Procedural Texturing With Weightmaps

Procedural Texturing With Weightmaps continued...

To create the Crumple procedural, you need two layers. One is the Crumple procedural, and the other is a gradient layer which is used in conjunction with the "Smooth" weightmap to alpha out the Crumple. To start, make the first layer in the bump channel a Crumple procedural texture with the following settings:

Layer Opacity    100%

Texture Value    45%
Frequencies      6
Small Power      0.75

The scale of the Crumple texture should be set to 15mm for all three directions (assuming you are either using the downloaded model, or are using a model of similar size).

Now add a new layer, change it's type to Gradient, and set the following keys:

Key 1 (Default Key):
   Value         0%
   Alpha         100%
   Parameter    -100%

Key 2:
   Value         0%
   Alpha         100%
   Parameter     0%
   
Key 3:
   Value         100%
   Alpha         100%
   Parameter     100%

The "Input Parameter" for the gradient should be set to "Weight Map", and the resulting "Weight Map" parameter set to "Smooth". Finally, set the layer mode to "Alpha", and invert the layer by using the "Invert Layer" check box at the top.

If you perform a quick render, you should see something similar to the first image on the previous page.

Now add a Hetero Terrain texture with the following settings:

Layer Opacity     100%

Texture Value    -400%
Increment         0.67
Lacunarity        2.9
Octaves           6.0
Offset            0.47
Noise Type        Perlin Noise

Scale X,Y,Z       180 mm

Copy the existing gradient layer. Paste it (using "Add To Layers"), make sure it is directly above the Hetero Terrain layer, and turn off the "Invert Layer" check box. Change the "Weight Map" parameter to "Dents".

Finally add a Veins procedural with the following parameters:

Layer Opacity     100%

Texture Value    -15%
Coverage          0.3
Ledge Level       0.0
Ledge Width       0.02

Scale X,Y,Z       105 mm

That's the bump channel completed, and it should give you some idea about how to use gradients to modify procedural textures. A handy technique you might want to try, is by using more keyframes in a gradient, you can control how smoothly the texture fades in or out. This gives you a great deal of flexibility in controlling where your procedural appears.

The next page starts with looking at the Displacement channel.