Section 4.8
Advanced Texture Options

The extremely powerful texturing ability is one thing that really sets POV-Ray apart from other raytracers. So far we have not really tried anything too complex but by now we should be comfortable enough with the program's syntax to try some of the more advanced texture options.

Obviously, we cannot try them all. It would take a tutorial a lot more pages to use every texturing option available in POV-Ray. For this limited tutorial, we will content ourselves to just trying a few of them to give an idea of how textures are created. With a little practice, we will soon be creating beautiful textures of our own.

Section 4.8.1
Pigment and Normal Patterns

Previous versions of POV-Ray made a distinction between pigment and normal patterns, i. e. patterns that could be used inside a normal or pigment statement. With POV-Ray 3.0 this restriction was removed so that all patterns listed in section "Patterns" can be used as a pigment or normal pattern.

Section 4.8.2
Pigments

Every surface must have a color. In POV-Ray this color is called a pigment. It does not have to be a single color. It can be a color pattern, a color list or even an image map. Pigments can also be layered one on top of the next so long as the uppermost layers are at least partially transparent so the ones beneath can show through. Let's play around with some of these kinds of pigments.

We create a file called texdemo.pov and edit it as follows:

#include "colors.inc" camera { location <1, 1, -7> look_at 0 angle 36 } light_source { <1000, 1000, -1000> White } plane { y, -1.5 pigment { checker Green, White } } sphere { <0,0,0>, 1 pigment { Red } }

Giving this file a quick test render at 200x150 -A we see that it is a simple red sphere against a green and white checkered plane. We will be using the sphere for our textures.

Section 4.8.2.1
Using Color List Pigments

Before we begin we should note that we have already made one kind of pigment, the color list pigment. In the previous example we have used a checkered pattern on our plane. There are two other kinds of color list pigments, brick and hexagon. Let's quickly try each of these. First, we change the plane's pigment as follows:

pigment { hexagon Green, White, Yellow }

Rendering this we see a three-color hexagonal pattern. Note that this pattern requires three colors. Now we change the pigment to...

pigment { brick Gray75, Red rotate -90*x scale .25 }

Looking at the resulting image we see that the plane now has a brick pattern. We note that we had to rotate the pattern to make it appear correctly on the flat plane. This pattern normally is meant to be used on vertical surfaces. We also had to scale the pattern down a bit so we could see it more easily. We can play around with these color list pigments, change the colors, etc. until we get a floor that we like.

Section 4.8.2.2
Using Pigment and Patterns

Let's begin texturing our sphere by using a pattern and a color map consisting of three colors. wE replace the pigment block with the following.

pigment { gradient x color_map { [0.00 color Red] [0.33 color Blue] [0.66 color Yellow] [1.00 color Red] } }

Rendering this we see that it gives us an interesting pattern of vertical stripes. We change the gradient direction to y. The stripes are horizontal now. We change the gradient direction to z. The stripes are now more like concentric rings. This is because the gradient direction is directly away from the camera. We change the direction back to x and add the following to the pigment block.

pigment { gradient x color_map { [0.00 color Red] [0.33 color Blue] [0.66 color Yellow] [1.00 color Red] } rotate -45*z // <- add this line }

The vertical bars are now slanted at a 45 degree angle. All patterns can be rotated, scaled and translated in this manner. Let's now try some different types of patterns. One at a time, we substitute the following keywords for gradient x and render to see the result: bozo, marble, agate, granite, leopard, spotted and wood (if we like we can test all patterns listed in section "Patterns").

Rendering these we see that each results in a slightly different pattern. But to get really good results each type of pattern requires the use of some pattern modifiers.

Section 4.8.2.3
Using Pattern Modifiers

Let's take a look at some pattern modifiers. First, we change the pattern type to bozo. Then we add the following change.

pigment { bozo frequency 3 // <- add this line color_map { [0.00 color Red] [0.33 color Blue] [0.66 color Yellow] [1.00 color Red] } rotate -45*z }

The frequency modifier determines the number of times the color map repeats itself per unit of size. This change makes the bozo pattern we saw earlier have many more bands in it. Now we change the pattern type to marble. When we rendered this earlier, we saw a banded pattern similar to gradient y that really did not look much like marble at all. This is because marble really is a kind of gradient and it needs another pattern modifier to look like marble. This modifier is called turbulence. We change the line frequency 3 to turbulence 1 and render again. That's better! Now let's put frequency 3 back in right after the turbulence and take another look. Even more interesting!

But wait, it get's better! Turbulence itself has some modifiers of its own. We can adjust the turbulence several ways. First, the float that follows the turbulence keyword can be any value with higher values giving us more turbulence. Second, we can use the keywords omega, lambda and octaves to change the turbulence parameters. Let's try this now:

pigment { marble turbulence 0.5 lambda 1.5 omega 0.8 octaves 5 frequency 3 color_map { [0.00 color Red] [0.33 color Blue] [0.66 color Yellow] [1.00 color Red] } rotate 45*z }

Rendering this we see that the turbulence has changed and the pattern looks different. We play around with the numerical values of turbulence, lambda, omega and octaves to see what they do.

Section 4.8.2.4
Using Transparent Pigments and Layered Textures

Pigments are described by numerical values that give the rgb value of the color to be used (like color rgb <1, 0, 0> giving us a red color). But this syntax will give us more than just the rgb values. We can specify filtering transparency by changing it as follows: color rgbf<1, 0, 0, 1>. The f stands for filter, POV-Ray's word for filtered transparency. A value of one means that the color is completely transparent, but still filters the light according to what the pigment is. In this case, the color will be a transparent red, like red cellophane.

There is another kind of transparency in POV-Ray. It is called transmittance or non-filtering transparency (the keyword is transmit). It is different from filter in that it does not filter the light according to the pigment color. It instead allows all the light to pass through unchanged. It can be specified like this: rgbt <1, 0, 0, 1>.

Let's use some transparent pigments to create another kind of texture, the layered texture. Returning to our previous example, declare the following texture.

This texture will be the land area. Now let's make the oceans by declaring the following.

#declare OceanArea = texture { pigment { bozo turbulence .5 lambda 2 color_map { [0.00, 0.33 color rgb <0, 0, 1> color rgb <0, 0, 1>] [0.33, 0.66 color rgbf <1, 1, 1, 1> color rgbf <1, 1, 1, 1>] [0.66, 1.00 color rgb <0, 0, 1> color rgb <0, 0, 1>] } } } }

Note how the ocean is the opaque blue area and the land is the clear area which will allow the underlying texture to show through.

Now, let's declare one more texture to simulate an atmosphere with swirling clouds.

#declare CloudArea = texture { pigment { agate turbulence 1 lambda 2 frequency 2 color_map { [0.0 color rgbf <1, 1, 1, 1>] [0.5 color rgbf <1, 1, 1, .35>] [1.0 color rgbf <1, 1, 1, 1>] } } }

Now apply all of these to our sphere.

sphere { <0,0,0>, 1 texture { LandArea } texture { OceanArea } texture { CloudArea } }

We render this and have a pretty good rendition of a little planetoid. But it could be better. We don't particularly like the appearance of the clouds. There is a way they could be done that would be much more realistic.

Section 4.8.2.5
Using Pigment Maps

Pigments may be blended together in the same way as the colors in a color map using the same pattern keywords that we can use for pigments. Let's just give it a try.

We add the following declarations, making sure they appear before the other declarations in the file.

Now we use these declared pigments in our cloud layer on our planetoid. We replace the declared cloud layer with.

#declare CloudArea = texture { pigment { gradient y pigment_map { [0.00 Clouds1] [0.25 Clouds2] [0.50 Clouds3] [0.75 Clouds4] [1.00 Clouds1] } } }

We render this and see a remarkable pattern that looks very much like weather patterns on the planet earth. They are separated into bands, simulating the different weather types found at different latitudes.

Section 4.8.3
Normals

Objects in POV-Ray have very smooth surfaces. This is not very realistic so there are several ways to disturb the smoothness of an object by perturbing the surface normal. The surface normal is the vector that is perpendicular to the angle of the surface. By changing this normal the surface can be made to appear bumpy, wrinkled or any of the many patterns available. Let's try a couple of them.

Section 4.8.3.1
Using Basic Normal Modifiers

We comment out the planetoid sphere for now and, at the bottom of the file, create a new sphere with a simple, single color texture.

sphere { <0,0,0>, 1 pigment { Gray75 } normal { bumps 1 scale .2 } }

Here we have added a normal block in addition to the pigment block (note that these do not have to be included in a texture block unless they need to be transformed together or need to be part of a layered texture). We render this to see what it looks like. Now, one at a time, we substitute for the keyword bumps the following keywords: dents, wrinkles, ripples and waves (we can also use any of the patterns listed in "Patterns"). We render each to see what they look like. We play around with the float value that follows the keyword. We also experiment with the scale value.

For added interest, we change the plane texture to a single color with a normal as follows.

plane { y, -1.5 pigment { color rgb <.65, .45, .35> } normal { dents .75 scale .25 } }

Section 4.8.3.2
Blending Normals

Normals can be layered similar to pigments but the results can be unexpected. Let's try that now by editing the sphere as follows.

sphere { <0,0,0>, 1 pigment { Gray75 } normal { radial frequency 10 } normal { gradient y scale .2 } }

As we can see, the resulting pattern is neither a radial nor a gradient. It is instead the result of first calculating a radial pattern and then calculating a gradient pattern. The results are simply additive. This can be difficult to control so POV-Ray gives the user other ways to blend normals.

One way is to use normal maps. A normal map works the same way as the pigment map we used earlier. Let's change our sphere texture as follows.

sphere { <0,0,0>, 1 pigment { Gray75 } normal { gradient y frequency 3 turbulence .5 normal_map { [0.00 granite] [0.25 spotted turbulence .35] [0.50 marble turbulence .5] [0.75 bozo turbulence .25] [1.00 granite] } } }

Rendering this we see that the sphere now has a very irregular bumpy surface. The gradient pattern type separates the normals into bands but they are turbulated, giving the surface a chaotic appearance. But this give us an idea.

Suppose we use the same pattern for a normal map that we used to create the oceans on our planetoid and applied it to the land areas. Does it follow that if we use the same pattern and modifiers on a sphere the same size that the shape of the pattern would be the same? Wouldn't that make the land areas bumpy while leaving the oceans smooth? Let's try it. First, let's render the two spheres side-by-side so we can see if the pattern is indeed the same. We un-comment the planetoid sphere and make the following changes.

sphere { <0,0,0>, 1 texture { LandArea } texture { OceanArea } //texture { CloudArea } // <-comment this out translate -x // <- add this transformation }

Now we change the gray sphere as follows.

sphere { <0,0,0>, 1 pigment { Gray75 } normal { bozo turbulence .5 lambda 2 normal_map { [0.4 dents .15 scale .01] [0.6 agate turbulence 1] [1.0 dents .15 scale .01] } } translate x // <- add this transformation }

We render this to see if the pattern is the same. We see that indeed it is. So let's comment out the gray sphere and add the normal block it contains to the land area texture of our planetoid. We remove the transformations so that the planetoid is centered in the scene again.

#declare LandArea = texture { pigment { agate turbulence 1 lambda 1.5 omega .8 octaves 8 color_map { [0.00 color rgb <.5, .25, .15>] [0.33 color rgb <.1, .5, .4>] [0.86 color rgb <.6, .3, .1>] [1.00 color rgb <.5, .25, .15>] } } normal { bozo turbulence .5 lambda 2 normal_map { [0.4 dents .15 scale .01] [0.6 agate turbulence 1] [1.0 dents .15 scale .01] } } }

Looking at the resulting image we see that indeed our idea works! The land areas are bumpy while the oceans are smooth. We add the cloud layer back in and our planetoid is complete.

There is much more that we did not cover here due to space constraints. On our own, we should take the time to explore slope maps, average and bump maps.

Next Section
Table Of Contents