Genetica 3.6 introduces changes that will be more intuitive to new users and lead to faster workflow, but will be a change for long-time users of Genetica. This article will get you up to speed on the changes you need to know about.
Old-timers will recognize the popup menu shown in the following illustration. In this example the user has just dragged a Gaussian Blur node over the Colorize node, and the popup menu appears to ask users what type of operation they intended. Did they want to completely replace the branch? Did they want to insert the new node below the old one? Or perhaps they wanted to replace the node while keeping its inputs intact?
While familiar, these popups confuse new users and also slow workflow. With Genetica 3.6, dropping one node on top of another one will always do a "Replace, Keep Inputs" operation, while other operations happen depending on where the node is dropped. Other changes include the ability to create nodes by typing, and a new way to work with groups and inputs. See the video for further details.
This video tutorial examines how to use Genetica to modify the clothing textures of 3D models. iClone is used to provide us with some models to work with.
This tutorial shows how to make a compact disc in Unity with highlights that realistically shift as the viewing angle changes. The trick that is described relies on existing shaders with very minimal tweaks to shader code.
To follow along with the video, download the assets here.
Genetica will let you apply sophisticated styles to vector drawings, as previously demonstrated. Countless styles have been shared by users on Genetica's forum, but integrating freshly downloaded styles into Genetica can be a little tricky at first. In this tutorial we show you how it's done.
Step 1
Begin by downloading some styles that you'd like to use in your drawings. To help you follow along with this tutorial we've released a pack of 5 pop-art styles that you can download here. But you can follow along just as well with any of the user-contributed styles that can be found in various threads throughout our forum, such as this, this, and this one.
Step 2
Using Windows Explorer, navigate into the folder Documents\Genetica User Files\Genetica {Version}\Style Presets\, and then create a new folder named after the new set of style presets you would like to add to Genetica. In the example shown below, a folder called "Pop Art" was created. The name you give to this folder will be used by Genetica to name the corresponding category within the application.
Finally copy in the new style files, which should have the STYLE extension. If the file you have ends in ZIP or RAR, then you'll need to unpack the files first.
That's all you need to do to import the new styles into Genetica. The remaining steps in this tutorial are for new users who need additional help finding the styles within Genetica itself.
Step 3
Within Genetica, start a new document by clicking File > New in the main menu. Next, drag a Canvas node from the Library panel into the empty slot in the middle of the workspace. Finally, switch to the Canvas tab either by selecting the Canvas tab or by double-clicking the newly created Canvas node.
Step 4
In the Canvas tab, use the Shape tool to add one or more shapes to the workspace. Then select the Style tool and click the Edit button.
Step 5
From within the Edit Style dialog, select the category corresponding to the folder created in Step 2. Then select one of the new styles to apply it to your drawing.
Genetica will be used for this tutorial, which can be downloaded here.
The creation of this texture involves three overall steps. First, a plain wood texture is created. Next, the wood is converted into a series of boards. Finally, nails are added at the corners of the boards. Each of these steps will be represented by a node in Genetica.
Step 1 - Creating the Wood
The quickest way to create a plain wood material is with the Synthesis node. This node can create seamless textures from photographs.
Start a new document (marker 1 in the following illustration), make sure that the Advanced nodes category is selected (marker 2) and drag a Synthesis node (3) into the empty slot in the middle of the workspace (4). Finally, double-click the newly-created Synthesis node that should now appear in the middle of the workspace in order to open its options window.
The Texture Synthesis dialog should appear. In this area we could create our own wood texture from scratch. But we'll use one of the presets for expediency. Select the Wood category (1) and then select the Plywood 2 preset (2). Close the dialog either by double-clicking the selected preset, or by clicking OK.
Step 2 - Making the Boards
Now that the basic wood material has been created, we want to convert it into boards. This can be accomplished with the Cut & Tile Lab.
With the Advanced nodes category still selected, drag a Cut & Tile Lab (1) onto our Synthesis node (2). In the menu that will appear, select Insert Below (3).
As shown below, this has caused a small pipeline to be created, with a Synthesis node that is creating a wood material, followed by a Cut & Tile Lab that is taking that wood and turning it into a brick pattern. The brick pattern and thick gooey mortar created by the Cut & Tile Lab's default settings aren't appropriate for our texture. To modify the Cut & Tile Lab, double-click it (1).
The Cut & Tile Lab organizes its options into a number of selections. Begin by choosing the Select Pattern section (1). This section reveals the options controlling the overall shape of the brick pattern. To select a pattern that is more appropriate for our texture, first click the Select Type button (2) and then in the window that pops up, choose the Long Boards pattern type (3).
To reduce the width of the thick gooey mortar, select the Mortar Width section and set the mortar Width property to zero. If you need additional help finding this property, or any of the others mentioned in this tutorial, please refer to the video version of this tutorial that was mentioned towards the beginning of this article.
To make the direction of the wood grain match the orientation of our boards, select the Scramble section, then set the Material Orientation property to On Side.
To make the beveling more appropriate for our texture, select the Bevel section, then set the Width property to 6, the Depth property to 1, and the Curve property to zero.
Finally select the Mortar Material section (item 1 in following illustration). Set Mortar Opacity to 60 (item 2) and set both color properties to brown colors (3).
Step 3 - Adding Nails
The final step is to add nails to our texture, which can be done with the Canvas node. This is the node to use when you wish to either draw a new seamless texture, or to draw on top of an existing one.
With the Advanced nodes category still selected (1), drag a Canvas node (2) onto our Cut & Tile Lab (3) and in the menu that pops up select Insert Below (4).
As shown below, even though our wood boards are feeding into the Canvas node, the Canvas will begin blank. To correct this, begin by switching to the Canvas tab either by directly selecting the tab (1) or by double-clicking the Canvas node (2).
Select the Shape tool (1), the Rectangle shape (2), and then drag from one corner of the workspace (3) to the other in order in order to create a rectangle that covers the entire texture.
Our newly created rectangle is filled blue by default, but by changing its style we can fill it with our wood board texture instead. To do so, select the Style tool (1), click the Edit button (2), select the style's layer (3), and set its Effect type to Fill Input Texture (4). Finally, close the dialog by clicking OK.
Now that the Canvas workspace has been filled with our texture, it's time to draw some nails. The nails need to be made out of a different material. In the Canvas node, all shapes in a given layer share the same material, so to begin working with a second material we need to create a new layer by clicking the New Layer button (1). Then, select the Shape tool (2), the Ellipse shape (3), and finally drag in the workspace to create a circle (4). Holding down the Shift key while dragging will constrain the proportions, allowing a perfect circle to be created.
As before, we need to modify the style of our newly created layer. Begin by clicking the Style button (1) and the Edit button (2). Next, select the Metal, Shiny preset category (3) and the Crumpled Gold preset (4). Finally, close the dialog by clicking OK. Alternatively, the dialog could have been closed in a single step by double-clicking the selected preset.
While the folds and shadow of the selected style will work well for a large shape, they'll be too big for the shape once it has been shrunk down to nail-size. This is because such visual aspects of the style remain the same size regardless of how big the shape is. To fix this, with the Style tool still active, set the Scale property to 4 (item 1).
Zoom into the view by using your mouse wheel. Then select the Transform tool (1). With the circle still selected, drag one of its corner handles (2) in order to reduce it to nail-size. Remember to hold down the Shift key while dragging in order to constrain the shape's proportions and keep it circular. Finally, drag the middle of the shape in order to position the nail (3).
Press the Copy (1) and Paste (2) buttons, or use the Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V hotkeys, to make a duplicate of the shape. Then drag the middle of the shape (3) to place the duplicated nail at the next desired position. Continue performing these actions until a nail has been placed at all four corners of each board.
Once finished placing the nails, select your desired render size (1) and press the Render Texture button (2). Once rendering is complete, press the Export Image button (3) in order to save the rendered result as a bitmap texture that can be opened for use in other applications.
This tutorial examines how to texture a terrain with horizontal striations in addition to a rocky material. We'll use Cinema 4D for this tutorial, but the principles used are standard and will apply to nearly any 3D environment.
The trick is to apply two textures to the model, each projected from a different direction. The striations are projected sideways along the terrain, causing them to follow the shape of the ground. The rocky texture is projected flat against the terrain in the usual manner.
The two textures are mixed together for the final result.
Step 1
Let's start by using Genetica to create the rocky material. Genetica can be downloaded from here.
Genetica comes with a good number of terrain texture presets that can be used directly. In the Start tab, select the Terrain, Desert & Barren category, and then select the Hunting Grounds preset.
Next render and export the texture using the two buttons indicated below.
Step 2
Now it's time to create the striations. Still in Genetica, begin by creating a new document, and then insert a Gradient node and a Colorize node as shown below. Nodes can be inserted into a document by dragging them from the Library panel. For help with this, see our earlier tutorials.
Double-click the Colorize node and give the gradient a number of control points with earthy tones, as shown below. We've used dark colors in this example because that seems to work best with the texture blending offered by Cinema 4D. You should experiment with what colors work best with your 3D app.
When finished, close the dialog by clicking OK.
Step 3
Genetica's node-based interface allows us to additionally tweak the gradient without actually needing to spend time shuffling countless gradient control points around. This can be a big timesaver.
For example, you may wish to soften the striations a little by inserting a Gaussian Blur node at the end of the tree, and setting its Radius property to 0.005.
You can also add more details to the striations by fractalizing them, as shown below.
Finally render and export the texture as we did at the end of Step 1.
Step 4
Create a terrain model in your 3D application. This can be accomplished by creating a plane and then elevating various points within it, but in our example we simply made use of the terrain generation feature offered by Cinema 4D (found in the main menu by clicking Objects > Primitive > Landscape). Our terrain was customized with the attributes shown below.
Step 5
Still in Cinema 4D, create a new material using the menu found within the materials panel.
Click the button shown below to load the rocky texture that we had exported from Genetica in Step 1.
Apply the material onto the landscape object by dragging the material from the materials panel and dropping it onto the landscape within the main viewport. The terrain should now resemble the example shown below.
Step 6
To make the texture repeat more often on the model, select the texture tag shown below and then increase the Tiles X and Tiles Y values.
Step 7
Repeat Step 5, creating a second material in Cinema 4D, except this time you should import the striations texture that we had exported from Genetica in Step 2.
Again drag the new material onto the model. As shown below, the striations will be applied, but they'll be oriented the wrong way.
As we saw in Step 6, the texture tag can be used to modify how a texture is applied to an object. Now that we've dragged two materials onto the landscape object, it will have two texture tags. Select the texture tag corresponding to the striations (it should be the second one), and then change the Projection mode to Flat.
The striations may not initially be lined up with the model as desired. To move and scale them, select the Coordinates section and then adjust the values found within.
Step 8
All that remains is to mix the textures together. With the striations texture tag still selected, switch back to the Tag section and then check the Mix Textures box.
In this tutorial we'll examine how to create custom brick and tile patterns in Genetica. Genetica can be downloaded here.
Making a brick wall or a tile floor in Genetica is fairly straightforward. To get started, combine a Synthesis node and a Cut & Tile Lab as shown below.
After you insert the nodes into a new document, double-click each node to customize it. When customizing the Cut & Tile Lab you'll find dozens of built-in brick or tile patterns to choose from.
To create a custom pattern, begin by selecting "Use Input" as the pattern type.
Then insert a Canvas node into the Cut & Tile Lab's second input. As shown below, the Cut & Tile Lab is no longer making a tile pattern. That's because we told it to check its input for the pattern to use, but haven't yet drawn the pattern we want.
Double-click the Canvas node to edit it. From there you can start laying down bricks using standard drawing tools, such as the Shape tool which will allow you to create rectangles.
More exotic brick shapes can be created with the Edit tool. With an existing shape selected, choose the Edit tool and then click the Convert button. This will reveal handles that can be dragged to manipulate the brick's shape.
Cut down on drawing time by activating the symmetry option. Make sure that all brick shapes are placed within the same layer in the Canvas node so that the symmetry gets applied to your entire design.
Following is the pattern I created, but just about any pattern will do as long as some space has been left between the pieces. You can get a lot fancier than I did by using curved brick pieces. I chose to use the symmetry option so that I'd only need to draw the top half of the pattern.
At first our pattern won't be interpreted correctly by the Cut & Tile Lab. This can be fixed by setting the layer's style as shown below.
When you click the final Edit button, following the steps in the above illustration, the Gradient dialog will open. Here you need to appropriately position the two gradient handles by dragging them. There's no specific place where these need to be placed. Just move them until the brick pattern appears in the small preview, as shown below.
You should now have a brick or tile seamless texture that uses your custom pattern.
That concludes the primary focus of this tutorial. But as a final treat, here's an even more sophisticated brick texture that I put together using the principles discussed in this article.
The Genetica file for the above texture can be downloaded here. Open it in Genetica to explore how it was put together and to customize it. You'll see that this texture was made from two separate brick patterns, each of which can be easily modified by double-clicking the respective Canvas node.
And of course don't forget to double-click the Synthesis node to change the material that the bricks are made out of. With just a few changes, countless variations are possible! Continue reading . . .
