Adding Shader Nodes to the Render Tree

 
 
 

You can add nodes to the render tree in a variety of ways:

If you don't see the shader you want, you can type its name in the Search text box. You can press Ctrl+F to quickly put the cursor in the preset manager's text box so that you can start typing a search string.

In the preset manager, you will notice that shaders are categorized by function and type. For example, the texturing shaders are under the Texture heading, convertors are under Conversion, and so on.

For more information about using the preset manager, see The Preset Manager [Interface and Tools].

For more information on the shader categories and the shaders themselves, see The Shader Library and the Shader Reference.

Getting Image Clips

Often when working in the render tree, you'll want a quick way to load image clips to use as textures, backgrounds, or bump maps.

  1. Open the Clips menu on the render tree command bar to display a list of all your project's image clips.

  2. Select a clip to make it appear in the render tree work area.

  3. If you'd like to display thumbnails of your image clips, choose Show View Thumbnails from the render tree menu.

    Tip
    • You can quickly load clips by dragging and dropping image files from any type of browser or toolbar into the render tree work area.

    • You can set the display size of thumbnails in the render region from the General tab of the Display preferences property editor. To set the size, choose File Preferences from the main menu and then select Display in the explorer pane of the preferences view to open the Display preferences in the right pane. Set the Thumbnail Size to small, medium, or large.