Adding Geo-Channels to Objects

You can add Geo-Channels to your objects to define arbitrarily named geometry specific data such as ambient occlusion, and curvature in your material creation workflow. Since geo-channels are geometry-agnostic, you can use the same material across a variety of objects while ensuring the material looks realistic for the specific object. Geo-Channels must be added to your object in order for Geo-Channel nodes and layers to function. See Geo-Channel Node for more information.

Tip:  You can also export baked data from Bake Point nodes directly into Geo-Channels, to act as an intermediate caching point for complex Node Graph setups. See the Bake Point Node and Working with Nodes for more information.

In the Video:

• What are Geo-Channels?

• How are Geo-Channels useful to you?

• You learn how to add Geo-Channel properties in the Object Palette.

• You learn how to add a Geo-Channel node to your material setup.

• You learn how to export your material setup to be used in other Mari projects.

• You learn how to importing your materials to other Mari projects and how to deal with missing Geo-Channels.

Adding Geo-Channels to your Object

1.

Open the Objects palette.

2.

Select your object from the list of objects in the Objects palette.

3.

Scroll down to Geo-Channel Properties.

4.

Click the button next to Channels to add a new geo-channel.

A new geo-channel appears in the list of geo-channels.

5.

Click a geo-channel to enter a new name.

6.

Click the next to the specified geo-channel to import an image set for that geo-channel.

Note:  The imageset bit-depth for geo-channels automatically converts to the bit depth of the imported texture.

The Geo-Channel Properties inside the Objects palette.

Importing Modo Render Bake Results as a Geo-Channel

If you don't have any rendered maps to use as Geo-Channels, to use Mari's built-in Modo renderer. The built-in Modo renderer allows you to bake textures for your objects within Mari.

To import the baked results back into Mari as a geo-channel:

1.

Open the Modo Render palette.

2.

Select the Bake tab.

3.

Select a preset from Bake Preset.

A preview of the bake is generated.

4.

Enable Bake As > Geo-Channel option.

This imports the baked result back into Mari as a Geo-Channel.

Warning:  This destructively overwrites the contents of a Geo-Channel with the same name, or automatically creates a new Geo-Channel if one of the same name doesn't exist.

5.

Click Bake.

The Bake tab inside the Modo Render palette, with the Curvature Bake Preset selected.