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  • Published 3 Oct 2019

PBR: Layer based system

This is part of a bigger proposal: Main page

Layer based system

Turn the material editor into a layer based system similar to Grease Pencil Layers. There are 3 types of layers that can be added:

-Material Layer: Adds a base material with all the channels that are used in the texture set Image

-Paint layer: Adds an empty paintable layer, this will allow to paint on any channel(s) on top of the underlying layers. Paint layers are similar to image textures, except they are stored inside the .Blend file and have a resolution specified in the Texture Set Settings. Image

Paint layers can also be used as a black/white mask

-Adjustment Layer: Adds an empty layer similar to the paint layer but allows for easy adjustments using nodes found in the ‘Color’ category of the Add menu.

Image

Paint layers and Adjustment layers can also be added inside Material layers.

All layers have the following common properties:

-Visibility toggle

-Mask toggle

-Locking Toggle

Per channel properties:

-Opacity slider

-Blend mode

Image

Adjustment_layer.png

95.3%

Development Status: Open

Upvote 41 Downvote 2
Quinten.Pillen
3 Oct 2019

3 Comments

GabrielMoro

That final adjustment layer could SO useful. Being able to edit brightness, contrast, hue and saturation on the whole shader would be great.

1
cgvirus

Hello. Very interesting proposal. As a pipeline developer I want to know some of your perspective in this. Very much curious:

Firstly am I understanding it correctly:

  • The paint layer is essentially a image texture (Color/mask) with pack image
  • Adjustment layers are connected mix rgb nodes with image texture or color category nodes
  • What is a material layer? Is it the base PBR shader like a gold/silver? without any Image texture?

Then

  1. Why this is important to you?
  2. Why instead of Nodes you are interested in layers?
  3. Can layer perform mathematical freedom like nodes?
  4. Is it possible to do such operations in nodes?
  5. Do you like to have simply put an automation interface instead?

This answers will help me to understand your project better as it's a bit grey for now. Thanks.

cerebral

This would also be excellent in the compositor, so we could assemble a list of nodes or node groups and think in layers of process instead of graphs. (like after effects etc)