Procedural shaders... um... what's that???
 

Although making texture maps can be quite rewarding, I wonder how one can make a procedural shader.

I understand procedural shaders as shaders opposed to "regular" texture-mapped shaders. It would be nice to have a marble shaders, or a brick wall shader, without making the texture file.

Is it hard to make a good procedural shader and last, how do I make one?

I'll go search about this topic on the web, but please feel free to share your knowledge. I'd love to learn about procedural shaders!

Procedural shaders are shaders built using only the Maya-provided textures and materials, and no file textures created in (for example) Photoshop or something.

Usually, the realy high quality procedural shaders make heavy use of utility nodes and other such advanced objects. Try downloading some of the shaders here and at other sites like www.highend3d.com and taking a look at their networks for some inspiration.

Thanks I'll go have a look see mtkckinley!

undseth: ur a max user too? reckon u mentioning the brick shader

Is it hard? Yes it is if you ask me. I've been working on my ocean shader (no, not the fluid effects one but my own) for many days. Slowly getting there though. Normal workflow goes like this:

Create shader network, render, tweak, render, tweak, batch render, curse, tweak more, render, start over... ;)

Haha kbrown!

Pitbull:
hehe no I though of "FormZ" which is a 3d software that has a special material for bricks.

I have toyed around 3dmax and 3dviz but did never figure it out. I found the stacking a bit confusing.