Haven't posted on my blog in a while so i will just share some random tips, tricks and thoughts with you guys.
Advanced Gradients
Couple weeks ago a user on the Allegorithmic forum needed some help with a windshield wiper substance. This led me to figure out a nice little usage case for Bruno Alfonseca's Advanced gradients:
With Histogram Shift and Histogram Scan positions you get nice control over an angle mask.
Planets
This week i did some more experimenting with planets inside SD (check out my older blog posts if you want to know more about my process for planets). One cool thing that i figured out is that i can import height maps from World Machine (or any other terrain generating app), turn them into "brushes" and use those as inputs for a tile sampler for randomization and control:
Results can be quite nice (cloud texture not by me):
Gaea
Talking about terrain generators. I have purchased a license for Quadspinner's Gaea recently. Currently the beta still lacks some of the features that will make it truly stand out but i'm quite excited about it. The interface feels a bit clunky still but it already looks slick. I think this program will be serious competition for World Machine once it is out of beta. One thing it made me realize tho is why Allegorithmic doesn't want loops in SD. Just a handful of erosion nodes and the work can become quite slow when it updates for every little change. For a program like SD that often times will have way more complex node graphs this would be absolutely dreadful.
Quixel Mixer
Another program that i tested this week is the new beta version of Quixel's Mixer. The new version opens a lot more possibilities to do useful work with blending scanned and imported materials. I like how smooth it works. Blending different materials really is a breeze and the program is quite intuitive for the most part. Having worked so much with node based editing tools over the last couple years it often feels too restrictive for me tho. I hope that Quixel keeps updating the program regularely and adds all the tools necessary that give the users maximum control over what they want to achieve. High on my wishlist for features would be control over masks like in Quixel Suite/Photoshop and filters to denoise mats for less busy and slightly stylized outcomes.
Below are some of my experiments (i used custom displacements and/or brushes for them):
