Making a Shader

Introduction

Basics

Tutorials

Planting a tree
Making a shader

Adding wind

Adding presets

Reference

Tree

Environment

TDD file format


	Create a Layers List

First, select a tree, and go to the Texture room.

There are four layers in a Tree Druid tree: leaves, trunk, boughs, and limbs. Follow these instructions carefully, to be able to see and change all the layers (without hitting any crashing Carrara bugs).

Change the default MultiChannel of the Top Shader to Complex Shaders>Layers List.
Change Multichannel to Parametric Mapping.
Click and drag the bar containing MultiChannel (under Apply to Whole Object) to the PLUS SIGN under "Parametric Mapping/Apply to: Leaves". Make sure that the whole bar containing the PLUS SIGN lights up green before dropping.
Set the color of the Leaves mapping to GREEN.

Layers List and Parametric Mappings

If you see "Parametric Mapping/Apply to: Whole Object" in the Layers List, you can delete it, by selecting the entire bar, and hitting the DELETE key.


	Create a Simple Bark Shader

Click the Triangle next to Parametric Mapping for the Trunk.
Go to the very bottom of the shader, click the PLUS SIGN, and select MultiChannel.
Drag this Multichannel shader to the plus sign immediately under "Parametric Mapping/Apply to: Trunk". Again make sure that the entire bar containing the PLUS SIGN lights up green before dropping.
Under Multichannel, select a Brown for the color of the Trunk.

Brown bark color

You need to assign shader attributes to the trunk, limbs, and boughs separately. Most of the time, you'll use the same attributes for all three. Simply drag and drop the multichannel to the PLUS SIGN under "Parametric Mapping/Apply to: Limbs" and again to "Boughs" while holding down the Alt/Option Key. This will duplicate the information in those mapping areas.


	Try a More Complex Bark Shader

To apply a bark texture, just change the Color shader to a Texture Map shader, and select the bark image you want to use. It will be wrapped around the tree, so make sure it's a seamless texture.

Texture mapped bark color

Remember to apply the same or a similar shader to the Limbs and Boughs by following the instructions which appear above.


	Change the Leaf Shape and Creating Mottled Colors

With a little creativity, you can create leaves with complex shapes. You can also apply beautiful fall colors.

The example below uses a maple leaf, but plug in your own leaf shape. The leaf map should be black where you want the leaf to have color, and white (255/255/255) where you want the leaf to be transparent. Click on the image for a larger view of the shader's attributes.

Follow the example carefully, to avoid a halo of unwanted color (fringing) around your leaf edges. Fringing is due to the way Carrara handles transparency and color texture maps. In this example, there is no fringing, because of the use of the inverted map in the Color channel.