BPR Material and Shader Enhancements
From ZBrush Info
Various BPR Material and Shader enhancements are introduced in ZBrush 4R2.
Contents |
Material Modifiers
Several new modifiers have been added to ZBrush’s default Materials. When combined with the Environment Reflection slider, these modifiers give you more control when working with a background image.
Reflection Exposure Slider
By adjusting the Reflection Exposure slider’s setting you will increase or decrease the lighting information in the background that is reflected on the 3D model. This slider’s effect is most apparent when using LightCaps from a background image.
Reflection Gamma Slider
The Reflection Gamma slider lets you change the Gamma information present in the reflection by increasing or decreasing the contrast between the high and low values within the background image’s reflection. Darker parts of the image can be brightened or darkened even more relative to the brighter parts of the image. This slider’s effect is most apparent when using LightCaps from a background image.
Reflection Fresnel Slider
The reflection Fresnel slider lets you define the location of the reflection on the model depending based upon the angle of the surface relative to the camera. This makes it possible to have reflections only on the front of the model or only to the side. You will thus be able to create different types of surfaces, from organic to metallic. The Environment Reflection slider must have a value higher than 0. This slider’s effect is most apparent when using LightCaps from a background image.
Reflection Blur Slider
The Reflection Blur slider allows you to blur the surface’s reflection of the background image.
Material > Environment
Shadow Slider
Use this slider to control the intensity of the shadows being cast on a Tool and/or SubTool(s) using the selected assigned material. The Render >> BPR Shadow settings then control the quality of shadows being cast onto the Tool and/or SubTool(s).
Ambient Occlusion Slider
Controls the intensity of ambient occlusion being applied to a Tool and/or SubTool(s) using the selected assigned material. Ambient occlusion darkens surfaces that are close to other surfaces (such as where a wall intersects with the floor), simulating how shade naturally pools in areas where surfaces are close together. The Render > BPR Ao settings then control the quality of the ambient occlusion being applied to the Tool and/or SubTool(s).
Material > Mixer
The Material Mixer has been enhanced with new mixing operators, making it possible for you to mix several shaders on a surface, creating dynamic materials and effects.
As an example, these new operators can let you use the model’s PolyPaint information to define where the first or second shader will be visible on the model. Another example would be to simply remove specularity from parts of the surface that are in shadow.
Most of these new mixer sliders are combined with an exponential slider which will affect the way any shader is spread across the surface.
By Shadow Slider
The By Shadow slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based solely on the shadow being rendered on the model’s surface. This effect will only be noticeable after performing a BPR render.
By Ambient Occlusion Slider
The By Ambient Occlusion slider is very similar to the By Shadow slider except that it lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the rendered surface’s ambient occlusion information. This effect will be visible after a BPR render.
Color Picker
You can use the Color picker to sample a color from the model which will then act as a modulator for the selected shader. Simply click and drag from this over your model to select the desired color. This color picker ignores specular and shadow information and so will only sample the surface’s base color. By adjusting the associated sliders, this sampled color can be used based on any combination of its Intensity, Hue or Saturation.
By Intensity Slider
The By Intensity slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the intensity of the PolyPaint color that has been sampled using the Color Picker.
By Hue slider
The By Hue slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the hue of the PolyPaint color that has been sampled using the Color Picker.
By Saturation slider
The By Saturation slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the saturation of the PolyPaint color that has been sampled using the Color Picker.
By Depth Slider
The By Depth slider lets you mix the current shader with the previous shader based on the depth of the surface relative to the camera.
Depth A & B Sliders
If using a MatCap material with two channels, the Depth A & B sliders allow you to mix the current shader with the previous one based upon the dominance of the material’s A & B channels on the rendered surface.
