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Contents 1 Shading Context 1.1 Lamp Sub-Context 1.1.1 Preview Panel 1.1.2 Lamp Panel 1.1.3 Spot Panel 1.1.4 Texture and Input Panel 1.1.5 Map To Panel 1.2 Material Sub-Context 1.2.1 Preview Panel 1.2.2 Material Panel 1.2.3 Shaders Panel 1.2.4 Preview Panel for Halo Materials 1.2.5 Material Panel for Halo Materials 1.2.6 Shaders Panel for Halo Materials 1.2.7 Texture Panel 1.2.8 Map Input Panel 1.2.9 Map To Panel 1.3 Texture Sub-Context 1.3.1 Preview Panel 1.3.2 Texture Panel 1.3.3 Colors Panel 1.3.4 Image Texture Panel 1.3.5 Crop and Anim Panel 1.3.6 Clouds Texture Panel 1.3.7 Stucci Texture Panel 1.3.8 Magic Texture Panel 1.3.9 EnvMap Texture Panel 1.3.10 Marble Texture Panel 1.3.11 Wood Texture Panel 1.3.12 Blend Texture Panel 1.3.13 Plugin Texture Panel 1.4 Radiosity Sub-Context 1.4.1 Radio Render Panel 1.4.2 Radio Tool Panel 1.4.3 Calculation Panel 1.5 World Sub-Context 1.5.1 Preview Panel 1.5.2 World Panel 1.5.3 Mist, Star, Physics Panel 1.5.4 Texture and Input Panel 1.5.5 Map To Panel

[edit] Shading Context

The Shading context is among the most complex, displaying five Sub-contexts and several Panels. Many of these panels are condensed into a single Panel with Tabs in the default Blender settings.

[edit] Lamp Sub-Context

The settings in these Sub-contexts visualize the Lamp DataBlock. The Lamp Buttons are only displayed if the active Object is a Lamp.

[edit] Preview Panel

As for all these Sub-contexts, except radiosity, the first Panel contains a preview square window. Right of the Window a column of four Toggle Buttons allows you to select the Lamp Type:

Lamp The standard lamp, a point light source.

Spot The lamp is restricted to a conical space. The 3DWindow shows the form of the spotlight with a broken line.

Sun The light shines from a constant direction; the distance has no effect. The position of the Lamp Object is thus unimportant, except for the rotation.

Hemi Like Sun, but now light is shed in the form of half a sphere, a hemisphere. This method is also called directional'' ambient. It can be used to suggest cloudy daylight.

[edit] Lamp Panel

The top button row presents:

Lamp Menu Choose another Lamp Block from the list provided.

LA: Shows the current Lamp name. Clic  LMB to edit it into a new and unique name.

Users If the Lamp Block is used by more than one Object, this button shows the total number of Objects. Press the button to make the Lamp "Single User". This duplicates the Lamp Block.

Dist For the lamp types Lamp and Spot, the distance affects the intensity of the light. The standard formula is used for this: D = "Dist" button, r = distance to the lamp. Light intensity = D/(D + r). This is an inverse linear progression. With the option Quad, this can be changed. Left button column presents:

Quad The distance from the lamp is in inverse quadratic proportion to the intensity of the light. An inverse linear progression is standard (see the buttons Dist, Quad1 and Quad2).

Sphere The lamp only sheds light within a spherical area around the lamp. The radius of the sphere is determined by the Dist button.

Layer Only Objects in the same layer(s) as the Lamp Object are illuminated. This enables you to use selective lighting, to give objects an extra accent or to restrict the effects of the lamp to a particular space. It also allows you to keep rendering times under control.

Negative A lamp casts 'negative' light.

No Diffuse The lamp does not interact with the "Diffuse" shader of the objects.

No Specular The lamp does not interact with the "Specular" shader of the object. Right button column presents:

Energy The intensity of the light. The standard settings in Blender assume that a minimum of two lamps are used.

R, G, B The red, green and blue components of the light.

Quad1, Quad2 The light intensity formula of a Quad Lamp is: Light intensity = D / (D + (quad1 * r) + (quad2 * r * r)) D = Dist button. r = distance to the lamp. The values of quad1 and quad2 at 1.0 produces the strongest quadratic progression. The values of quad1 and quad2 at 0.0 creates a special Quad lamp that is insensitive to distance.

[edit] Spot Panel

In the case of a Spot Lamp a full separate Panel is needed for additional settings. The left column contains: Shadows The lamp can produce shadows. Shadow calculations are only possible with the Spot lamps. The render option Shadows must also be turned ON in the DisplayButtons to enable Shadows at a global level. OnlyShadow For spot lamps (with Shadow ON), only the shadow is rendered. Light calculations are not performed and where there are shadows, the value of Energy is reduced. Square Spotlamps can have square Spotbundles with this option. For a better control over shadows and for slide projector effects. Halo The lamp has a halo. This only works with Spot lamps. The intensity of the halo is calculated using a conic section. With the option Halo step: it also uses the shadow buffer (volumetric rendering). The scope of the spot halo is determined by the value of Dist. The right column contains: SpotSi The angle of the beam measured in degrees. Use for shadow lamp beams of less than 160 degrees. SpotBl The softness of the spot edge. HaloInt The intensity of the spot halo. The scope of the spot halo is determined by Dist. Shadow Buffer Blender uses a shadow buffer algorithm. From the spotlight, a picture is rendered for which the distance from the spotlight is saved for each pixel. The shadow buffers are compressed, a buffer of 1024x1024 pixels requires, on average, only 1.5 Mb of memory. This method works quite quickly, but must be adjusted carefully. There are two possible side effects:

• Aliasing. The shadow edge has a block-like

progression. Make the spot beam smaller, enlarge the buffer or increase the number of Samples in the buffer.

• Biasing. Faces that are in full light

show banding with a block-like pattern. Set the Bias as high as possible and reduce the distance between ClipSta and ClipEnd. ClipSta, ClipEnd Seen from the spot lamp: everything closer than ClipSta always has light; everything farther away than ClipEnd always has shadow. Within these limits, shadows are calculated. The smaller the shadow area, the clearer the distinction the lamp buffer can make between small distances, and the fewer side effects you will have. It is particularly important to set the value of ClipSta as high as possible. Samples The shadow buffer is 'sampled'; within a square area a test is made for shadow 3*3, 4*4 or 5*5 times. This reduces the aliasing. Halo step A value other than zero in the button Halo step causes the use of the shadow detection (volumetric rendering) for Halos. Low values cause better results and longer rendering times. A value of eight works fine in most cases. Bias The bias used for sampling the shadow buffer. Soft The size of the sample area. A large Soft value produces broader shadow edges.

[edit] Texture and Input Panel

This texture panel, and the following are a simplified version of the Material texture panels. Left column contains: Texture Channels A Lamp has six channels with which Textures can be linked. Each channel has its own mapping, i.e. the manner in which the texture works on the lamp. The settings are in the buttons described below and in the Map To Panel. Right column contains: Texture Data Block Texture Menu Select an existing Texture from the list provided, or create a new Texture Block. TE: The name of the Texture block. The name can be changed with this button. Clear The link to the Texture is erased. Users If the Texture Block has multiple users, this button shows the total number of users. Press the button to make the Texture "Single User". Then an exact copy is made. Auto Name Blender assigns a name to the Texture. Texture Mapping Input Each Texture has a 3D coordinate (the texture coordinate) as input. The starting point is always the global coordinate of the 3D point that is seen in the pixel to be rendered. A lamp has three options for this. Glob The global coordinate is passed on to the texture. View The view vector of the lamp; the vector of the global coordinate to the lamp, is passed on to the texture. If the lamp is a Spot, the view vector is normalized to the dimension of the spot beam, allowing use of a Spot to project a 'slide'. Object An Object is used as source of co-ordinates. The Object name must be entered in the Text Button below. Texture Input Transform Use these buttons to adjust the texture coordinate more finely. dX, dY, dZ The extra translation of the texture coordinate. sizeX, sizeY, sizeZ The extra scaling of the texture coordinate.

[edit] Map To Panel

Col The texture affects the colour of the lamp. Stencil Normally, textures are executed one after the other and placed over each other. A second Texture channel can completely replace the first. This option sets the mapping to stencil mode. No subsequent Texture can have an effect on the area the current Texture affects. Neg The inverse of the Texture is applied. RGBtoInt With this option, an RGB texture (affects colour) is used as an Intensity texture (affects a value). Blend The Texture mixes the values. Mul The Texture multiplies the values. Add The Texture adds the values. Sub The Texture subtracts the values. R, G, B The colour with which an Intensity texture blends with the current colour. DVar The value with which the Intensity texture blends with the current value. Col The extent to which the texture affects the colour. Nor The extent to which the texture affects the normal (not important here). Var The extent to which the texture affects the value (a variable, not important here).

[edit] Material Sub-Context

The settings in this ButtonsWindow visualize the Material DataBlock. The Material Panels and Buttons are only displayed if the active Object has a Material.

[edit] Preview Panel

As for all these Sub-contexts, except radiosity, the first Panel contains a preview square window. The top three buttons on the left governs the preview: Plane The preview plane only shows the X-Y coordinates. Sphere In the sphere-preview the Z axis is the vertical axis for the preview sphere; the X and Y axes revolve around this axis. Cube The cubic preview shows the material preview mapped on three sides of a cube, allowing to see the three possible mappings. The further two buttons below are concerned with: Background Use this button to select a light or a dark background. Refresh Use this button to refresh the material-preview. This is mostly needed after changing frames while having a material-Ipo.

[edit] Material Panel

The very top row is related to the Material Data Block. Material Menu Select another Material from the list provided, or create a new block. MA: Give the current Material a new and unique name. Users If the Material block is used by more than one Object, this button indicates the total number of users. Press the button to make the Material "Single User". An exact copy is created. Remove Link Delete the link to the Material. Auto Name Blender assigns a name to the Material. Fake User Blender assigns a "Fake" user to the material, so that it is saved in the .blend file even if unlinked. Copy to buffer The complete settings for the Material and all the mapping are copied to a temporary buffer. Copy from buffer The temporary buffer is copied to the Material. These row or buttons immediately below specify what the Material block is linked to, or must be linked to. By linking Materials directly to Objects, each Object is rendered in its own Material. ME: This Button indicates the block to which the Material is linked. This button can only be used to give the block another name. Possible blocks are:

• ME: Material is linked to a Mesh (ObData) block.
• CU: Material is linked to a Curve, Surface or Font (ObData) block.
• MB: Material is linked to a MetaBall (ObData) block.
• OB: Material is linked to the Object itself.

OB Use this button to link the current Material to the Object. Any link to the ObData block remains in effect. Links can be removed with the remove link button in top row. 1 Mat 1 An Object or ObData block may have more than one Material. This button can be used to specify which of the Materials must be displayed, i.e. which Material is active. The first digit indicates how many Materials there are; the second digit indicates the number of the active Material. Each face in a Mesh has a corresponding number: the 'Material index'. The number of indices can be specified with the EditButtons. Curves and Surfaces also have Material indices. Third row of buttons governs: VCol Light If the Mesh vertex has colours (see Vertex Paint), they are added to the Material as extra light. The colours also remain visible without lamps. Use this option to render radiosity-like models. VCol Paint If the Mesh vertex has colours, this button replaces the basic colour of the Material with these colours. Now light must shine on the Material before you can see it. TexFace A texture assigned with the UVEditor gives the color information for the faces. Shadeless This button makes the Material insensitive to light or shadow. The block below defines at a time the Three colors of the material and the behavior of the Object in Real Time simulations. This is selected with the bottom row of Toggle Buttons:

RGB Most colour sliders in Blender have two pre-set options: in this case, the colour is created by mixing Red, Green, Blue. HSV The colour sliders mix colour with the Hue, Saturation, Value system. 'Hue' determines the colour, 'Saturation' determines the amount of colour in relation to grey and 'Value' determines the light intensity of the colour. DYN Adjust parameters for the dynamics options. The neighbouring buttons changes completely. For the Colours, whichever the mapping, above these Toggle Buttons there are three more Toggle Buttons on a column, with colour preview on their left: Color The basic color of the Material (Diffuse Shader). Spec Specularity, the colour of the sheen (Specular Shader). Mir The mirror colour of the Material. This affects a environment or reflection map. The color, selected by its Toggle Button, can be edited with the three Num Buttons on the right which, depending on color scheme, are: R, G, B These mix the colour specified in RGB scheme. H, S, V These mix the colour specified in HSV scheme. The last two Num Buttons are: Alpha The degree of coverage, which can be used to make Materials transparent. Use the option ZTransp to specify that multiple transparent layers can exist. Without this option, only the Material itself is rendered, no matter what faces lie behind it. The transparent information is saved in an alpha layer, which can be saved as part of a picture. SpecTra This button makes areas of the Material with a sheen opaque. It can be used to give transparent Materials a 'glass' effect.

[edit] Shaders Panel

This Panel presents the Diffuse and Specular shader settings on the left and a column of Toggle Buttons on the right. On the left: Diffuse Shader Menu Three Diffuse Shaders are coded in Blender, depending on which is chosen the Num Buttons immediately on the right changes:

• Lambert - Blender default diffuse shader since ever.

Parameters:

• Ref Strength of reflectivity
• Oren-Nayar - Blender new physical shader (v. 2.28).

Parameters:

• Ref Strength of reflectivity
• Rough Roughness of the surface
• Toon - Blender new cartoon shader (v2.28).

Parameters:

• Ref Strength of reflectivity
• Size Angular width of lit region
• Smooth Blurriness of light/shadow

boundary Specular Shader Menu Four Specular Shaders are coded in Blender, depending on which is chosen the Num Buttons immediately on the right changes:

• CookTorr - Blender default specular shader since ever.

Parameters:

• Spec Strength of Specularity
• Hard

The hardness of the specularity. A large value gives a hard, concentrated sheen, like that of a billiard ball. A low value gives a metallic sheen.

• Phong - Blender Phong shader (v. 2.28).

Parameters:

• Spec Strength of Specularity
• Hard

The hardness of the specularity. A large value gives a hard, concentrated sheen, like that of a billiard ball. A low value gives a metallic sheen.

• Blinn - Blender Physical shader (v2.28).

Parameters:

• Spec Strength of Specularity
• Hard

The hardness of the specularity. A large value gives a hard, concentrated sheen, like that of a billiard ball. A low value gives a metallic sheen.

• Refr Refractive index to compute

specularity. This does not include mirror-like reflections or glass-like refractions.

• Toon - Blender new cartoon shader (v. 2.28).

Parameters:

• Spec Strength of Specularity
• Size Angular width of specular region
• Smooth Blurriness of specular/diffuse

boundary The bottom four Num Buttons are: Amb The degree to which the global Ambient colour is applied, a simple form of environmental light. The global Ambient can be specified in the World Sub-context. Ambient is useful for giving the total rendering a softer, more coloured atmosphere. Emit The Material 'emits light', without shedding light on other faces of course. Add This option adds some kind of glow to transparent objects, but only works with the unified renderer. Zoffset This button allows you to give the face to be rendered an artificial forward offset in Blender's Zbuffer system. This only applies to Materials with the option ZTransp. This option is used to place cartoon figures on a 3D floor as images with alpha. To prevent the figures from 'floating', the feet and the shadows drawn must be placed partially beneath the floor. The Zoffset option then ensures that the entire figure is displayed. This system offers numerous other applications for giving (flat) images of spatial objects the appropriate 3D placement. The rightmost column of Toggle Buttons contains: Halo This buttons turns a regular material into a Halo material. both the Material and this Panel dramatically change. They are described below. Traceable This specifies whether or not shadow lamps can 'see' the current Material. That is if object cast shadows. Shadow This button determines whether the Material can receive a shadow, that is if object receive castshadows. Radio This button makes the Material to be taken into account in radiosity calculations. Wire Only the edges of faces are rendered (normal rendering!). This results in an exterior that resembles a wire frame. This option can only be used for Meshes. ZTransp Transitional Zbuffers can only render opaque faces. Blender uses a modified method to Zbuffer transparent faces. This method requires more memory and calculation time than the normal Zbuffer, which is why the two systems are used alongside each other. Env Environment option. The Material is not rendered and the Zbuffer and render buffers are 'erased' so that the pixel is delivered with Alpha = 0.0. OnlyShadow This option determines the alpha for transparent Materials based on the degree of shadow. Without a shadow the Material is not visible and the effect is that of a 'floating' shadow. NoMist The Material is insensitive to "Mist" (see World Sub-context). Zinvert The Material is rendered with an inverse Zbuffer method; front and back are switched.

[edit] Preview Panel for Halo Materials

If a Material has the option Halo ON, a number of buttons change to specific halo settings. Lens flares can also be created here. Halos are rendered on the 3D location of the vertices. These are small, transparent round spots or pictures over which circles and lines can be drawn. They take Blender's Zbuffer into account; like any 3D element, they can simply disappear behind a face in the forefront. Halos are placed over the currently rendered background as a separate layer, or they give information to the alpha layer, allowing halos to be processed as a post-process. Only Meshes and Particle Effects can have halos. A Mesh with a halo is displayed differently in the 3DWindow; with small dots at the position of the vertices. Halos cannot be combined with 'ordinary' faces within one Mesh.

As for all these Sub-contexts, except radiosity, the first Panel contains a preview square window. The preview now show the halo material, the top three buttons on the left loose functionality, the bottom two keep the functionalities they had for normal materials.

[edit] Material Panel for Halo Materials

The two top rows related to the Material Data Block maintains the meaning they had for normal Materials. The third line disappears and the bottom part of the Panel maintains the general functionality but colors now refer to: Halo The base color of the Halo. Line The base color of the Halo lines, if any. Ring The base color of the Halo Ring, if any. The color, selected by its Toggle Button, can be edited with the three Num Buttons on the right which, depending on color scheme, are: R, G, B These mix the colour specified in RGB scheme. H, S, V These mix the colour specified in HSV scheme. Alpha The degree of coverage, which can be used to make Materials transparent. Use the option ZTransp to specify that multiple transparent layers can exist. Without this option, only the Material itself is rendered, no matter what faces lie behind it. The transparent information is saved in an alpha layer, which can be saved as part of a picture.

[edit] Shaders Panel for Halo Materials

This Panel presents the Halo shader settings on the left and a column of Toggle Buttons on the right. On the left: Halo Size The Halo dimension,in Blender Units. Hard The hardness of the halo, a large value gives a strong, concentrated progression. Add Normally, the colour of halos is calculated during rendering, giving a light emitting effect. Set the "Add" value to 0.0 to switch this off and make black or 'solid' halos possible as well. Rings The number of rings rendered over the basic halo, if the corresponding toggle button on the right is enabled. Lines The number of sparkle-shaped lines rendered over the basic halo, if the corresponding toggle button on the right is enabled. Star The number of points on the star-shaped basic halo, if the corresponding toggle button on the right is enabled. Seed 'Random' values are selected for the dimension of the rings and the location of the lines based on a fixed table. Seed determines an offset in the table. If the Halo is of Flare type, selected with toggle Button on the right, five further Num Buttons appear: FlareSize The factor by which the post-process basic Flare is larger than the halo. SubSize The dimension of post-process sub Flares, multi-coloured dots and circles. Boost This gives the Flare extra strength. Fl.seed The dimension and shape of the sub Flares is determined by a fixed table with 'random' values. Fl.seed specifies an offset in the table. Flares The number of sub Flares. The rightmost column of Toggle Buttons contains: Halo This buttons is on, if switched off turns back the Halo material to a regular one. Flare Each halo is now also rendered as a lens flare. This effect suggests the reflections that occur in a camera lens if a strong light source shines on it. A Flare consists of three layers:

• the ordinary halo, which has a 3D location, and can thus disappear behind a face.
• the basic Flare, which is the same halo, but possibly with other dimensions.

This is placed over the entire rendering as a post-process.

• the sub Flares, multi-coloured dots and circles, that are also placed over

the entire rendering as a post-process. The HaloSize value not only determines the dimensions, but is also used to determine the visibility - and thus the strength - of the Flare rendered in the post-process. This way, a Flare that disappears slowly behind a face will decrease in size at a corresponding speed and gradually go out. Rings Determines whether rings are rendered over the basic halo. Lines Determines whether sparkle-shaped lines are rendered over the basic halo. Star Instead of being rendered as a circle, the basic halo is rendered in the shape of a star. The NumBut Star determines the number of points the star has. HaloTex Halos can be given textures in two ways:

• HaloTex OFF: the basic colour of each halo is

determined by the texture coordinate of the halo-vertex.

• HaloTex ON: each halo gets a complete texture area,

in which, for example, an Image texture is displayed completely in each basic halo rendered. HaloPuno The vertex normal ("Puno" in Blender's turbo language) is used to help specify the dimension of the halo. Normals that point directly at the Camera are the largest; halos with a normal that point to the rear are not rendered. If there are no vertex normals in the Mesh (the Mesh only consists of vertices) the normalized local coordinate of the vertex is used as the normal. XAlpha Extreme Alpha. Halos can 'emit light'; they can add colour. This cannot be expressed with a normal alpha. Use this option to force a stronger progression in the alpha. Shaded Let the Halo receive light.

[edit] Texture Panel

Material textures are the most complex in Blender. There are three panels devoted to them. This first is concerned with texture channels, the second governs the Input mapping, the last the output mapping.

Texture channels A Material has eight channels to which Textures can be linked. Each channel has its own mapping, which is the effect the texture has on the material. Channels are grouped on a column on the left. For each active channel a Toggle button appears, allowing to switch off each single texture channel. Copy to buffer The up pointing arrow on the right of the Panel copies the complete mapping settings to a temporary buffer. Copy from buffer The down pointing arrow on the right of the Panel pastes the complete mapping settings from the temporary buffer. Texture Data Block Texture Menu Select an existing Texture from the list provided, or create a new Texture Block. TE: The name of the Texture block. The name can be changed with this button. Clear The link to the Texture is erased. Users If the Texture Block has multiple users, this button shows the total number of users. Press the button to make the Texture "Single User". Then an exact copy is made. Auto Name Blender assigns a name to the Texture.

[edit] Map Input Panel

Each Texture has a 3D coordinate (the texture coordinate) as input. The starting point is generally the global coordinate of the 3D point that can be seen in the pixel to be rendered. A Material has the following Mapping options, given by the first two row of buttons: UV The U-V coordinates of a face or Nurbs surface from an Object make up the texture coordinates. U-V is a commonly used term for specifying the mathematical space of a flat or curved surface. Object Every Object in Blender can be used as a source for texture coordinates. For this, the Object's inverse transformation is applied to the global coordinate, which gives the local Object coordinate. This links the texture to the position, dimension and rotation of the Object. Generally, an Empty Object is used to specify the exact location of a Texture, e.g. to place a logo on the body of an airplane. Another commonly used approach is to have the 'Texture Object' move to achieve an animated texture. Object Name The name of the Object used for the texture coordinates must be placed in this Text Button. If the Object does not exist, the button remains empty. Glob The global coordinate is passed on to the texture. Orco The standard setting. This is the original coordinate of the Mesh or another ObData block. Stick Sticky texture. Blender allows you to assign a texture coordinate to Meshes, which is derived from the manner in which the Camera view sees the Mesh. The screen coordinate (only X,Y) for each vertex is calculated and saved in the Mesh. This makes it appear as if the texture is projected from the Camera; the texture becomes "sticky" (see also Make Sticky in the EditButtons). Use Sticky to precisely match a 3D object with an Image Texture. Special morphing effects can also be achieved. Win The screen coordinate (X,Y) is used as a texture coordinate. Use this method to achieve 2D layering of different Images. Nor The normal vector of the rendered face is used as a texture coordinate. Use this method to achieve reflection mapping, which is the suggestion of mirroring using a specially pre-calculated Image. Refl The reflection vector of the rendered face is used as a texture coordinate. This vector points in a direction that makes the face appear to be mirrored. Use this option to suggest a reflected surface with procedural textures such as "Marble" or "Clouds" and of course for the use with the EnvMap texture. Mapping: 3D to 2D For Image Textures only; the four buttons middle left in the Panel determines the manner is which the 3D coordinate is converted to 2D. Flat The X and Y coordinates are used directly. Cube Depending on the normal vector of the face, the X-Y or the X-Z or the Y-Z coordinates are selected. This option works well for stones, marbles and other regular textures, Tube This creates a tube-shaped mapping. The Z axis becomes the central axis, X and Y revolve around it. Sphere This causes a sphere-shaped mapping. The Z axis becomes the central axis, X and Y revolve around it. Mapping: switch coordinates. The three rows of buttons indicate the new X, Y and Z coordinates. Normally, the X is mapped to X, the Y to Y and Z to Z. You can act on the matrix to change this mapping. The first, labelless, button of each row switches a coordinate completely off. Mapping: coordinates linear transformation. Use the right column of Num Buttons to finely adjust the texture coordinate. ofsX, ofsY, ofsZ The extra translation of the texture coordinate. sizeX, sizeY, sizeZ The extra scaling of the texture coordinate.

[edit] Map To Panel

The Map To Panel determines the effect of the Texture output for the current point.

Mapping: output to. The top two rows of Buttons determines which property of the material is affected: Col The texture affects the basic, diffuse, color of the material. Nor The texture affects the rendered normal direction. It is a three state button, effects can be off, positive or negative. Only important for Image textures. The Stucci is the only procedural texture which effectively generate normal informations (for now). Csp The texture affects the specularity color of the material. Cmir The texture affects the mirror colour of the material, filtered with Mir-RGB sliders. Ref The texture affects the value of the material's reflectivity . This if a three state button: off, active and inverse. Spec The texture affects the value of specularity of the material. This if a three state button: off, active and inverse. Hard The texture affects the hardness value of the material. This if a three state button: off, active and inverse. Alpha The texture affects the alpha value of the material. There are three settings. Emit The texture affects the Emit value of the material. There are settings. Mapping: Texture additional settings. The group of buttons bottom left on the panel defines further settings on how the Texture output is handled. Stencil Normally, textures are executed one after the other and laid over one another. A second Texture channel can completely replace the first. With this option, the mapping goes into stencil mode. No subsequent Texture can have an effect on the area the current Texture affects. Neg The effect of the Texture is reversed. No RGB With this option, an RGB texture (affects color) is used as an Intensity texture (affects a value). R, G, B (or H, S, V) The color with which an Intensity-only texture blends with the current colour. DVar The value with which the Intensity texture blends with the current value. Mapping: output settings. These buttons change the output of the Texture. Mix The Texture blends the values or colour. Mul The Texture multiplies values or colour. Add The Texture adds the values or colour. Sub The Texture subtracts values or colour. Col The extent to which the texture affects colour. Nor

The extent to which the texture affects the normal. Var The extent to which the texture affects a value.

[edit] Texture Sub-Context

If there is an active Texture channel in a Material, Lamp or World Block, switching to Texture Sub-Context (F6) populates the Buttons Window wit Texture panels of the current Texture Block. Each Texture has a 3D coordinate (the texture coordinate) as input, as described in the Material Sub-context. What happens in the Texture evaluation process is determined by the type of texture:

• Intensity textures: return one scalar value. The preview render

in this window shows this as grey values.

• RGB textures: returns three, RGB, values; they always work on colour.
• Bump textures: returns three values; they always work on the normal vector.

Only the "Stucci" and "Image" texture can give normals.

[edit] Preview Panel

As for all these Sub-contexts, except radiosity, the first Panel contains a square preview window. Right of the Window a column of three Toggle Buttons allows you to select the Block of Textures, Blender automatically selects the right one: Mat Material textures.

World World textures.

Lamp Lamp textures.

Default Var This button brings all the texture values to the default.

[edit] Texture Panel

The Texture Block in the top row indicate what Texture block is visualized. Texture Menu Select another Texture from the list provided, or create a new block. TE: Give the current Texture block a new and unique name. Users If the Texture block has more than one user, this button shows the total. Press the button to make the Texture "Single User". An exact copy is then created. Remove Link

Delete the link to the Texture. Auto Name Blender assigns a name to the Texture. Fake User Blender assigns a "Fake" user to the texture, so that it is saved in the .blend file even if unlinked. Below the Texture Block there are three columns of buttons, on the left:

Texture Channels Eight or six buttons, depending if we are working on a Material, on a Lamp or on the World, showing the active Texture channels with their names. The two columns on the right select the type of texture. There are 11 types one of which, none effectively is "no texture". Each of the other buttons select a particular kind of texture and opens at least a new, type-dependent, Panel. Texture types will be described in the relevant Panel description

[edit] Colors Panel

This panel allows you to create a smooth colour progression in place of an Intensity progression. Intensity textures are thus changed into an RGB texture. The use of Colorband with a sharp transition can cause aliasing. Colorband Switches the use of Colorband on or off. Add Adds a new colour to the Colorband. This is by default placed at intensity 0.5 and is gray. Cur: The active colour from the Colorband. Del Delete the active colour. Pos: The position of the active colour. Values range from 0.0 to 1.0. This can also be entered using LeftMouse (hold-move) in the Colorband. E, L, S The interpolation type with which colours are mixed, i.e. 'Ease', 'Linear' and 'Spline'. The last gives the most fluid progression. A, R, G, B The Alpha and RGB value of the active colour. Bright The 'brightness' of the colour or intensity of a texture. In fact, a fixed number is added or subtracted. This is not limited to Colourbands, but works for any texture. Contr The 'contrast' of the colour or intensity of a texture. This is actually a multiplication. This is not limited to Colourbands, but works for any texture.

[edit] Image Texture Panel

Of the ten possible textures the Image one is the only requiring two additional Panels, this, and the Cropand Anim one.

The Image texture is the most frequently used and most advanced of Blender's textures.

Because pictures are two-dimensional, you must specify in the mapping buttons how the 3D texture coordinate is converted to 2D; mapping is a part of the MaterialButtons. For best results UV mapping is required.

The first two row of Buttons in the Panel determine

InterPol This option interpolates the pixels of an Image. This becomes visible when you enlarge the picture. Turn this option OFF to keep the pixels visible - they are correctly anti-aliased. This last feature is useful for regular patterns, such as lines and tiles; they remain 'sharp' even when enlarged considerably.

UseAlpha Use the alpha'layer of the Image.

CalcAlpha Calculate an alpha based on the RGB values of the Image.

NegAlpha Reverses the alpha value.

MipMap Generates a series of pictures, each half the size of the former one. This optimizes the filtering process. When this option is OFF, you generally get a sharper image, but this can significantly increase calculation time if the filter dimension becomes large.

Fields Video frames consist of two different images (fields) that are merged by horizontal line. This option makes it possible to work with field images. It ensures that when "Fields" are rendered the correct field of the Image is used in the correct field of the rendering. MipMapping cannot be combined with "Fields".

Rot90 Rotates the Image 90 degrees when rendered.

Movie Movie files (AVIs supported by Blender, SGI-movies) and "anim5" files can also be used for an Image. In this case the subsequent Panel, Crop and Anim is populated by Buttons.

Anti Graphic images such as cartoons and pictures that consist of only a few colors with a large surface filling can be anti-aliased as a built in pre-process.

St Field Normally, the first field in a video frame begins on the first line. Some frame grabbers do this differently! The following two lines presents the image Menu:

Image menu You can select a previously created Image from the list provided. Image blocks can be reused without taking up extra memory.

File Name Enter a file name here, after which a new Image block is created.

Users Indicates the number of users for the Image. The "Single User" option cannot be activated here. It has no significance for Images.

Load Image The (largest) adjacent window becomes an Image Select Window. Specify here what file must be read to become an Image.

The small, labelless, button on the right does the same thing, but now simply gives a File Select Window.

Pack Indicates the packing of the image. Pressed means the image is packed into the Blend-file. Clicking on the Button packs or unpacks the image. If a unpack option is triggered the unpack-menu pops up.

Reload Force the Image file to be read again.

Filter The filter size used by the options MipMap and Interpol. The following options determine what happens if the texture coordinate falls outside the Image.

Extend Outside the Image the colour of the edge is extended.

Clip Outside the Image, an alpha value of 0.0 is returned. This allows you to 'paste' a small logo on a large object.

ClipCube The same as Clip, but now the 'Z' coordinate is calculated as well. Outside a cube-shaped area around the Image, an alpha value of 0.0 is returned.

Repeat The Image is repeated horizontally and vertically. The following six Num Buttons allows for repetitions and offsetting:

Xrepeat An (extra) number of repetitions in the X direction.

Yrepeat An (extra) number of repetitions in the Y direction.

MinX, MinY, MaxX, MaxY Use these to specify a cropping, it appears that the Image actually becomes larger or smaller.

[edit] Crop and Anim Panel

This Panel is strictly related to the Image and is present only for Image type textures.

Frames This activates the animation option; another image file (in the same Image block) will be read per rendered frame. Blender tries to find the other files by changing a number in the file name. Only the rightmost digit is interpreted for this. For example: 01.ima.099.tga + 1 becomes 01.ima.100.tga. The value of "Frames" indicates the total number of files to be used. If the option "Movie" is ON, this value must also be set. Now, however, a frame is continually taken from the same file.

Offset The number of the first picture of the animation.

Fie/Ima The number of fields per rendered frame. If no fields are rendered, even numbers must be entered here. (2 fields = 1 frame).

Cyclic The animation Image is repeated cyclically.

StartFr: The moment - in Blender frames - at which the animation Image must start.

Len This button determines the length of the animation. By assigning Len a higher value than Frames, you can create a still at the end of the animation.

Fra The Fra buttons allow you to create a simple montage within an animation Image. The left button, Fra indicates the frame number, the right-hand button indicates how long the frame must be displayed.

[edit] Clouds Texture Panel

The "Clouds" is a procedural texture. This means that each 3D coordinate can be translated directly to a colour or a value. In this case, a three-dimensional table with pseudo random values is used, from which a fluent interpolation value can be calculated with each 3D coordinate (thanks to Ken Perlin for his masterful article "An Image Synthesizer", from the SIGGRAPH proceedings 1985). This calculation method is also called Perlin Noise. Default The standard Noise, gives an Intensity. Color The Noise gives an RGB value. Soft Noise, Hard Noise There are two methods available for the Noise function. NoiseSize The dimension of the Noise table. NoiseDepth The depth of the Cloud calculation. A higher number results in a long calculation time, but also in finer details.

[edit] Stucci Texture Panel

This procedural texture generates Noise-based normals. Plastic The standard Stucci. Wall In, Wall out This is where Stucci gets it name. This is a typical wall structure with holes or bumps. Soft Noise, Hard Noise There are two methods available for working with Noise. NoiseSize The dimension of the Noise table. Turbulence The depth of the Stucci calculations.

[edit] Magic Texture Panel

Magic is a procedural texture. The RGB components are generated independently with a sine formula. Size The dimensions of the pattern. Depth The depth of the calculation. A higher number results in a long calculation time, but also in finer details. Turbulence The strength of the pattern. Noise

Although this looks great, it is not Perlin Noise! This is a true, randomly generated Noise. This gives a different result every time, for every frame, for every pixel. It has no parameters and hence no Panel of its own.

[edit] EnvMap Texture Panel

Blender uses cube-mapped environmental maps to fake reflections. This is a very peculiar texture computed at rendering time from the point of view of a given Object. Blender allows three types of environment maps: Static The map is only calculated once during an animation or after loading a file. Dynamic The map is calculated each time a rendering takes place. This means moving Objects are displayed correctly in mirroring surfaces. Load When saved as an image file, environment maps can be loaded from disk. This option allows the fastest rendering with environment maps.

Free Data This action releases all images associated with the environment map. This is how you force a recalculation when using a Static map. Save EnvMap You can save an environment map as an image file, in the format indicated in the Scene Context (F10). Free all Env This button does notonly releases all images linked to the current EnvMap but also all other images linked to any other EnvMap in the whole scene. If the environment map type is "Load". The environment map image can be loaded via a regular Image block in the Blender structure: Load Image The (largest) adjacent window becomes an Image Select Window. Specify here what file to read in as environment map. If the loaded image is not a Blender EnvMap weirs results can occur at rendering time. ... This small, labelless, button does the same thing, but now gives a File Select Window. Image Menu You can select a previously loaded map from the list provided. EnvMap Images can be reused without taking up extra memory. File Name Enter an image file name here, to load as an environment map. Users Indicates the number of users for the Image. Pack Embeds the image in the .blend file. Reload Force the Image file to be read again. Ob: Fill in the name of an Object that defines the center and rotation of the environment map. This can be any Object in the current Scene. CubeRes The resolution in pixels of the environment map image. Filter: With this value you can adjust the sharpness or blurriness of the reflection. Depth: Forces the EnvMap to be computed this number of additional times. This is usefull is several Objects are mirroring each one the other and multiple reflections occur. Clipsta, ClipEnd These values define the clipping boundaries when rendring the environment map images. Don't render layer Indicate with this option that faces that exist in a specific layer are NOT rendered in the environment map.

[edit] Marble Texture Panel

"Marble" is another procedural texture. In this case, bands are generated based on a sine formula and Noise turbulence. It returns an Intensity value only. Soft, Sharp, Sharper Three pre-sets for soft to more clearly defined Marble. Soft Noise, Hard Noise The Noise function works with two methods.

NoiseSize The dimensions of the Noise table. NoiseDepth The depth of the Marble calculation. A higher value results in greater calculation time, but also in finer details. Turbulence The turbulence of the sine bands.

[edit] Wood Texture Panel

"Wood" is another procedural texture. In this case, bands are generated based on a sine formula. You can also add a degree of turbulence with the Noise formula. It returns an Intensity value only. Bands The standard Wood texture. Rings This suggests 'wood' rings. BandNoise Applying Noise gives the standard Wood texture a certain degree of turbulence. RingNoise Applying Noise gives the rings a certain degree of turbulence. Soft Noise, Hard Noise There are two methods available for the Noise function. NoiseSize The dimension of the Noise table. Turbulence The turbulence of the BandNoise and RingNoise types.

[edit] Blend Texture Panel

This is another procedural texture. It generates a progression in Intensity. Lin A linear progression. Quad A quadratic progression. Ease A flowing, non-linear progression. Diag A diagonal progression. Sphere A progression with the shape of a three-dimensional ball. Halo A quadratic progression with the shape of a three-dimensional ball. Flip XY The direction of the progression is flipped a quarter turn.

[edit] Plugin Texture Panel

Plugins are pieces of compiled C-code which can be loaded by runtime, to extend a program's features. After pressing Load Plugin you get a FileWindow which lets you choose a plugin. The plugins are platform specific, so be sure to load a plugin for your operating system.

[edit] Radiosity Sub-Context

Radiosity has been a modelling tool up to Blender 2.28, and is now both a modelling and a rendering tool. The Radiosity Sub-context reflects this duality. By default it presents two Panels: Radio Render to set the parameters of Radiosity Renderingand Radio Tool to set the parameters for the modelling radio tool. In this latter case a new Panel, Calculation appears.

[edit] Radio Render Panel

This is presents parameters for Radiosity as a rendering tool, but its entries are also usefull in Radiosity modelling. Radiosity Rendering takes into account only Objects whose Materials have the Radio Toggle Button enabled. Hemires The size of a hemicube; the color-coded images used to find the Elements that are visible from a 'shoot Patch', and thus receive energy. Hemicubes are not stored, but are recalculated each time for every Patch that shoots energy. The Hemires value determines the Radiosity quality and adds significantly to the solving time. Max iterations When this button has a non-zero value, Radiosity solving stops after the indicated iteration step, unless the convergence criterion is met beforehand. Mult, Gamma The colorspace of the Radiosity solution is far more detailed than can be expressed with simple 24 bit RGB values. When Elements are converted to faces, their energy values are converted to an RGB color using the Mult and Gamma values. With the Mult value you can multiply the energy value, with Gamma you can change the contrast of the energy values. Convergence When the amount of unshot energy in an environment is lower than this value, the Radiosity solving stops. The initial unshot energy in an environment is multiplied by the area of the Patches. During each iteration, some of the energy is absorbed, or disappears when the environment is not a closed volume. In Blender's standard coordinate system a typical emitter (as in the example files) has a relative small area. The convergence value in is divided by a factor of 1000 before testing for that reason .

[edit] Radio Tool Panel

Collect Meshes All selected and visible Meshes in the current Scene are converted to Patches. As a result some Buttons in the interface change color and a new Panel, Calculation, appears. Blender now has entered the Radiosity mode, and other editing functions are blocked until the button Free Data is pressed. After the Meshes are collected, they are drawn in a pseudo lighting mode that clearly differs from the normal drawing. Free Radio Data All Patches, Elements and Faces are freed in Memory. You always must perform this action after using Radiosity to be able to return to normal editing. Replace Meshes Once the Radiosity process has been performed, by clicking this button the faces of the current displayed Radiosity solution are converted to Mesh Objects with vertex colors. A new Material is added that allows immediate rendering. The input-Meshes are lost. Add New Meshes As previous, but the input-Meshes are kept. Wire, Solid, Gour Three drawmode options are included which draw independent of the indicated drawmode of a 3DWindow. Gouraud display, the smoothest, is only performed after the Radiosity process has started. ShowLim, Z This option visualizes the Patch and Element limits. By pressing the 'Z' option, the limits are drawn rotated differently. The white lines show the Patch limits, cyan lines show the Element limits. ElMax, ElMin, PaMax, PaMin The maximum and minimum size of a Element or Patch. These limits are used during all Radiosity phases. The unit is expressed in 0,0001 of the boundbox size of the entire environment.

Limit Subdivide With respect to the values PaMax and PaMin, the Patches are subdivided. This subdivision is also automatically performed when a GO action has started.

[edit] Calculation Panel

This Panel actually launches a Radiosity Modelling solution and handles its post-processing. GO With this button you start the Radiosity simulation. The phases are:

• Limit Subdivide. When Patches are too large, they are subdivided.
• Subdiv Shoot Patch. The value of SubSh P

defines the number of times the "Subdiv Shoot Patch" function is called. As a result, Patches are subdivided.

• Subdiv Shoot Elem. The value of SubSh E defines the

number of times the "Subdiv Shoot Element" function is called. As a result, Elements are subdivided.

• Subdivide Elements. When Elements are still larger than the minimum size,

they are subdivided. Now, the maximum amount of memory is usually allocated.

• Solve. This is the actual 'progressive refinement' method. The mousecursor

displays the iteration step, the current total of Patches that shot their energy in the environment. This process continues until the unshot energy in the environment is lower than the Convergence or when the maximum number of iterations has been reached.

• Convert to faces. The elements are converted to triangles or squares with

'anchored' edges, to make sure a pleasant not-discontinue Gouraud display is possible. This process can be terminated with ESC during any phase. SubSh Patch The number of times the environment is tested to detect Patches that need subdivision. SubSh Element The number of times the environment is tested to detect Elements that need subdivision. Subdiv Shoot Patch By shooting energy to the environment, errors can be detected that indicate a need for further subdivision of Patches. The subdivision is performed only once each time you call this function. The results are smaller Patches and a longer solving time, but a higher realism of the solution. This option can also be automatically performed when the GO action has started (see above). Subdiv Shoot Element By shooting energy to the environment, and detecting high energy changes (frequencies) inside a Patch, the Elements of this Patch are selected to be subdivided one extra level. The subdivision is performed only once each time you call this function. The results are smaller Elements and a longer solving time and probably more aliasing, but a higher level of detail. This option can also be automatically performed when the GO action has started (see above). MaxEl The maximum allowed number of Elements. Since Elements are subdivided automatically in Blender, the amount of used memory and the duration of the solving time can be controlled with this button. As a rule of thumb 20,000 elements take up 10 Mb memory. Max Subdiv Shoot The maximum number of shoot Patches that are evaluated for the "adaptive subdivision". If zero, all Patches with a non zero Emit value are evaluated. FaceFilter After Radiosity calculation has occurred, Elements are converted to faces for display. A "FaceFilter" forces an extra smoothing in the displayed result, without changing the Element values themselves. Element Filter After Radiosity calculation has occurred, this option filters Elements to remove aliasing artifacts, to smooth shadow boundaries, or to force equalized colors for the RemoveDoubles option. RemoveDoubles When two neighbouring Elements have a displayed color that differs less than Lim, the Elements are joined. Lim This value is used by the previous button. The unit is expressed in a standard 8 bits resolution; a color range from 0 - 255.

[edit] World Sub-Context

The settings in this ButtonsWindow visualize the World DataBlock. It is linked to a Scene, and can therefore be reused by other Scenes. This block contains the settings for standard backgrounds, mist effects and the built-in star generator. The ambient colour and exposure time can be set here as well.

[edit] Preview Panel

As for all these Sub-contexts, except radiosity, the first Panel contains a preview square window. Right of the Window a column of three Toggle Buttons allows you to select the background type: Blend This option renders the background, the sky, with a natural progression. At the bottom of the image is the horizon colour, at the top, the colour of the zenith. The progression is not linear, but bent in the shape of a ball, depending on the lens value of the Camera. Real The option Real makes the position of the horizon real; the direction in which the camera is pointed determines whether the horizon or the zenith can be seen. This also influences the generated texture coordinates. Paper This option makes the Blend (if this is selected) or the texture coordinates completely flat, at 'viewport' level.

[edit] World Panel

World DataBlock The top row in this panel contains the World Data Block: World Menu Select another World from the list provided, or create a new block. WO: Give the current World block a new and unique name. Users If the World block has more than one user, this button shows the total number of users. Press the button to make the World "Single User". An exact copy is then created. Remove Link Delete the link to the World. Fake User Blender assigns a "Fake" user to the World, so that it is saved in the .blend fileeven if unlinked. HoR, HoG, HoB The colour of the horizon. ZeR, ZeG, ZeB The colour of the zenith. This is the point directly above or directly below an observer (on the earth!). AmbR, AmbG, AmbB The colour of the environmental light, the ambient. This is a rather primitive way to make the entire rendering lighter, or to change the colour temperature. Expos The lighting time, exposure. In fact, this causes a global strengthening or reduction in all the lamps. Use this to give the rendering more contrast.

[edit] Mist, Star, Physics Panel

The first row of this Panel is dedicated to the Realtime Physics engine: Engine This Menu allows you to choose between different kinds of engine:

• None
• Sumo
• ODE
• Dynamo

Grav The value of gravity acceleration (9.8m/s² on Earth). The left buttons column handles Mist: Mist Activates the rendering of mist. All rendered faces and halos are given an extra alpha value, based on their distance from the camera. If a 'sky' colour is specified, this is filled in behind the alpha. Qua, Lin, Sqr Determines the progression of the mist. Quadratic, linear or inverse quadratic (square root), respectively. Sqr gives a thick 'soupy' mist, as if the picture is rendered under water. Sta The start distance of the mist, measured from the Camera. Di The depth of the mist, with the distance measured from Sta. Hi With this option, the mist becomes thinner the higher it goes. This is measured from Z = 0.0. If the value of Hi is set to zero, this effect is turned off. Misi Mist intensity, the higher the thicker. The right column of buttons handles stars: Stars Blender has an automatic star generator. These are standard halos that are only generated in the sky. With this option ON, stars are also drawn in the 3DWindow (as small points). StarDist The average distance between two stars. Do not allow this value to become too small, as this will generate an overflow. MinDist In reality, stars are light years apart. In the Blender universe, this distance is much smaller. To prevent stars from appearing too close to the Camera, you can set a MinDist value. Stars will never appear within this distance. Size The average screen dimensions of a star. ColNoise This value randomly selects star colour.

[edit] Texture and Input Panel

This texture panel, and the following are a simplified version of the Material texture panels. Left column contains: Texture Channels A World has six channels with which Textures can be linked. Each channel has its own mapping, i.e. the manner in which the texture works on the world. The settings are in the buttons described below and in the Map To Panel. Right column contains: Texture Data Block Texture Menu Select an existing Texture from the list provided, or create a new Texture Block. TE: The name of the Texture block. The name can be changed with this button. Clear The link to the Texture is erased. Users If the Texture Block has multiple users, this button shows the total number of users. Press the button to make the Texture "Single User". Then an exact copy is made. Auto Name Blender assigns a name to the Texture. Texture Mapping Input Each Texture has a 3D coordinate (the texture coordinate) as input. The starting point is always the global coordinate of the 3D point that is seen in the pixel to be rendered. A world has only two options for this. View The view vector of the World; the vector of the global coordinate to the camera, is passed on to the texture. Object An Object is used as source of co-ordinates. The Object name must be entered in the Text Button below. Texture Input Transform Use these buttons to adjust the texture coordinate more finely. dX, dY, dZ The extra translation of the texture coordinate. sizeX, sizeY, sizeZ The extra scaling of the texture coordinate.

[edit] Map To Panel

The texture can only affect the colour of the background. This can occur according to 4 schemes: Blend The texture works on the colour progression in the sky. Hori The texture works on the colour of the horizon. ZenUp The texture works on the colour of the zenith above. ZenDown The texture works on the colour of the zenith below. Stencil Normally, textures are executed one after the other and placed over each other. A second Texture channel can completely replace the first. This option sets the mapping to stencil mode. No subsequent Texture can have an effect on the area the current Texture affects. Neg The inverse of the Texture is applied. RGBtoInt With this option, an RGB texture (affects colour) is used as an Intensity texture (affects a value). Blend The Texture mixes the values. Mul The Texture multiplies the values. Add The Texture adds the values. Sub The Texture subtracts the values. R, G, B The colour with which an Intensity texture blends with the current colour. DVar The value with which the Intensity texture blends with the current value. Col The extent to which the texture affects the colour. Nor The extent to which the texture affects the normal (not applicable here). Var The extent to which the texture affects the value (a variable, not applicable here).