Tutorial: Hexagons with Moss
 

 

This is a little more advanced and abstract tutorial. If you don't understand anything, try to the previous tutorials. You will learn here how to use the Multi-Texture Mixer and Shader to combine materials.

Step 1: Rendering a hexagon pattern

 

Select the function Generator/Hexagon with its Default preset.

Render the pattern to anew texture with the dimensions 512x512.

 

Step 2: Material number one

 

Select the Generator/Perlin Noise function.

Select the Brown Carbon Preset.

Render the carbon to a new 512x512 texture.

 

Step 3: Embossing material one

 

Click on the texture's Quick Mixericon and drag it to the texture's surface. Choose the mixing mode Emboss Medium. The texture will be embossed with itself being used as the profile.

 

Step 4: Creating material two

 

You should still have Generator/Perlin Noise open as your selected function. Change the Primary Color toRGB(35,45,30) and the Secondary Color toRGB(85,100,70).

Open a new texture and run the function there.

 

Step 5: The mixing map

 

Now load the Bumpmap Preset (still the same function).

Change the Frequency parameter on the Transformation panel to 1000.

Render the function to another new texture. You should now have four different textures.

 

Step 6: Combining the two Materials

 

Open the Multi-Texture Mixer from the Tools Menu or with theicon.

Select our texture from Step 5 as the Mixing Map.

Load the Brown Carbon texture from Step 2/3 into one of the Mixer sliders. Stretch this slider to full height. Hold down the left mouse button at the Mixing Curve image and pull the curve down to 1/4 of its original height.

Load the Moss Texture from Step 4 into another slider. Move this slider down to the bottom. Now drag its upper arrow and adjust the slider's height until the Preview image looks similar to the sample here.

Set the Output Width and Height to 512 each and press the Render button. After the rendering is complete, press the Accept button at the Output window and close the mixer.

 

Step 7: Shading

 

Launched the Shader from the Tools Menu or with theicon.

Press the Resetbutton, if you have already worked with the shader to restore the default values.

Load the Hexagon texture as Heightmap (by clicking on the thumbnail and selecting Texture in Editor).

The resultant texture from Step 6 needs to be loaded as Surface.

The proposed settings are:

Heightmap Amplification=100%, Smoothness=10%
Surface Opacity=100%, Shininess and the Strength=0%
Shadow Length=30%, Smooth Shadows=10%

Set the two light colors to a middle gray and place the light sources left and right to the horizontal center at 3/4 of the preview image's height.

Render the image with 512x512 pixels and export the result to the editor.

Close the shader.

 

Step 8: Eroding the bump map

 

Select the function Noise/Erosion with preset Shelly.

Apply the function two times to the Hexagon texture.

After that, apply the function Noise/Pixel with its Default settings a single time.

 

Step 9: Embossing with the quick mixer

 

Click on the Quick Mixericon at the Hexagon texture's form and drag it to the surface of texture, which came from the shader (Step 7). Use the mixing mode Emboss High.

 

Step 10: Carving tears

 

Now drag the Quick Mixericon from our Mixing Map, which was created in Step 5. Drop it again on our shaded hexagon texture and select Emboss High again as mode. Deep tears will be carved at the moss stripes, which makes the final texture look much more realistic.