MATHS: FLOOR

The Floor node rounds any input down to the next lowest whole number. It shares a lot in common with the round and ceil functions, but with one crucial difference. When used with other unmodified nodes, only pure white will appear in the Floor node. This is the only colour that Poser considers as being a '1'. Normal maths nodes see everything else as a shade of gray, represented as a number lower than 1. These are all returned as zero, or black, by our floor node (see Figure 1).

Fig 1: Unmodified Floor Node

If we want to use the floor function with other nodes in this way, we need to use Value_1 to multiply our input value to a point where some of the output is white (i.e. has a value of 1) or even "brighter" (more than 1) - remember Poser maths don't limit us to the range of visible colours).

Fig 2: Modified Floor Node.

Figure Two shows the result of multiplying our input by 2.5. This gives us some white patches in our result, reflecting the brighter elements of the Turbulence node. This can be used to produce a simple two-tone pattern from any other node.

Fig 3: Controlled Color Maths

However, the Floor function can produce more than just black and white. If Value_1 is high enough, then the Floor function will return higher whole numbers. In Figure 3 we can see one use of that. Here, we have multiplied our Turbulence by six. The highest number produced by this is somewhere between 3 and 4. When we divide the result by 3, those high patches become white, with lower values appearing as shades of gray. Increase Value_1 in the Floor function and Value_2 in the Divide to increase the number of shades of gray.

If you want to restrict the output of your Floor function to either 0 or 1, then you will need to pass it through a 'clamp' node, thus stripping out any values below 0 or above 1.

Fig 4: Floor used as 'threshold' node

One potential use of the floor function is to recreate the 'threshold' function present in some paint packages. This takes a colour image, and turns it into a pure black and white picture. With the Floor node, the higher you set 'Value_1', the more white you will produce, the nearer to one the more black. Remember, if your value_1 is high enough (generally over 2 with pictures), your output can go above 1.

Fig 5: Four tone output using Floor.

Using the same trick as in Figure 3, we have produced a four toned grayscale version of the picture (black, dark gray, light gray and white). Once again, increase Value_1 in the Floor and Value_2 in the Divide to increase the number of shades.

Our picture here actually contains some pure white, in the brighter clouds. These are the small areas that show as white in the final result (white=1; 1*3 =3; 3 rounded down still equals 3; 3 divided 3 =1, 1=white). If there are no white patches in the final result, try nudging the Value_1 setting of the Floor node up slightly to 3.1 or 3.2 until you get the result you desire.