Hi,

I am looking to combine 2 different shaders onto 1 object. To my regret I am not able to find such shader neither in the Material Palette nor in the SHOP tab menu. Also, it is not easy to find a simple tutorial out there that explains how it's done.

What I am looking for is just something like in Maya where you have a Layered Shader that you control with black and white map.

Perhaps some of you guys out there can point me in the right direction?


Cheers

two sided vop?

Would it be possible if you explained your self a bit further?

You can't mix two SHOP materials at this time.

You have to bring your two shaders in to VOPs and use a Color Mix for Cf, Of and F itself.

It's best if you strip all the parameters out of the material you are bringing in to the first material's VOP network.

I wish it were more ad hoc. You really have to plan this out.

If you can color mix the various properties you want to change further up the chain, the better. For example you can color mix two different surface models further up again with three Color Mix VOPs for Cf, Of and F is one way.

because you can jump in the Materials Shader in Houdini and edit it's own network, so you can create your own custom shader very easy than Maya !

Just create two material for example clay and glass, copy these networks in the new material network and mix two outputs together.

I made a simple example for this purpose.I mixed the clay material and Glass material together

*EDIT* Hi Joker, sorry I did not see your post before I was done replying to Jeff. I will take a look at your sample, thank you very much!

Hi Jeff,

during my many searches, I've stumped opon many of your posts here on Houdini site where you have have been giving a lot of good help to people on complex stuff. So I feel a bit bad for having to waste your time on such a small issue as this.

But I've read your post and I found the Color Mix and added two “surface model” to the primary and secondary color channel of the Color Mix and lastly added a “Output Variables and Parameters” as output. Assigning this to my object will work, but now I just need to figure out how to connect a parameter that lets me contro the mix between the primary and secondary color, via a black and white map.

Is this possible?

You talk about using Color Mix to control the Opacity but I am not sure that is what I am looking for if i want to control the opacity via a black and white texture map?

Hi again Joker,

I took a look at your setup, it looks very cool but also a bit complicated. I wish it wasn't so complicated just to get something as simple as a layered shader setup that works with a opacity map in order to control it.

Ah well.

Yes
But you can try to make a procedural custom layer Shader with user friendly GUI and special parameters and pack it, then use it in the other projects forever !

What you choose to mix the two shader attributes with is a great question. You can use any of the various VOPs in the Patterns folder of the Tab menu, my favourite area in VOPs.

Some patterns require UV's on the surface. Others require the “rest” Position solid uv attribute.

You can also put a point attribute on your surface and inherit this in your shader. The only rule is that the attribute on your geometry needs to be the same name and type as the Parameter VOP in the Shader used to inherit this attribute.

Have a look at the attached file for a simple break-down for mixing two shaders with a few patterns and an attribute painted on the surface.

This simple technique forms the foundation for multiple attribute layers and more complex set-ups. Actually complex set-ups mostly comprise of simple set-ups layered on top of each other.

Hi again,

Seems like I've asked a question that gets me sent out on deep water, unfortunately the samples you two have been so kind to give me, only confuses me. I think I need to start do some practise with understanding the basics of creating shaders until I can start benefit from the samples.

I thank you two very much for trying helping me