With v1.2 update, we are introducing a first batch of exciting new utility shaders :
- romboTileBlender
- romboTriplanarMapper
- romboTextureBlurrer
- romboThickness
All with a single point update ! 😉
These new utilities are under Texture/Utilities folders in your DCC apz of choice. Minor updates for C4D shader structure: romboTransparency is now in the Refract folder (was before in the Others folder that has been removed). We compiled with ArnoldSDK 7.1.3.1 so you don't need to update also Arnold if you wanna use this last update (of course it works also with 7.1.4.1). See down below for fixes and other updates to existing nodes.
To download the update, first log-in and then access your download page.
To install it, simply remove previous rtoa folder and replace it with the new one.
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TileBlender
is an advanced shader able to fully preserve texture characteristics while being able to tile a texture without tiling artifacts. Basically it allows to have a texture as input and produce an infinite, non-repeating render-time texture. It also allows for render-time texture variations from the same input texture. We are using it here for patterns that are almost stochastic in nature, like skin pores and a lot of roughness textures to give variations to our shading allowing for extreme close ups without the need for ie. crazy 8k texture resolution. It will change for the better your workflow and you'll never look back !
Triplanar Mapper
uses the same technology of tileblender but it extends it and applies it to the texture blending that happens when two projection planes meet. This avoid 'ghosting' artifacts and a more natural blend without artifacts. With this node your textures will act and look almost like procedurals textures ! And if it works great on a sphere guess how it gonna work on all your terrains etc. 😉 (left romboTriplanar, right native Arnold triplanar).
Texture Blurrer
came initially as and idea from Marcos Fajardo (creator of Arnold). We extended it to support better sampling and more options for both texture and procedural networks. It can be used generally to smooth procedural artifacts and/or to visually match some fx you're after while dealing with bitmap textures. It's up to you what you gonna do with this node, we just took extra care to make it easy to use, effective and super fast !
Thickness Shader
is probably the most advaced thickness shader outhere. It allows for many options well detailed in its doc page. You can use it for many approaches you have in mind as is doing here below Daniel Hennies (UglyKids) to better model subsurface scattering (he cannot resist to always use our romboSSSRefract node ! 😉 Effectively looking at his beauties, - how to blame him).
Fixes and Updates
We updated and refined MetallicPaint AOVs.
We now have a better and more formal layout for this node (thanks to afx.tv for the report).
Basically we have three reflective layers ..
a base reflective layer,
a flake reflective layer
a coating reflective layer
and their respective AOVs :
specular_base (.. direct+indirect)
specular_base_albedo
specular_base_direct
specular_base_indirect
specular_flakes
specular_flakes_albedo
specular_flakes_direct
specular_flakes_indirect
specular_coating
specular_coating_albedo
specular_coating_direct
specular_coating_indirect
We then have the following that sums up the total respective contributions :
albedo (coating_albedo + flakes_albedo + base_albedo)
direct (coating_direct + flakes_direct + base_direct)
indirect (coating_indirect + flakes_indirect + base_indirect)
specular (direct + indirect)
specular_albedo (albedo)
specular_direct (direct)
specular_indirect (indirect)
For these custom AOVs to work, simply choose Custom and type in the name of the AOV you want as output.
Keywords :
stochastic texture, blur, tile blending, triplanar, thickness, arnold, arnoldrender, arnoldrenderer, shader, material, reflect, reflection, microfacet, arnold shaders, arnold download, arnold materials, arnold renderer materials
Do it works with htoa 6.1.4.3(Arnold 7.1.4.3) ? I can’t find any Rombo nodes in Houdini but v1.1 can .
It should. Recompilation is generally needed only for full point releases.. ie. from Arnold 7.1 to 7.2. Btw, we’re getting out with v1.3 (Arnold 7.2.1.0) next week !