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I am trying to set up a Cycles texture to render figures for a math textbook. I am new to blender and am having trouble. I am looking for an effect similar to

graph1

or

graph2

Ideally the front and back surfaces would be rendered in different colors and a surface would be transparent enough to see another surface behind it, but its back faces would not show up in the transparent parts.

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  • $\begingroup$ Please explain in more depth what you are asking. Is it the texture or the graph you want to replicate? And what do you mean with the back faces not showing up in the transparent parts? $\endgroup$ – float Nov 13 '16 at 17:00
  • $\begingroup$ What have you tried so far and what specific aspect of this are you having trouble with? Is it the modelling or the material? $\endgroup$ – Ray Mairlot Nov 13 '16 at 17:03
  • $\begingroup$ I have no trouble generating the geometry. I have trouble with the specularity, diffusion, and making the front and back surfaces different. $\endgroup$ – Jason Siefken Nov 13 '16 at 17:19
  • $\begingroup$ I think you can find your answer here: blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2082/… $\endgroup$ – float Nov 13 '16 at 17:24
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A basic way to control the color based on height would be to use the coordinates on the Z axis and have those control a color ramp.

enter image description here

To have the backside be a different color use bacfacing, from the geometry node, to control the mix with a different shader.

enter image description here

From there on, is just a matter of making the material as complex as you want until you are happy with the results.

enter image description here

or

enter image description here

Endless fun playing with textures.

enter image description here

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ This looks really neat. Is there a way to use "whether a certain texture has passed through a transparent region" as an input parameter for some node? For example, suppose the front surface is front1 and the back is back1. If front1 could be seen through a transparent object, it would be unmodified, but if bak1 was seen through a transparent object, the color would be modified. $\endgroup$ – Jason Siefken Nov 13 '16 at 19:05
  • $\begingroup$ That can be done with the lightpath node. blender.stackexchange.com/questions/28422/… but please do ask new questions on different posts, to keep things organized $\endgroup$ – user1853 Nov 13 '16 at 19:11

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