Genetica Basics

This tutorial introduces new users to the very basics of working with textures in Genetica, such as opening presets, understanding their overall construction, and editing them in simple ways.

Step 1

With the Start tab active, select the "Marble" preset category, then click the "Etruscan Rose" preset texture.

After a moment the selected texture will be opened.  Genetica will automatically switch from the Start tab to the Nodes tab, where you will see a single node labeled Group "Etruscan Rose".

Step 2 (Can be performed at any time)

Render the texture using any of the following methods:

After a number of seconds the rendered texture will be displayed.  During the rendering process a percentage progress indicator at the bottom right corner of the interface will give you an idea of how long the process will take.

The following image points out some of the options that are available at this point:

As indicated by the image above, if you would like to change the size of your texture, adjust the Render Resolution field found on the main button bar, then click the Render Texture button again.

You may also optionally activate the Anti-Alias button (found to the right of the Render Resolution fields on the main button bar) in order to increase the smoothness of any rendered images (it will have an effect the next time you render a texture).  Please note that activating Anti-Aliasing will significantly increase time and memory requirements during rendering, so you may want to keep this option deactivated during test renders.

Additional options are described on the Rendering page.

Step 3

After you are done experimenting with rendering the texture at various resolutions, return to the Nodes tab by clicking on it.

You should now see the single node in the middle of the workspace again.  There are numerous types of nodes in Genetica.  This particular node is a Group node.  Group nodes can organize your textures by holding other nodes within them.  Our texture is actually constructed from a handful of nodes, but we can't see them at the moment because they are all hidden within the Group.  In order to see and edit the nodes contained within the Group, click the "Edit" button appearing over its top right corner.

Once you click the Edit button you will be presented with the nodes that are contained within the group.  The following image shows these nodes along with an explanation of what each one does.  As indicated, information flows downwards in Genetica.  In other words, the nodes towards the top of the screen produce their results first, which are then passed as inputs to the nodes directly below them which modify those results before passing them further down the chain.

Step 4

Select the Substance Lab node appearing at the very top of the chain by clicking on it.  You may need to scroll upwards if the node isn't currently in view.  You know when a node is selected because it acquires a wider, yellow border.  Then, render that specific node (as opposed to the whole texture) by clicked the Render Branch button shown below:

Other ways to render the currently selected node are pressing the Ctrl+R hot key, selecting the Render > Render Branch command from the main menu, and right-clicking the node in question and selecting "Render Branch" from the popup menu.

After a number of seconds the rendered texture will be displayed.  However, unlike when we rendered the entire texture in Step 2, only the base material produced by the Substance Lab is rendered, without any of the effects that are produced by the lower nodes, such as white splotches and cracks.

Step 5

So far we've examined and rendered the texture, but haven't made any changes to it.  Let's make a simple adjustment to the texture to make it more vibrant. Switch back to the Nodes tab and select the Change BCI node by clicking on it (it's the second node from the bottom) so that its border becomes yellow.  Once selected, the Properties panel along the bottom portion of the interface will list the adjustable properties that control how the node behaves.  In the case of Change BCI four properties will appear, namely Auto Fix, Brightness, Contrast, and Intensity.

First, change the Brightness property from its current value of -2 to a new value of -10.  Then, change the Contrast property from its current value of 20 to a new value of 100.

Step 6

Click the Render Texture button again, as explained in Step 2, to view the adjusted, more vibrant version of the texture.

Next: The Editing Presets tutorial guides you through the process of modifying one of the preset textures that comes included with Genetica.  There are also video tutorials.