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Noise Procedural


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Noise Default

The Noise texture is one of the many procedurally generated textures provided with modo. Procedural textures are mathematically created at render-time, and therefore have no fixed resolution; they can be magnified nearly infinitely with no visual loss in detail. The Noise texture has 2 zones, the Color/Value 1 and Color/Value 2. The texture will modulate between the two based on the particular algorithm and user settings. Essentially there are pseudo-random points created in 3D space and the texture blends from one value to the next based on the proximity of one sample point to the next. Each zone can have a value, color and alpha value. Which of these are used is dependent on the Effect channel to which the texture will be applied. For instance, if the texture is to be used as a displacement, the Value settings would be utilized whereas setting the texture Effect to Luminous Color would use the Color and Alpha settings for Value/Color 1 and Value/Color 2.
For information regarding adding and working with Shader Tree Items Layers, please reference the Shader Tree page of the documentation.

Noise PanelLayer--

Enable: Toggles the effect of the layer on and off, duplicating the functionality of toggling visibility in the Shader Tree. When un-checked (disabled), the layer has no effect on the shading of the scene. However, disabled layers are saved with the scene and are persistent across modo sessions.

Invert: Inverts the RGB values for the layer producing a negative effect.

Blend Mode: Affects blending between different layers of the same effect type, allowing user the ability to stack several layers for different effects. For more on blending, please reference the 'Blend Modes' page of the documentation.

Opacity: Changes the transparency of the current layer. Reducing this values will increasingly reveal lower layers in the shader tree if present, or dim the effect of the layer itself on the surface.

Locator: Most texture layers also have an associated 'Texture Locator' that is automatically created in the 'Item List'. This defines the mapping of the texture (way the texture is applied) to the surface. The 'Locator' option sets that association. Users can choose alternate locators, however, the need to do so will be very rare; still, there are some possible instances where users may want multiple texture items to share a single locator.

Noise--

Color 1: Sets the color that will be used at the center of each sample location. This color is blended into the Color 2 value based on proximity to the surrounding sample points. The Color option is only used when the texture layer is set to an Effect that requires color. The dedicated 'Alpha' will determine how transparent the Color 1 zone will be.

Value 1: Determines the magnitude of the texture at the center of each sample location. This value is blended into the Value 2 based on proximity to surrounding sample points. This control is only active when the texture layers Effect is set to a non-color attribute.

Color 2: Sets the color that will be used at the center of each secondary sample location. This color is blended into the Color 1 value based on proximity to the surrounding sample points. The Color option is only used when the texture layer is set to an Effect that requires color. The dedicated 'Alpha' will determine how transparent the Color 2 zone will be.

Value 2: Determines the magnitude of the texture at the center of each secondary sample location. This value is blended into the Value 1 based on proximity to surrounding sample points. This control is only active when the texture layers Effect is set to a non-color attribute.

Type: The Type popup allows you to quickly change between the styles of Noise. The options are 'Simple', 'Fractal' and 'Turbulence'.
Simple-- Merely modulates between Color/Value 1 and Color/Value 2 and does not allow for additional Frequencies to be added preventing it from becoming "fractal".
Fractal-- Unlike Simple, Fractal also allows for Frequency settings above 1. Once additional frequencies are added to a noise or cellular pattern then become "fractal". Each additional frequency of the texture is layered over the previous. The relative detail and amplitude of the additional frequencies is modulated by the frequency and amplitude ratios.
Turbulence-- The Turbulence setting is very similar to the Fractal setting but the gradient ramp between the between the two Color/Value modulates up and down rather than a straight ramp.

 
Simple
 
Fractal
 
Turbulence
 

All noise style procedurals can be layered to create a fractal effect. The traditional style of fractal includes layering a noise pattern multiple times with each new layer increasing in frequency (smaller details and more of them) and fading in opacity. When you add a Cellular or Noise texture in modo the default settings are not "fractal" in that they only use a Frequency value of one, this means there is only single application of the procedural effect. Adding multiple frequencies will create a more fractal look to the texture and will invoke the Frequency Ratio and Amplitude Ratio controls.

Frequencies: Determines the number of "layers" used by the procedural. When set to less than 2 the Frequency and Amplitude Ratios are disabled. Adding more than one frequency increases the detail in the procedural texture which increases computation times.


Frequency 1
 
Frequency 2
 
Frequency 3
 
Frequency 4
 
Frequency 5

Frequency Ratio: The Frequency Ratio determines how much detail to add into each additional application of the noise texture when the Frequencies value is set to a value greater than 1. The default value of 2 will result in the second frequency of the texture being twice as high as the first. The visual effect of this is a pattern that seems to be half as large but with twice as many occurrences. With more than 2 frequencies each additional "layer" of the noise will have twice the frequency of the last.


Frequency Ratio 1
 
Frequency Ratio 2
 
Frequency Ratio 3
 
Frequency Ratio 4
 
Frequency Ratio 5

Amplitude Ratio: This value determines the strength of each additional "layer" of noise when frequencies are greater than 1. By default the setting is at .5 which yields an effect where each additional set of frequencies have half the value of the previous.


Amplitude Ratio 0.5
 
Amplitude Ratio 1.0
 
Amplitude Ratio 1.5
 
Amplitude Ratio 2.0
 
Amplitude Ratio 2.5

Smooth Tops: The 'Smooth Tops' option is used to vary the noise amplitude depending on the texture value. If the noise was applied to a surface as a displacement produces something that looks like mountains with a smooth top and ragged valleys as the noise amplitude increases as you go down. If the texture were inverted, the mountains would be ragged and the valleys will be smooth like is usually the case in nature.


Smooth Tops 0.0
 
Smooth Tops 1.0
 
Smooth Tops 2.0
 
Smooth Tops 4.0
 
Smooth Tops 8.0

Flow PhaseFlow Noise: Flow Noise provides a means to easily animate the noise field without having to physically translate (move) the noise across the surface it is shading, which often times looks artificial. Flow Noise is a Perlin Noise that simulates advection (which is simply the movement of something from one place to another, especially when they are different temperatures, such as creamer into coffee). The results could be described as turbulence or boiling, depending on how it is used. This setting can be especially handy when animating volumetrics, to produce the time-lapse-clouds sort of look that would be difficult to create otherwise. To use the 'Flow Noise' option, users need only to enable the setting and then animate the value for 'Flow Phase' option below (example to the right).

Flow Phase: The 'Flow Phase' option works in conjunction with the 'Flow Noise' setting when it is enabled. Animating this value produces a flowing type of animation to the noise that looks far more realistic than simply translating (moving) the noise across the surface or volume. To easily apply a continuously moving 'Phase', users can set a keyframe at frame '0' and then another value somewhere else (such as '1'). If the animation graph is set to 'Linear' and the 'Post Behavior' is set to 'Linear' as well, the Phase will continuously animate the length of the sequence. Users can then adjust the second keyframes value up and down to control the speed of the Flow Phase.

Bias: Increasing this value will cause the texture to favor the primary color or value over the secondary whereas decreasing the value causes the secondary color or value to be favored.


Bias 0%
 
Bias 25%
 
Bias 50%
 
Bias 75%
 
Bias 100%

Gain: The Gain setting is similar to a contrast control that effects the falloff of the gradient ramp between the Color/Value 1 and Color/Value 2. Setting the Gain to 100% will create a very sharp contrast whereas setting the value to 0% would reduce the contrast between the two to almost imperceptible amount.


Gain 0%
 
Gain 25%
 
Gain 50%
 
Gain 75%
 
Gain 100%

 

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