Using U & V directly
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U AND V NODES USED DIRECTLY

Despite all of the limitations mentions in the previous tutorial, the U and V nodes can be useful plugged directly into other nodes. On most models, U will give a decent left to right and V a good bottom to top. It is also worth remembering that the background has a simple rectangular UV map, so U and V will work plugged directly into any background node.


Fig 1: Whispy Clouds

Figure 1 shows a simple shader tree that produces a nice pattern of clouds fading towards the horizon. Combined with the right backdrop this can be very effective. You can get different skys with different colours; reverse these colours to get heavy cloud with a few gaps. Change the blue to grey to get dark clouds.


Fig 2: Simple Gradient

The U and V nodes can be combined with the Blender node to produce simple colour gradients.

  1. Create your Blender node.
  2. Set the colours you require for the gradient.
  3. Set the Blending value to 1.
  4. Create your U or V node and plug it into the Blending input of the Blender node.
You can then plug the output of the Blender node into any suitably UV mapped model to produce a simple two colour gradient.


Fig 3: Complex Gradient

More complex four colour gradients can be made using the ColorRamp node.

  1. Create your ColorRamp node.
  2. Set the four colours that you require for the gradient.
  3. Set the Input value to 1 (it should already be at one, but it's worth checking!).
  4. Create your U or V node and plug it into the Input input of the ColorRamp node.
Once again, this can be plugged into any suitable UV mapped model to produce some very varied effects. A good example would be to produce a more complex sky colour than the simple gradient.


Fig 4: A Complex Sky

Figure 4 shows a compination of Figures 1 and 3 used to produce a complex sky with clouds. Here the output from the complex gradient is used to provide the sky colour for the Clouds node. You could add another colour ramp to alter the cloud colour if you wanted a more complex result. This tree can be plugged directly into the background material.


PoserWorld