Cell Scalar

Colors | Cell | Texture Support | Render Tree Usage

Category: Texture

Shader Family: Texture

Output: Scalar

The Cell Scalar shader, based on Worley noise, adds noise to a particle volume to help define its density's shape. This shader is similar to the Fractal Scalar shader, but is more useful for creating effects with volume shapes on a larger scale, such as clouds.

You usually use the Cell Scalar shader in conjunction with the Particle Density and Particle Volume Cloud shaders. The cell pattern is added to the shape of each particle, usually to create larger areas in the particle volume, such as puffs of smoke or clouds.

Using this shader, you may need to emit fewer particles to create an effect because you can create a certain level of detail using the shader itself. For example, instead of adding thousands of particles for creating a billowing smoke effect, you can use fewer and larger particles, then add the smoke shape with the fractal patterns from this shader.

For general information about ICE particle shaders, see ICE Particle Shading.

Colors

Color

Fill	Color that fills the inner parts of the cell pattern. A value of 1 is white (default) and 0 is black.
Border	Color of the borders between the cells. A value of 0 is black (default) and 1 is white.

Fill with value of 1; Border with value of 0	Fill with value of 0; Border with value of 1.

Contrast

Min/Max	Sets the minimum and maximum values used to control the contrast between the Fill and Border colors.
Bias	Overall amount of white and black used for the color contrast.

Cell

Cell Alignment	Select one of these options to determine how the cells are aligned with each other in a pattern: Random, Random (with more white spots), Random (with less white spots), Grid, Grid2, Grid4, and Honeycomb.
Cell Jitter	If you select a Grid type of Cell Alignment, you can add a bit of jitter to it to make it look less rigid.

Random Cell Alignment	Grid Cell Alignment	Grid2 Cell Alignment	Grid4 Cell Alignment	Honeycomb Cell Alignment

Cell Jitter on Grid

Shape	The shape of each cell: Round or Square.
Cell Type	Switches between the default cell shader (Round Cells) and a Flagstone-like shading.
Straight Border	If you select Flagstone as the Cell Type, select this option to create border lines that are of more equal widths.

Round Shape with Round Cell Type	Round Shape with Flagstone Cell Type	Square Shape with Round Cell Type	Square Shape with Flagstone Cell Type	Straight Border

Texture Support

Coordinates

External Coordinates or Auto Spatial (if no input)

If this option is on, the shader uses the input shader's texture coordinates. If no input shader is used, basic object texture coordinates are automatically created.

Coordinate Scale

Pre-Scale	Sets the general scale of the texture coordinates: Big Noise, Default, Small Noise.
Scale	Once you have set the Pre-Scale size, you can fine-tune the scale of the texture coordinates. This slider scales the texture coordinates uniformly on all axes.
Scale per Axis	Sets the scale separately on each XYZ axis.

Default Noise with a Scale value of 10	Big Noise with a Scale value of 100	Small Noise with a Scale value of 5.

Render Tree Usage

Plug this shader into the density_shape and/or density_texture ports of the Particle Density shader, which is plugged into the density port of the Particle Volume Cloud shader.

For more realistic or complicated smoke effects, you may want to use a Cell Scalar shader in conjunction with one or more Fractal Scalar shaders, each defining a different level of detail.