NoiseFX
Table of contents
The NoiseFX tool simplifies the procedural control of effects on selected Flair materials. The tool is opened by clicking on the NFX shelf icon and shares the same window with the VertexFX tool.
Each Flair material (including proxies) supports NoiseFX, but the effects driven by NoiseFX depend on the loaded style. To apply NoiseFX, select an object with a Flair material and modify the desired slider.
From top to bottom, these are the different elements of the NoiseFX tool.
On the top-left, you will find an eye icon which toggles the parameter view. This will allow you to view the control parameters that you are currently affecting through the Noise Widgets.
On the top-right, you will find the Bake 3D button. This button toggles the Deformed setting in the assigned Flair materials, baking the current 3D position of objects. Baking is useful to attach the current NoiseFX patterns to an animated/deformed object. If the 3D position is not baked, NoiseFX will “float” in 3D space, instead of moving with animated objects.
Noise widgets
Each style has different effects, therefore, the noise widgets (sections) will vary depending on the currently loaded style. Each widget handles a specific effect/behaviour within the style e.g., Lighting, Pigment turbulence, Color bleeding.
On the left side of each widget, you will always find a generalized term for the behaviour of each effect. This term also specifies the appearance of the effect icon which is shown as a sphere preview.
Toggle/reset
Underneath the widget icon, you will find two buttons.
This button toggles the NoiseFX on/off to visualize the influence that the noise makes for the style.
This button resets the NoiseFX values for that effect, allowing to start anew or completely remove its influence.
Modifying noise
Modifying noise is simple, select the object with the material that you wish to modify and use one of the three relative sliders.
- Scale - Modifies the scale of the 3D/2D noise for the specified effect [noise frequency]. The scale will be relative to the World Scale global attribute.
- Noise - Modifies the contrast (how strong it is) of the noise for the specified effect. Keep in mind that noise is composed out of positive and negative values and the contrast amplifies the noise in both directions [noise amplitude].
- Offset - The offset slider is the vertical slider on the far right, which offsets the noise towards positive or negative values, accordingly [noise offset].
Depending on the widget (see Edge Manipulation widget), it may present different names for the Noise slider, but they also modify the contrast (how strong it is) of the noise for the specified effect.
Showcase
Here we select the object that contains the material to which we want to add NoiseFX onto. Using the NoiseFX tool, we modify the noise, scale and offset of the density to create a natural-looking pigment turbulence effect.
Internal workings
The NoiseFX tool simplifies the toggling and modifying of procedural attributes on Flair materials.
These can be found within each material when opening the NoiseFX group in the Attribute editor.
FAQ
Can I change the type of noise that NoiseFX uses?
Yes, but you will need to go down the rabbit hole and modify the material glsl shader code to do so.
Let us know if you are serious about this and we will add it here.