Mask Shaders

PARAMETERS

MASK DISTANCE

Near Distance

Range : 0 to 3000

At or before this distance renders with the value set in “Near Intensity”.

Far Distance

Range : 0 to 3000

At or after this distance, renders with the value set in “Far Intensity”.

Near Intensity

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity for points which are at or before the “Near Distance”.

Far Intensity

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity for points which are at or farther than the “Far Distance”.

MASK DISTANCE RAMP

Near Distance

Range : 0 to 3000

At or before this distance, the shader reads from the leftmost edge of the Ramp.

Far Distance

Range : 0 to 3000

At or after this distance, the shader reads from the rightmost edge of the Ramp

Min Intensity

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity for when black is returned from the Ramp (note the difference between “Min Intensity” and “Near Intensity” in the basic Distance Mask shader - the “Min Intensity” need not be the one returned for points close to the camera!).

Max Intensity

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity for when white is returned from the Ramp (note the difference between “Max Intensity” and “Far Intensity” in the basic Distance Mask shader - the “Max Intensity” need not be the one returned for points far from the camera!).

Use Ramp Directly

Range : Unchecked, Checked

Since this shader generates greyscale output, you can make the shader ignore the “Min Intensity” and “Max Intensity” values, and simply write out the colour intensity as read in from the Ramp (so the “Min Intensity” and “Max Intensity” then become the darkest and lightest colours in the Ramp itself). This cuts down a little on some processing, so may be a fraction faster.

Distance Ramp

Range : Image

This Ramp controls the how the Intensity varies between the “Near Distance” and “Far Distance”. The leftmost edge is read for distances at or before the “Near Distance”, and the rightmost edge is read for distances at or further than the “Far Distance”.

The “Min Intensity” is used when black is returned from the Ramp, and the “Max Intensity” is used when white is returned from the Ramp (unless “Use Ramp Directly” is checked, in which case the colour at that point in the Ramp is written out directly).

MASK ABSOLUTE DISTANCE RAMP

Near Distance : See previous

Far Distance : See previous

Source Point

Range : 0 to 100 for each of the x, y, z

This shader calculates the distance between the point being shaded and a pre-set point in 3D space (rather than directly from the camera). This parameter allows you to set the point in space from which distances will be measured.

As you might expect, these are the x, y and z co-ordinates of that point in the 3D space of the scene.

Min Intensity : See previous

Max Intensity : See previous

Use Ramp Directly : See previous

Distance Ramp : See previous

MASK DISTANCE RAMP REFLECTION

Near Distance : See previous

Far Distance : See previous

Min Intensity : See previous

Max Intensity : See previous

Use Ramp Directly : See previous

Distance Ramp : See previous

Base Strength

Range : 0 to 1

There will be two “distances” shown at this shading point, one the direct distance from the camera, which has to be added to whatever “distance intensity” is returned from the reflection calculations. This value adjusts the overall intensity of the direct distance from the camera to this shading point.

Reflect Strength

Range : 0 to 1

There will be two “distances” shown at this shading point, one the direct distance from the camera, which has to be added to whatever “distance intensity” is returned from the reflection calculations. This value adjusts the overall intensity of the value returned from the reflection calculations.

Reflect Contribution

Range : 0 to 1

This works just like in any other reflection shaders - higher values let the reflected ray bounce (from reflection or transmission) more times, giving more “reflections of reflections”.

MASK DISTANCE RAMP TRANSMISSION

Near Distance : See previous

Far Distance : See previous

Min Intensity : See previous

Max Intensity : See previous

Use Ramp Directly : See previous

Distance Ramp : See previous

Base Strength

Range : 0 to 1

There will be two “distances” shown at this shading point, one the direct distance from the camera, which has to be added to whatever “distance intensity” is returned from the transmission calculations. This value adjusts the overall intensity of the direct distance from the camera to this shading point.

Transmission Strength

Range : 0 to 1

There will be two “distances” shown at this shading point, one the direct distance from the camera, which has to be added to whatever “distance intensity” is returned from the transmission calculations. This value adjusts the overall intensity of the value returned from the transmission calculations.

Refractive Index

Range : 0 to 10

Works the same as in other reflectance shaders with transmission, and determines how much a ray will be bent by when passing through the surface.

Transmission Contribution

Range : 0 to 1

This works just like in any other reflection shaders - higher values let the reflected ray bounce (from reflection or transmission) more times, giving more “transmissions of transmissions”.

MASK VIEWANGLE

Min Intensity

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity for points which are at right angles to the direction of view (eg, the edge surfaces of a sphere).

Max Intensity

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity for points which are facing back toward the direction of view (eg, the centre surfaces of a sphere).

Use True Angle

Range : Unchecked / Checked

When unchecked, the shader works with the Cosine of the angle between the two vectors, so introduces a non-linear sweep to the values (so what you see in the Ramp isn’t exactly what you get in the render).

When checked, the shader does the extra bit of processing (so may be a little slower) in order to work back to the linear sweep of the angle between the two vectors, so moves through the Ramp values in a linear fashion.

MASK VIEWANGLE RAMP

Min Intensity :

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity to be used when black is read from the Ramp.

Max Intensity :

Range : 0 to 1

Set the greyscale intensity to be used when white is read from the Ramp.

Use True Angle : See previous

Angle Ramp

Range : Image

This Ramp controls the how the Intensity varies with the angle between the view direction and surface normal. The left edge of the Ramp is read for surfaces at right angles to the direction of view, while the right edge of the Ramp is read for surfaces facing toward the direction of view.

The “Min Intensity” is used when black is returned from the Ramp, and the “Max Intensity” is used when white is returned from the Ramp.

MASK SOLID

Mask Control Image :

Range : Image

This image controls whether the shader renders the material as solid white or not. A black image is “off”, resulting in no effect from this shader.

Any value in the red colour channel counts as “on”, and the material renders pure white (green and blue colour channels are ignored).

Mask Shaders Intro

Mask Shaders Parameters

Introduction To Post-Process Compositing

Some Post-Process Compositing Ideas

TG Pack 3 Index