| TG Glitter |

| PARAMETERS |

| Listing : Threshold Noise Type Noise Octaves Noise Scale Blend Amount Squares Modulus Squish Specular Angle Variance Specular Noise Bias Specular Noise Gain Specular Noise Minimum Specular Noise Multiplier Fresnel Reflect Effect Strength Fresnel Angle Fresnel Blend Base Amb, Diffuse, Shine Base Rough, Reflect, Tint Glitter Amb, Diffuse, Shine Glitter Rough, Reflect, Tint Specular Fresnel Noise Frequency Base Specular Colour Glitter Specular Colour |

| Threshold Range : 0 to 1 Sets the threshold value for determining which point is “glitter” and which is “base material”. Values of less than 0.5 will result in more glitter than base material, while values of greater than 0.5 will give more base material than glitter. |

| Noise Type Range : 0, 1 or 2 Sets the type of the noise to be used - 0 is Perlin, 1 is Classic, and 2 is Sparse. |

| Noise Octaves Range : 0 to 10 Sets the number of octaves to be used in generating the noise. Higher values result in more detail, but longer calculation and render times. It is not normally useful to go above a value of 4 or thereabouts. |

| Noise Scale Range : 1 to 3200 Set the scale of the noise. |

| Blend Amount Range : 0 to 1 Controls the blending between glitter and base material. At a value of 0, no blending takes place, and a point takes its reflectance parameters entirely from the Glitter settings or entirely from the Base settings. At a vlaue of 1, there is a smooth blending of points which range from fully Glitter to fully Base and a mix of everything in between. |

| Squares Range : 0 to 3200 Controls how many “squares” the space is divided up into. In order to get points of Glitter, rather than splotches or patches, the space used to call the noise routines is divided up into squares. The higher this value, the more (and so smaller) the squares are. The size of a “point of Glitter” is determined by the size of the squares the space has been divided up into. |

| Modulus Range : 0 to 100 When blending is used, the Modulus parameter makes the blend happen in a series of steps. So, with a Modulus of 2, there will be 2 steps between fully Base material and fully Glitter material. A Modulus of 0 turns off the modulus processing, for faster rendering. The higher this value, the more steps in between the 2 materials, and the smoother the blending will look again - so at high values, there is extra processing being introduced, but the end result will be virtually indistinguishable from having a Modulus of 0. This means that lower values, in the range of 2 to 6 or thereabouts, may be the most useful. |

| Modulus of 0.
| Modulus of 2.
| Modulus of 4. |

| Sample renders, Blend Amount = 1, with varying Modulus. Note range of colours in left image, limited range in second, and limited range in third (but close to the original again now). |

| This parameter is used to give a more distinct look between the Glitter and the Base material, while still retaining some blending. Remember that the parameter will have no effect if the Blend Amount is 0 (or will not give a visible effect if the Blend Amount is low, or close to 0). |

| Squish Range : 0 to 100 This parameter adjusts the Noise Scale and Squares simultaneously. This lets you find the right balance between Glitter and Base, then easily shrink (or expand) the overall pattern to make the size of the points of Glitter larger or smaller, without affecting the balance between the two materials. Values of greater than 1 will result in a smaller, more compact pattern (smaller squares of Glitter), while values of less than 1 will stretch the pattern (giving larger squares of Glitter). |

| Squish of 1.
| Squish of 2.
| Squish of 0.5. |

| Note how Squish compresses or stretches the pattern (Noise and Number of Squares simultaneously). |

| Specular Angular Variance Range : 0 to 5 As well as randomly deciding whether a point is Glitter or Base material, the specularity of a glitter point is also modified based on the angle of view. This simulates the fact that pieces of glitter or metal flake are usually not all in the same orientation, so catch the light at different angles (since the pieces of glitter / flake may be tilted at an angle which is different from that of the regular surface of the object). The shader uses noise along with the angle of view to simulate this sort of look. This parameter controls how wide a range of angles that a piece of glitter / flake shines across - higher values result in a wider range, meaning more pieces of Glitter will sparkle at any one time, while lower values will result in less points of Glitter showing any sparkle. |

| Specular Angle Variance of 0.02
| Specular Angle Variance of 0.25 |

| Specular Noise Bias Range : 0 to 1 Introduces Bias into the noise used for limiting when a Glitter point becomes shiny. Closer to 0, this will make only those points which are on the edge of the object shiny (that is, those points which are facing away from the viewer), while closer to 1 will make only those points facing toward the viewer shiny. This allows you to control the style and type of the glitter effect. Note that a value of 0 turns the Bias effect off (and gives the same result as a Bias of 0.5). This means that setting values of less than 0.5 (but not 0 itself) will pull the effect more toward the edges, that is, to those faces which are more angled away from the viewer. |

| Spec Noise Bias of 0
| Spec Noise Bias of 0.85
| Spec Noise Bias of 0.99 |

| Leftmost image shows Bias disabled (same as value of 0.5). Note how the highlight effects are drawn toward the centre of the object (faces pointing toward the viewer) with the change in Bias. |

| Specular Noise Gain Range : 0 to 1 This parameter interacts heavily with the Spec Noise Bias. Primarily, values closer to 0 give a less “speckled” look, while closer to 1 gives a more “speckled” look (that is, more random variation to the glitter points). However, the parameter also effects whether it is the points near the edges or near the centre that shine, with values of closer to 1 pulling the specular highlight in toward the centre, particularly when the Specular Noise Bias is also pulling the effect toward the centre. |
| Specular Noise Minimum Range : 0 to 1 Determines how much shininess (specularity) is lost from the Glitter point when it is outside the range at which is shines. A value of 0 will result in a Shininess of 0 for points outside the Variance range, which can make the Glitter points darker than the Base material when outside the Variance range. A value of 1 will mean that no Shininess is lost, so that the angle of view makes no difference to the Shininess of the Glitter points. For more extreme glitter effects, use low values (close to 0) in this parameter. Values of closer to 1 will give a much more subtle effect from the specular noise processing. Remember that the specular noise effect is in addition to the different material settings (ambient, diffuse, shininess etc) given to the Base and Glitter materials. Note that setting this value to 1 turns off the processing for varying shininess of the Glitter points with angle of view, thus speeding up rendering times. |
| Specular Noise Multiplier Range : 0 to 320 The Scale used for the noise in the specular processing is, by default, the same as the Scale used to generate the noise for the Glitter / Base material part of the processing. This parameter adjusts the Scale of the noise for the specular processing, with values of greater than 1 resulting in a larger scale being used, and values of less than 1 resulting in a smaller scale being used. This allows a quick and easy way to set the scale of the noise for the specular noise effects. |
| Fresnel Reflect Effect Strength Range : 0 to 1 At a value of 0, no Fresnel effects are seen in the reflection - the reflection is of a uniform intensity across the surface of the object. At a value of 1, the full effect of the Fresnel calculations are seen, with the maximum variation in intensity of reflections across the surface of the object, depending on the angle between the viewer and the surface. |
| Fresnel Angle Range : 0 to 1 Controls where the reduction in reflectiveness occurs. The fresnel effects calculate a fall off in reflection, so that surfaces angled toward the viewer are less reflective than those angled away from the viewer. This parameter controls the angle at which this effect occurs - a higher value means that only surfaces steeply angled away from the viewer will be reflective, while a lower value means that even surfaces facing the viewer will still be highly reflective. |
| Fresnel Blend Range : 0 to 1 Controls how the fade from reflective to not reflective occurs for the fresnel effect. Low values result in a very sudden transition from highly reflective to no reflectivity at all, while higher values will give a smoother blend. Note that the blending happens “inwards” from the Angle, so a higher value will make surfaces which are facing the viewer more reflective. |
| Base and Glitter Amb, Diff, Shine, Rough, Reflect, Tint Range : as appropriate These parameters control the reflectance settings for the Base and Glitter materials, in the same way as for most TG shaders, setting the Ambient, Diffuse, Shininess, Roughness, Reflectivity and Specular Tint of the material. |
| Specular Fresnel Range : 0 to 1 This parameter controls the red, green and blue absorptions for the Specular Fresnel effects. This lets the specular highlights vary in colour depending on angle of view. Note that the Fresnel Angle and Blend are shared with the Fresnel reflection. |
| Noise Frequency Range : 0 to 1 Allows you to adjust the noise in the x, y and z directions independently. This allows the Glitter “squares” to be stretched out into Glitter “lines” and so forth. |
| Base and Glitter Specular Colour Range : RGB values Sets the specular colours for the Base and Glitter materials (although these colours may be overriden by the Tint parameter for the relevant material). |
| TG Glitter Intro |
| TG Glitter Parameters |
| TG Glitter Tips |
| TG Glitter Samples |
| TG Pack 2 Index |