Shader Mixer questions

Soto

Hi!

I am a complete strager to Shader Mixer, it looks very difficult, but the idea of creating shaders is very interesting.

I love the idea of of having a layer with more optionsfor tatoos or makeup.

1- Can a diffuse layer have it’s own UV? Like a layered tatoo that will stay in plave regardless of the character’s UV?

2- Is it possible to add blending modes (multiply, soft light, etc) to the Diffuse Overlay or another layer?

I know LIE or Geometry Shell are options, but I have reasons to preffer something else. If any of this is possible, can someone please hint me in the right direction :/

Richard Haseltine

1. No, unfortunately UVs are properties of the surface not of maps so there isn't - currently - a way to vary them for different maps. I wish DS handled this like modo, where the UV to use iss et as an image property.

2. You could almost certainly do that by editing the shader, yes, though I'm not sure how it would be done in detail - or how much impact it would have on performance.

jag11

To complement Richard's comment, Iray has a rich repertoir of blending modes, you can see it on the image below.

Regarding UV's, using shader mixer you can put whatever you want in a UV mapped texture, be it an 16x19 image or a 256x7764 image. MDL allows you to read every pixel from any source and place it over a material's texture.

Believe me, creating shaders is not as complicated as it seems, you can create a shader with just 2 bricks.

 

Soto

Thank you both! I am sorry for answering so late. I didn’t got a notification and got involved in a release. 

Too bad about the UVs. The way Modo treats UVs as described by Richard sounds more flexible, but if that’s how it is with DAZ Studio at least I’m glad to know it doesn’t work so I stop wondering lol

I’ve been looking everywhere for blending modes in MDL and nothing, that’s a big number of modes indeed! I was expecting like four maybe.

I will definitely experiment more! I am excited again, even if the huge cobweb of color cables in the Iray shader scares me to death.

Thanks both again! 

Soto

Me again

I was (finally) able to (more or less) create an additional layer duplicating the diffuse overlay in the Uber shader. I figured out how to make the blending options appear in the surfaces tab by connecting Enum Value to the User Parameters, but of course, those blending options won`t do anything if they are not connected somehow to the additional layer. This is where I am stuck.

I have tried to study other bricks and tried all kind of things, but I still don`t seem to have luck making the blending options do anything for the new layer.

I would really appreciate if someone could point me out to the right direction. Any hint will be greatly appreciated!

jag11

The attached image shows the simplest color blender shader, there you can see how different bricks play together.

Blend Map 1 and 2 are Texture Instance bricks.

More complex shaders would have the same structure.

HTH

 

Soto

Thank you jag11! I definitely was missing how the User Parameters fit into all this. That part specially seems pretty obvious now, but has been driving me nuts. Oso3d was also very nice to point me in the right direction :) I will print your screen shot for future reference, definitelly helps a lot!

Now the last thing I am confused about is how to create a shader exactly like the Uber Base so I can add the layers to it. When I load the Uber Shader from the scene, some options are missing. For instance, the Base Mixing options, or the order gets screwed. Even if I active everything, not all the options will be loaded in Shade Mixer.

Is there a correct way to create an expanded version of the Uber Base while retaining all the original options? Maybe there`s a MDL somewhere in the DS folder? I looked for it, but no luck.

Thank you again for the help and screen capture!