versatile of textures. However, should you need a brick texture on the fly, then this is pretty handy. When applied to a surface, this proce - dural texture creates an array of symmetri - cally spaced bricks with thin mortar between them. The Texture Color for the Brick pro - cedural determines the color of the mortar, not the bricks. The color of the bricks is determined rather by the base color of the surface if the procedural is applied as the bottom or only texture layer in the Texture Editor, or by the color of any underlying layers. The Mortar Thickness value sets the thickness of the mortar between the bricks. Lower values obviously create thinner mortar, while higher val- ues produce thicker layers. If your mortar value gets too high, the mortar will completely cover the bricks. Use the Fuzzy Edge Width option to determine how soft the edges of the mortar appear to be. A low Fuzzy Edge Width value has very defined edges, while a higher value results in very soft, blurred edges. The Brick procedural is one of the few LightWave procedurals that requires projection coordinates. You set this using the Texture Axis buttons in the Texture Editor, choosing to project the texture along the x-, y-, or z-axis. Obviously, the axis that you choose to project the texture along will depend on the orientation of the surface to which you are applying it. This 142 Figure 8-12: Brick texture Figure 8-13 Figure 8-14: Low and high Mortar Thickness values Figure 8-15 ·······································Procedural Textures Creating Textures can sometimes pose some minor annoyances, especially if you are applying the texture to an entire building, as invariably this means that one of the sides of the building is not going to look correct, as demonstrated in Figure 8-16. To counteract this, we generally tend to require at least two layers of this procedural, or multiple surfaces applied to the same object, to ensure that all the walls of the building look correct. Another funny little thing to keep an eye out for when using the Brick procedural is the possibility that you might apply it to an object and end up with an entire side of the object being covered in plain mortar. This is purely due to the positioning of the texture, as it may end up with a layer of mortar occurring on the edge of an object. To fix this, simply adjust the position of the texture along whichever axis the problem is occurring. Bump Array Second in our list of procedurals is the Bump Array texture. If you ever need to make a golf ball texture, this one is a good bet, as it creates an array of dimples on your surface. Because this texture is most useful for bump texturing, this example uses the tex - ture in its bump channel. Okay, so it doesn’t create a perfect golf ball pattern. But it is close enough. Setting this texture up is really simple; all you need to do is specify the Radius of the little bumps themselves and the Spacing between them. Obviously, the higher the Radius value, the larger the little indentations, and the higher the Spacing value, the larger the spaces between the indenta - tions. When setting the overall Scale 143 Figure 8-16: Brick Texture Axis options Figure 8-17: Bump Array texture Figure 8-18 Chapter 8············································ Part 3 value for this texture, the larger the value, the larger the actual array pat - tern. So you generally find a good balance using the texture’s actual settings, as well as the Scale value in the Texture Editor. Playing around with the Radius and Spacing values can create some really interesting-looking surfaces. Experiment with this by giving them rather extreme values and see what happens. You can also get some cool-looking and useful textures by inverting this procedural, which naturally creates little bumps all over the surface instead of indentations. This can be useful for making textures like bubble wrap, beadwork, or extremely warty, organic surfaces. The only slightly tricky thing about using this procedural for organic surfaces is that it has a very defined pattern that does not look natural. You might want to try experimenting with the Crust procedural, discussed in a moment, if you wish to create organic bumps more easily, or try using another texture as a displacement below it to break the pattern up a bit. See the “Layer Opacity and Blending Modes” section in Chapter 13 for more information on using displacement layers in the Texture Editor. Checkerboard In all honesty a fairly unexciting and mostly not very useful texture, the Checkerboard procedural creates a bunch of colored squares all over your surface, just like a checkerboard. Setting this procedural up is extremely simple. The only setting you have is the Tex - ture Color value, which — you guessed it — determines the color of the blocks in the pattern. Remember that this effect is a two- tone effect, and therefore the colors that we see on the surface when rendered are the Texture Color that we set within the procedural’s settings along with the color of the actual surface itself. So if the sur - face color is orange, and you set the procedural’s Texture Color to blue, then you will end up with an orange and blue checkerboard pattern. It’s almost too easy. 144 Figure 8-19: Inverted Bump Array texture Figure 8-20: Checkerboard texture Figure 8-21 ·······································Procedural Textures Creating Textures To set the size of the actual blocks within the pattern, simply adjust your Scale values in the Texture Editor. These values determine the dimensions of each square. For example, using a setting of 500mm, 500mm, 500mm for your Scale axes, as shown in Figure 8-22, you would get a pat - tern with squares that are each 500mm in dimension. When applied to a box that is approxi - mately 2m by 2m in size, this texture would look like what is shown in Figure 8-23. Crumple Crumple is definitely one of the procedural textures that I use the most. It is one of the best procedurals, in my opinion, for use on organic surfaces to create a grain, especially for any type of skin. This procedural is an extremely detailed texture that looks like some- thing that has been crumpled (crushed and squashed) under pressure, with sharp ridges and scalloped or beaten indenta- tions within the texture. This is really useful for surfaces such as old dried paper that has been crumpled and then unfolded, beaten metal (especially for armor or any metal items that have been handmade), even ground, ice, snow, or anything else that has had some kind of hammering or crumpling. Figure 8-24 shows the Crumple texture applied as a bump map. When inverted, it creates a great cellular type grain that is excellent for skin and leather. It is most useful for using as a bump map, although, of course, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot use it for other surface attributes too. The Crumple procedural has a couple of different settings to control its effect. The Texture Value, as with all proce - durals, controls the overall strength that the texture has on the surface attribute to which it is applied. The Frequencies value determines the complexity of the actual crumple pattern by varying the number of scales of detail included in the procedural pattern. A value of 0 145 Figure 8-22 Figure 8-23 Figure 8-24: Crumple texture Figure 8-25 Chapter 8············································ Part 3 produces a completely flat pattern. Figure 8-26 demonstrates the effect of increasing this value. As you can see, the ridges stay the same, but the complexity of the detail within the indentations between the ridges increases as this value increases. While Frequencies determines the complexity of the pattern as a whole, the Small Power value affects the actual details within the procedural themselves by affecting the intensity with which the details are shaded. Higher values of Small Power (1.0 or higher) create an even intensity of shading with both the small and large dents and details in the surface, which results in a very detailed, busy surface with lots of small details while the larger details lose some of their distinction. Lower values (0.50 and lower) have less distinction between the large and small details that results in a smoother-looking surface between the larger ridge areas. The default value of 0.75 is a nice in-between setting that has distinctly small and large details in the surface. As mentioned before, inverting the Crumple procedural is really great for organic surfaces, especially for skin or leather. By inverting the texture, scaling it down to really small sizes, and setting it to a fairly low Tex - ture Value, you can create an excellent base bump map for surfaces like these. 146 Figure 8-26: Frequencies value for Crumple Figure 8-27: Small Power values for Crumple Figure 8-28: Inverted Crumple texture [...]... anything Figure 8- 44 shows the texture scaled down to 5mm by 5mm by 5mm, a Texture value of 100%, Frequencies and Contrast both set to 5.0, and Small Power set to 1.0 Figure 8- 44 Grid This texture creates a grid pattern on your surface that is three-dimensional Another very simple procedural to set up, the control panel for the Grid texture is easy to understand and apply values to Figure 8- 45 : Grid texture... setting Figure 8- 35: Dots texture The Dot Diameter value determines the size of the dots themselves Small values create small dots, while larger values make big ones A value of 1.0 creates Figure 8- 36 really large dots that have edges almost touching each other 1 48 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Procedural Textures Creating Textures Figure 8- 37: Dot Diameter... ValueGradient Noise, Lattice Convolution Noise, and Sparse Convolution Noise Figure 8- 86 1 64 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Procedural Textures Creating Textures The following image demonstrates each of these noise types using the Puffy Clouds procedural texture Figure 8- 87: Noise Type options Although some of the other noise types may produce more pleasing... thinner clouds Figure 8- 97: Cyclone Offset values Dented As its name suggests, this texture creates turbulent noise that emulates a crumpled, dented surface, especially when inverted It is most useful as a bump texture, as Figure 8- 98 demonstrates Aside from controls for Octaves and Noise Type, the panel for the Dented procedural offers us options for altering the Scale, Figure 8- 98: Dented texture Power,... value should be altered in very small increments of about 0.1 to get the desired effect Figure 8- 33 shows the difference between the default value, a low value, and a high value of Ledge Level 147 Chapter 8 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Part 3 Figure 8- 33: Ledge Level values for Crust The Ledge Width value controls the angle of the “slope” at... understand and apply values to Figure 8- 45 : Grid texture Figure 8- 46 The Line Thickness value determines the thickness of the actual lines that make up the grid Obviously, lower values produce thin lines, while high values produce thick ones The maximum thickness that you can set this value to is 0.5, which produces a solid grid Figure 8- 47 : Changing the Line Thickness value Fuzzy Edge Width determines... lines in the grid are The default value of 0.0 produces normal, sharp-edged lines; higher values soften and blur the edges of the lines 151 Chapter 8 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Part 3 Figure 8- 48 : Fuzzy Edge Width values for Grid Honeycomb This procedural is very similar to the Grid texture, except that in this case the pattern forms hexagonal... unnecessarily long Figure 8- 53: Frequencies values for Marble The Turbulence value determines how close the veins may come to one another in the pattern by squashing or expanding the pattern as a whole, thereby pulling the veins closer together or pushing them farther apart 153 Chapter 8 · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Part 3 Figure 8- 54: Turbulence values... water, and are particularly useful as bump maps, as shown in Figure 8- 58 Ripples and Ripples 2 are only slightly different from one another in that Ripples 2 creates ripples with sharper, more defined crests The following image demonstrates the difference between the two, where both have been applied using exactly the same settings Figure 8- 58: Ripples textures Despite the fact that the two textures are... distinct ones Values exceeding 4. 0 tend to lose their realism and look more stylized Figure 8- 73: Band Sharpness values for Underwater Value The most straightforward and simple of all the procedurals, Value is not actually a texture, but instead creates a solid layer of a single color or value Select the color or value by simply clicking on the Texture Color swatch Figure 8- 74 Veins The Veins procedural . soften and blur the edges of the lines. 151 Figure 8- 44 Figure 8- 45 : Grid texture Figure 8- 46 Figure 8- 47 : Changing the Line Thickness value Chapter 8 ··········································· Part. extremely subtle anyway. 149 Figure 8- 37: Dot Diameter values for Dots Figure 8- 38: Fuzzy Edge Width values for Dots Figure 8- 39: Fractal Noise texture Figure 8- 40 Chapter 8 ··········································· Part. value of 0 145 Figure 8- 22 Figure 8- 23 Figure 8- 24: Crumple texture Figure 8- 25 Chapter 8 ··········································· Part 3 produces a completely flat pattern. Figure 8- 26 demonstrates