Input

Description

Material

Provides the color of the surface material at each point.  The Direct Light property described in the following section must be set to a value greater than zero for this input to have an effect.  If this input is left blank then the surface will be assumed to be perfectly black and all coloration will come from environmental reflections defined by the Environment input.

Heightmap

The red channel of this input is used as a height map for constructing the three-dimensional surface that is to be illuminated.  The Height Factor property described further down must be set to a value other than zero for this input to have an effect.

Environment

Provides an image of the surrounding environment that can be reflected off the surface.  This image must be in latitude/longitude format.  Images in this format can be created by the Make Environment node.  The Enviro Strength property described in the following section must be set to a value greater than zero for this input to have an effect.  If this input is left blank than the surrounding environment will be assumed black and all surface coloration will come from the Material input.

Reflectivity

If you do not wish all areas of the surface to be equally reflective, the red channel of this input can specify the surface's reflectivity at each point.  Areas with a higher reflectivity will respond more strongly to the image provided in the Environment input described above.  The Enviro Strength property described below must be set to a value greater than zero for this input to have an effect.

Property

Description

Light

The small white circle on the surface of the light sphere in the Properties panel specifies the relative location of a point light source illuminating the height map.  Change the location of the light by dragging the white circle, or by changing the values within the rotation angle and elevation angle fields below the light sphere.  Changes here will only influence the result as long as either the Direct Light or the Enviro Attenuation property described below is set greater than zero.

Height Factor

This property scales all values of the input height map by a given factor to quickly change overall elevations.  Entering a negative value will reverse elevations.

Direct Light

Specifies the brightness of a point light illuminating the surface.  Set this value to zero if you want all illumination to come from the provided environment map.  This value must be set greater than zero for any image provided in the Material input to have an affect.

Shadow Strength

Increasing this property darkens any hard shadows cast by the point light.  This property will not have any effect if Global Illumination has been set to the maximum value.

Global Illumination

Increasing this value causes more simulated light rays to find their way via indirect means to areas of the surface that do not have direct line-of-sight with the point light.  Global Illumination helps to give the surface a more natural appearance.

Ambient Occlusion

This value controls the extent to which indirect light rays form soft shadowing on the surface.

Occlusion Radius

Along with the Ambient Occlusion property, this property also influences any soft shadowing appearing on the surface.  Occlusion Radius will not have any effect if Ambient Occlusion is set to zero.

Enviro Strength

Controls the strength of any environmental reflections.  An environment map must be provided in the node's Environment input for this property to have an affect.

Enviro Attenuation

Increasing this value causes areas that receive less illumination from the point light to also have less intense environmental reflections.  This property can be used to accentuate shadows since it will cause shadowed areas to also have darker reflections.

Skip for Color Only

During color-only renders, certain parts of a texture, usually those adding highlights or shadows, are skipped so that a flat-looking version is created.  Activating this property will cause the node to render as if it had a Height Factor of zero, thus flattening away any highlights.  This property doesn't have an effect during normal renders.  More information on color-only rendering can be found in the Using Effect Maps tutorial.