Gradient (legacy)

DEPRECATED. This shader is unsupported, but it may still get installed with Softimage to provide compatibility with older scenes that use it. It is recommended that you replace unsupported shaders in your scenes with equivalent shaders from the current Softimage shader library.

Shader Type: Texture

Output: Color (RGB) value

Maps a gradient texture over an object's surface. It takes a scalar value and performs an interpolation of a color map. The map can be up to eight colors and is set by a specific parameter.

Name	The shader's name. Enter any name you like, or leave the default.

Texture

Texture Space

Selects the texture projection to use. See Specifying a Texture Projection [Texturing].

Gradient

Gradient Mode

Linear: Creates a standard linear gradient that starts from one edge of the texture projection object and gradiates to the other.

Radial Wave: Creates a gradient that begins at the center of the texture projection and gradiates outward, in a bull's-eye pattern.

Radial Rainbow: Also creates a rainbow-like gradient that originates at the center of the texture projection, except this mode uses a linear, symmetrical pattern.

Spread

Compact

Defines where the gradient will be compacted. The default value of 0.5 will create an even gradient with equal color distribution. A value less than 0.5 causes Color 1 to extend itself toward the gradient's center; a value greater than 0.5 causes the last color in the gradient to extend itself (bleed) toward the center of the gradient. A value of 0 causes the gradient to display Color 0 only. A value of 1 causes the gradient to display the last color only.

Pitch

Defines how the gradient will be pinched or expanded. A value less than 0.5 pinches the gradient using the first and last colors, squeezing the colors in between. A value greater than 0.5 does the opposite and spread the gradient from the center.

Offset

X, Y	Offsets or shifts the gradient in either X and/or Y directions.

Gradient Colors

Number of Colors

Defines the number of colors the shader will use. A maximum of eight colors is accepted. To add more, use the Mix8Color shader.

Color 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Defines the color for each position from 1 to 8.

Spread Position

Defines the location of colors 2 to 7 within the color spread.

0 = low end; 1 = high end

Advanced

Repeats

Texture Repeats

Contains the repetition factor in X,Y, and Z. A value of 2, for example, shrinks the texture so that it fits twice in a [0..1] interval.

Alternate

U, V, Z

Specifies whether every other copy of the repetition should be reversed so that the successive copies of the texture are alternated.

UV Remap

Minimum, Maximum

Determines the remapping of the texture image. For a 2D image, only X and Y are used.

Render Tree Usage

Color parameters can be connected to other textures or image processing shaders. For example, you can connect a different texture to any input from Color 1 to 8 to create a gradient of textures or colors. You can also use Texture Generator shaders to control the weight parameter of each color.

A texture shader has limitless capabilities in a render tree. It can texture an object, be used as a camera or light projection, define bump or displacement maps, or be blended with any number of other textures to create any effect.