Don’t get me wrong I like cycles just like the next guy. However there a few comforts that I liked in BI that I do enjoy. Well, that is for a later discussion. In this instance, I wish to replicate some of my adopted workflows in BI and translate them into cycles in an effort to stay abreast.
My goal is to make an author once, multi-use, node setup for any topology that has been UV unwrapped either automatically and is found acceptable or manually created .The intended use this node setup is for the various aspects of character creation such as clothing and putting skin on people, or for props that I choose to texture and mage map as in contrast to using procedurals.
Now that the intent is described, here is my inquiry. I want to add a specular map to his current setup, but I am not sure how to go about doing this. Is there a tutorial or any form of documentation of that sort that I can be directed to? Any suggestions is appreciated.
A specular map would be used as the factor input for a mix shader that combines a diffuse and a glossy shader. Plug diffuse into the top of the mix shader, glossy in the bottom; black parts of the map will be diffuse and white will be glossy, with shades of gray mixing between.
Thanks for the info. Most importantly, thank you for laying out just the info needed to promote self-discovery! With the info provided, I added a color ramp node to adjust specularity. Here is what I came up with:
Not quite sure what the color ramp is meant to accomplish. I generally recommend creating a dedicated specular map image, rather than finagling something else into one as an afterthought.
I did some research. The color ramp controls the specular effect. That one raised a few question marks too. But after experimenting with it, it works. Remember your earlier statement:
Then it hit me. There was an old technique I remembered back in the blender 2.4 days that was use to make landscapes and stuff using grayscale maps. The color ramp works along those confines if you delete one of the colors of the spectrum, set it to only black or white, and adjust only the greyscale. Since the specular map is set to non-color data, you just simply adjust only the grayscale section on the side to control how much or little specularity you want. Try it. Its weird, but it achieves exactly what I want it to do.
I did started out finagling with the bump map and I did see how potentially problematic that can be. I did end up using a dedicated texture map node as you can see the 3rd one.
Remember, it is not a one size fit all situation as this was to be a write once, use many type of deals. The next time I use the node set up, may be for something else and I may need to adjust the specularity accordingly.
