Questions tagged [node-editor]

Questions relating to Blenders node editor. The node editor is used for non-destructive texture and material editing; for geometry node editing and for post-processing/compositing.

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What is a BSDF?

The term "BSDF" is common in Cycles shaders such as "Diffuse BSDF" and "Glass BSDF" but is not present in all names ("Emission" and "Mix Shader" are two such examples). What exactly is a BSDF?
wchargin's user avatar
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59 votes
5 answers
29k views

How do I create repeating patterns with cycles' procedural textures

Most people's question in this area is how to reduce repeating patterns, however I want to create them. I'm creating 2d rendered tiles for my game, and I want to create procedural materials for my ...
Enetheru's user avatar
  • 693
49 votes
7 answers
82k views

How to blur a texture node in cycles material?

For a Cycles material I need to blur a texture. If the texture where a Texture Image node, I can blur the image before adding it but in my case I need to blur a Voronoi Texture and so I can't do it. ...
PhoneixS's user avatar
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44 votes
3 answers
29k views

How do I exit a node group?

I selected a bunch of nodes that I wasn't using and that weren't connected and thought that I would see if I could group them. Well, Blender let me group them alright, but now there is a green ...
Bryson Jack's user avatar
  • 3,737
41 votes
3 answers
35k views

How can I make a material only apply to a side of a plane?

How could a one-sided material be achieved with the Cycles renderer? I would like to create a plane that is completely transparent from one side, and a mirror from the other side. It would be cool ...
horace's user avatar
  • 657
41 votes
1 answer
31k views

what can you call from the attribute node?

I know you can call density or flame for example from the attribute node. I was wondering what else you can write in the name slot. And maybe a bit of explanation of the attribute node. thanks in ...
Leo Yfver's user avatar
  • 553
40 votes
2 answers
49k views

Is there really a way to make a true toon shader material in Cycles?

Is there a way to make a true toon shader material in Cycles? Here's, in order of importance, what would be ideal to find in such a shader: Must use Cycles Must be an actual shader Must not rely on ...
Poyo's user avatar
  • 1,585
38 votes
2 answers
6k views

How to make a holographic reticle shader in cycles

Does anyone have a lead on how to set up a shader in cycles to mimic the behavior of hologhraphic sights in blender, as shown in this image? I don't want to have to try and figure out exactly how to ...
AlbinoPanther's user avatar
35 votes
1 answer
6k views

How to make a "reflective tape" material in cycles?

How can I make a cycles material that gets very bright when a light is shown on it, yet still has normal colors? I'm talking about the "Retroreflective sheeting" that can be seen on road signs, the ...
David's user avatar
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33 votes
3 answers
12k views

What is the difference between the displace socket and a bump map?

Aside from the fact that you can control the bump mapping per shader with a bump node, are there any differences between these materials? As far as I can tell, they are the same. Is the displacement ...
gandalf3's user avatar
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31 votes
3 answers
21k views

What is Dot Product?

I am doing this Blenderguru tutorial on Making Fire and at some point he is adding the Vector Math node Dot Product to his material. And he says that he does not understand what he is doing but this ...
user avatar
31 votes
1 answer
5k views

How to store particle locations in a list?

my question is how to store the locations of a particle or any changing data in a list so as to use the locations for effects like trails. What I intend to create are particle trails, the following ...
Dembos's user avatar
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31 votes
4 answers
14k views

Blurring/Feathering a Procedural Pointiness Mask

I'm trying to create a procedural mask to affect the sharp edges of my model using the Pointiness output from the Geometry node, ...
Hexbob6's user avatar
  • 2,038
30 votes
1 answer
22k views

How can noodles (the lines that connect nodes) be changed from straight to curved lines?

Unitl now I haven't found the option to enable the curved representation of connectors between nodes. The documentation doesn't mention such an option. Is there a keyboard shortcut?
stacker's user avatar
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30 votes
2 answers
15k views

Difference between Add Shader and Mix Shader?

What's the difference between Add Shader and Mix Shader nodes with the Cycles rendering engine? I know that Mix Shader gives you more control over the material ratio, of course, but are there any ...
Gwen's user avatar
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30 votes
3 answers
21k views

Node for setting render colour, regardless of lighting

I'm trying to make a material node setup to set final render colors, regardless of lighting conditions. Is such a setup possible?
ajwood's user avatar
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30 votes
1 answer
3k views

Physical iridescence in Cycles?

Having recently seen the Siggraph paper A Practical Extension to Microfacet Theory for the Modeling of Varying Iridescence, I of course said to myself "I have to have this in Blenderrrrr!" and started ...
Mentalist's user avatar
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28 votes
1 answer
8k views

Control a property with no socket (color ramp swatch, etc) from a Group Node input?

Sometimes I create Material Groups to be used as appendable reusable assets. Unfortunately sometimes parameters I want to control using a Group Node's slider are not available for routing to a Group ...
Mentalist's user avatar
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26 votes
4 answers
19k views

What is Ambient Occlusion?

What is Ambient Occlusion and what are some of it's uses? I see it is used in creating what might be called "shadow catchers" in the following node tree setup:
Thom Blair III's user avatar
26 votes
3 answers
9k views

What do glossy distribution models do?

In Cycles, the glossy (and anisotropic) shaders have a Distribution option. Since I don't really know the difference, I have always left it at it's default (GGX). So what is a distribution model, ...
PGmath's user avatar
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26 votes
2 answers
2k views

How to understand the math behind Andrew Price's embedding his beer within his glass

I just watched the Blender Guru video How to Make a Beer in Blender and stopped at the point where it advises us to make the liquid slightly larger in diameter than the inner diameter of the glass - ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 2,667
25 votes
3 answers
41k views

How do I colour a 3D terrain based on its height?

How do I colour a 3D terrain based on the height? Say, bottom green, and gradually to brown in the middle and white at the top. When I use colour ramp node, I can see gradient colour across the 3d ...
ikel's user avatar
  • 1,233
25 votes
1 answer
8k views

Is there a way to use logic operators in Blender Shader nodes?

I'm self-answering this question since I've found the nodes useful and would like to share this with the community since I couldn't really find anything related on it here. Are there shader nodes / ...
asoftbird's user avatar
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25 votes
1 answer
10k views

What is the meaning of the color of the node sockets in the node editor?

I have been searching on the web and I can't find this. What is the meaning of the color of the node sockets in the node editor?
user1006274's user avatar
25 votes
1 answer
57k views

How can I make a more realistic glass shader? [duplicate]

Here's a sample scene: A room with a window, a point light to project light into the room, an HDR environment outside the room and a nice Image by Rembrandt that should be somewhat reflected on the ...
user avatar
24 votes
5 answers
36k views

Is it possible to get a random number in the node editor?

Is it possible to generate a random number for use in the node editor? I am aware of the Object Info node, but I want a random number which I have more control over. Ideally I could change it with ...
gandalf3's user avatar
  • 157k
24 votes
3 answers
54k views

How can I convert a node made material into an image texture?

I have a sphere having a planet material MADE WITH NODES, and I want to convert this material into an image texture; because this material is made with nodes and only works in Blender, but I want to ...
Shams M.Monem's user avatar
24 votes
3 answers
11k views

Randomly populating procedural shape (or Image Texture) in Cycles

How to take a shape or Image Texture and multiply it with random Location, Rotation and Scale along object: Background I have created my first procedural shape on my own from this function: $(x^2 + y^...
cgslav's user avatar
  • 17.5k
23 votes
5 answers
19k views

Is there a way to make comments in the node editor?

I'd like to have a node like the Frame node but one that can have lots of text, not just a header. I've looked and it looks like there isn't any such capability so far, so I was wondering how easy it ...
Thom Blair III's user avatar
23 votes
4 answers
27k views

Add Nodes to Material with Python

I have edited a script that creates some nodes, but the only problem is, it always created a new material. I want it to either add the nodes on the existing material, or a pre-defined material. Here ...
rioforce's user avatar
  • 2,032
23 votes
4 answers
67k views

Accidentally hit "toggle full screen", How do I exit?

I'm stuck in full screen in the node editor. Escape isn't working, and I have no menus and no idea how to leave except to quit Blender and reopen the program.
iCephalopod's user avatar
23 votes
2 answers
44k views

Shader nodes are missing?

I have blender 2.69 and I've been following a tutorial on how to make text. The only problem is when I go to add a glossy shader in the node editor it does not exist. Neither does the shader category....
user2389's user avatar
  • 397
23 votes
1 answer
10k views

How to render a mesh transparent with a color on its edges only, with nodes?

I would like to have my object transparent, with a color only on the edges, would someone know how to do this? I am starting with the nodes, if anyone can help with some guidelines I would really ...
Paul's user avatar
  • 583
23 votes
2 answers
45k views

Using a Normal map together with a Bump map

I've been stressing these days searching for a video on using a Normal map with a Bump map, but I haven't found something good. Some suggest connecting the Bump input into the Displacement output and ...
Vladimir's user avatar
  • 4,687
22 votes
2 answers
11k views

How to pixelate a texture in Cycles?

I've been creating various camouflage patterns using Cycles material nodes. Now I want to create a digital camouflage pattern like the one below. My first thought was to pixelate a noise pattern. I'...
Johnson Martin's user avatar
22 votes
2 answers
8k views

Shadowless render pass

I would like to have full control of the shadows in post production. That's why I would like to have A shadow render pass containing only the shadows of my scene A shadowless render pass containing ...
Antti's user avatar
  • 1,747
22 votes
3 answers
30k views

Use composite nodes in blender video sequence editor

Can you use composite nodes in blender video sequence editor? As in, no 3d elements in your scene, working exclusively within the video editing screen layout? I am currently using Blender 2.76 RC 3.
Jesse's user avatar
  • 1,009
21 votes
6 answers
11k views

Voronoi Cracks Fac?

I am familliar with Blenders Cycle's Voronoi Texture and have fiddled with it for a while. I am trying to get a result that is not like Intensity or Cells, but more like cracks. I tried the node setup ...
Shady Puck's user avatar
  • 8,827
21 votes
3 answers
953 views

What's the point of mixing the same shader types?

Many time I've seen some material using mixing of two same nodes like this: Is there any difference from using this?
Alexander Pukhalski's user avatar
21 votes
3 answers
16k views

Way of seeing data as image anywhere in a Cycles nodes setup?

I made a complicated nodes setup for a material using Cycles. Is there an easy simple way to peek at the data passing through any node, to view it as an image? I desire something like an ...
DarenW's user avatar
  • 3,119
21 votes
2 answers
23k views

How can I resize/move the "canvas" of an image in the compositor?

As you can see, if I try to translate an image in the compositor, it does not affect the actual bounds of the image, only the pixels themselves. The same thing happens when trying to scale an image: ...
gandalf3's user avatar
  • 157k
20 votes
2 answers
11k views

how are the math node operations in cycles calculated?

How does the math node do calculations with a specific operation: the usual operations of add,subtract, multiply and divide are quite understandable and are(empirically) very similar to some of the ...
bzal's user avatar
  • 856
20 votes
2 answers
9k views

Post-processing Lightsabers in Blender

I've been studying JamesVillanueva's lightsabers for a while now, and have tried to recreate the effects in Blender. The trouble I'm having is with the blade in the compositor. Keep in mind that I'm ...
kizlink's user avatar
  • 325
20 votes
2 answers
5k views

Distance from the surface as an input node for use with volumetric materials

I would like to create a material that has a volumetric component whose local Density depends on the depth of each volume point below the surface. Can the information "how deep below the surface is ...
Nicola Sap's user avatar
  • 12.8k
20 votes
1 answer
12k views

How to remove a node from a frame?

Frames are great for making node trees more understandable. However one annoying feature about them is that they trap any nodes that get accidentally dropped over them. So how do I get a node out of a ...
David's user avatar
  • 48.9k
20 votes
1 answer
46k views

How can I blend two textures together using Cycles?

I am trying to put dirty material over a concrete material in cycles. Now I am trying to do this using a color ramp and a mix shader, but I don't know if this is the only way or best way to do this. ...
user1358's user avatar
  • 1,295
20 votes
3 answers
2k views

Which is faster: A math node tree or an OSL shader?

In terms of render times for Cycles materials, which is faster? A material node tree containing many (~20-50) math nodes or a single OSL shader script node performing the same calculation.
astrogeek's user avatar
  • 733
19 votes
1 answer
9k views

How is the vector transform node used?

The Vector Transform node has been a bit of a mystery to me. I would presume it would be useful more for procedural textures, but I have no idea how it should be used, or where it might be most ...
Timaroberts's user avatar
  • 12.3k
19 votes
3 answers
5k views

Low Poly Water Effect

How would I achieve this low poly water effect using cycles? But the closest I've gotten would be this:
Alex Safayan's user avatar
  • 1,116
19 votes
1 answer
89k views

How to add a normal map texture and a diffuse texture on a model in cycles?

When I add a normal map texture in cycles I do this - How to combine the normal map texture with a diffuse|color texture? I don't have much knowledge about the nodes in cycles and I have no idea ...
Vladimir's user avatar
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