Houdini 20.5 Nodes VOP nodes

Fractus VOP node

Generates a 2D, ragged, broken up like cloud pattern.

On this page
Since 20.0

Overview

Translated from Latin meaning broken, fractus clouds are sometimes referred to as scud clouds and can best be described as ragged cloud shreds constantly changing shape.

Note

Use the coverage input on this VOP to mask this node’s effect.

Parameters

Fractus Pattern

Element Size

Uniform scale of elements in the noise.

Click the Per Component button for separate scales along each axis.

Element Scale

When you turn on the Per Component button, you are able to scale the Element Size separately across each axis.

Offset

Offset within the evaluated noise field (added to each axis). If you have the general noise effect you want, but want to get a different set of values for a different look, try changing the offset.

You can animate the noise using an expression such as $T * 0.25 here. This is faster to compute than Animate Noise, but gives the visual effect of “panning” across the noise field, which may or may not be acceptable.

Click the Per Component button for separate additional offsets along each axis.

Offset

When you turn on the Per Component button, you are able to add a separate offset along each axis.

Wispy Details

Noise Type

The type of noise to generate. Different algorithms give noise with different characteristics.

Fast

The default. A faster and more interesting variant of Perlin noise.

Frequency is scaled by 1.25.

Sparse Convolution

Sparse Convolution noise is similar to Worley noise. Does not have artifacts at grid points.

Frequency is scaled by 1.25.

Alligator

Produces a bumpy output. Named for its alleged resemblance to alligator skin.

Frequency is scaled by 1.64.

Perlin

A noise where the visual details are the same size. Wikipedia article

Perlin Flow

A noise that’s stable over time, like a rotated Perlin noise, useful to create noise that seems to swirl and flow smoothly across time. Use the Flow rotation parameter below to control the rotation.

Simplex

A noise similar to Perlin but the noise lattice is on a tetrahedral mesh rather than a grid. This can avoid the grid patterns often visible in Perlin noise.

Worley Cellular F1

Produces cellular features similar to plant cells, ocean waves, honeycombs, cratered landscapes, and so on. Wikipedia article

Worley Cellular F2-F1

A variant of Worley noise that produces blunted and cornered features.

Manhattan Cellular F1

A variant of Worley F1 noise that uses Manhattan distance calculation. Useful when you want unusual-looking noise.

Manhattan Cellular F2-F1

A variant of Worley F2-F1 noise that uses Manhattan distance calculation. Useful when you want unusual-looking noise.

Chebyshev Cellular F1

A variant of Worley F1 noise that uses Chebyshev distance calculation. Useful when you want unusual-looking noise.

Chebyshev Cellular F2-F1

A variant of Worley F2-F1 noise that uses Chebyshev distance calculation. Useful when you want unusual-looking noise.

Wispy Strength

Controls the amount of wispy noise distortion.

Billowy Details

Billowy Details

Changes the large wispy cloud details into more billowy like patterns.

Fractus noise with Billowy Details disabled (left) and enabled (right):

Billowy Strength

Controls the amount of billowy noise in the pattern. Use this parameter in relation to the Wispy Strength control to create more interesting mixed patterns.

Worley Details

Add Worley Details

When turned on, a worley noise is combined with the noise pattern (specified by Noise Type) to give puffy cloud noise. Enabling this, will largely diminish the distortion effect (specified by Distortion).

Noise pattern with added worley noise:

Blend

Controls the amount of mixing between the noise pattern (specified by Noise Type) and the worley noise. A value of 0 means no worley noise is applied to the noise pattern.

Erosion

Controls how fast the edges of the noise pattern turn to zero. The larger the value, the more the edges are eroded creating smaller and smaller cloud patches.

Element Size Scale

Multiplier on the Element Size parameter that effects the worley noise pattern.

Fractal

Max octaves

The number of iterations of distortion to add to the output of the basic noise. The more iterations you add, the more “detailed” the output. Note that the output may have fewer octaves than this parameter (that is, increasing the parameter will eventually stop adding detail), because the node eventually stops when there’s no more room to add more detail in the output.

Lacunarity

The frequency increment between iterations of fractal noise added to the basic output. Note that you can use a negative value.

Roughness

The scale increment between iterations of fractal noise added to the basic output. The higher the value the larger the “jaggies” added to the output. You can use a negative value for roughness.

Warping

Distortion

Controls how much the noise is distorted in the direction of decreasing noise values if Distortion is greater than 1, and in the direction of increasing noise values if Distortion is less than 1. When worley details are added to the noise pattern, the effect of distortion are largely diminished.

Distortion with a value of 1:

Distortion with a value of -1:

Stretch

How much to stretch the noise in each direction. The advantage of using this instead of Element Size is that it preserves some details unstretched, making the stretched noise pattern more natural looking.

Comparing Element Scale of 3 (left) to Stretch value of 3 (right) along the X-axis:

Droop

Warps the generated noise such that the noise pattern is bending or hanging towards the given droop direction.

Noise pattern without (left) and with droop applied (right):

Droop Direction

The direction in which the noise is warped.

Fold

Remaps the values between -1 and 1 and flips values below 0 to the positive range, so all valleys become peaks.

Orientation

Rotation

Rotates the pattern around the up vector (given by Up Vector). Use this to control which direction the pattern is facing.

Up Vector

The normal vector of the 2D plane used to generate the noise.

Output Correction

Gamma

Controls the overall gamma of the generated noise. Values less than 1 will darken the noise, increasing the range of values in originally bright areas. Conversely, values greater than 1 will stretch out the range of values for originally dark areas, which will increase the overall brightness of the noise.

Contrast

This value expands or shrinks the overall range of tonal values. Particularly, each noise value is pushed towards (if Contrast is less than 1) or away from (if Contrast is greater than 1) medium grey (noise values at 0.5).

See also

VOP nodes