Solid shaders (aka procedurals) enable us to control the nature of the surfaces by adjusting parameters. While not as versatile as image textures, they can create a variety of materials quickly and easily.
Solid Stone
We will create granite-like stone materials in this tutorial while seeing what do the parameters in the shader mean.
To create a solid stone texture, select Solid Stone from the New… menu in the textures tab.
The Main and Grain buttons control the colors which wil be interpolated by the shader to create the texture.
The column on the right has the controls that are specific for this shader: Grain Size, Noise, Shades,Weighting, Size.
Grain sizes of 1, 5 and 10, from left to right
Noise values of 1, 2 and 10, from left to right
2, 10 and 30 shades, from left to right
Sizes of 1, 10 and 100, from left to right
Weighting of 1, 2 and 5, from left to right
Sizes of 1, 10 and 100, from left to right
Granite has many possible looks: Glossy or not, and several possible colors.
Let us begin with a “base” granite.
This granite has almost no gloss, and its size can be adjusted on a per object basis which is more flexible than setting the size into the shader.
shader without resizing, on the left, and with size adusted, on the left
To resize the shader adjust the coverage percentages in the Object Properties palette, Textures and FX tab, or position the texture.
This granite shader can be complemented with a corrosion shader on top.
With an added corrosion shader, left, and without it, right
A glossy granite can be very useful too.
Glossy granite does not often need an associated Corrosion shader, as glossy stone is usually very smooth.
Solid Stone
Be warned that render times are somewhat longer using this shader.
I hope to see what you come up with using this shader!
