Turbulence Node

Access: Nodes > Procedural > Fractal > Turbulence

The Turbulence node is a type of noise node that generates random patterns to simulate stormy cloud-like textures.

Turbulence node's default settings

Turbulence node's Size increased,
Color A red

Turbulence node's Size decreased,
Roughness decreased, Color A yellow

The Turbulence node relies on 2D or 3D position information (data) on the object. Its Position input can be connected to any position nodes and you can adjust the position in various ways.

Turbulence Node Inputs

Position - Any position data can be connected to the Position input, such as the UV and Position nodes. You can use any type of node to modify the mapping of the pattern. For example, you can use the Scale or Vector node in conjunction with the Position or UV node to stretch or offset the position (data) from the Position or UV node.

Turbulence zNode Properties

Size
floating point control

Changes the size of the noise.

Default: 0.500

0.190

Roughness
floating point control

Changes the roughness appearance of the noise, from very smooth at low values to very rough.

Default: 0.500

0.300

Color

Color A
swatch

Changes the background color.

Default: white

Red

Color B
swatch

Changes the color around the stormy cloud-like pattern.

Default: black

Green

Turbulence: Node Graph Workflow Examples

Example - Obtaining a Blended Texture Using a Turbulence Node

In this example, let’s use the Turbulence node as a mask on top of two different textures (Tiled 1 and Tiled 2) to obtain a nice blended texture.

These are the visual outputs of Tiled 1 and Tiled 2.

Texture 1 is hidden under Texture 2.

Texture 2 is visible.

1.   Create two Tiled nodes and connect them to the Base and Over input of the Merge node.

Adding two Tiled nodes to the Merge node to achieve a layering operation.

2.   Connect a Turbulencenode to the Mask input of the Merge node.

Adding a Turbulence node the scene as a mask to blend Tiled 1 and Tiled 2 together.

Notice how Texture 1 and Texture 2 are both made visible due to the Turbulence node applied as a mask.

Texture 1 and Texture 2 are both made visible due to the Turbulence node applied as a mask.

Example - Switching Mapping from 3D space to UV space

In this example, let’s use a UV node to adjust the Turbulence noise from 3D space to UV space.

1.   Create a Turbulence node.

Adding a Turbulence node to the scene.

The Turbulence node is represented in 3D space. Notice that this method doesn't contain UV seams.

Turbulence node represented in 3D space.

2.   Create a UV node and connect it to the Position input of the Turbulence node.

Adding a UV node to the scene by connecting it to the Turbulence node.

The Turbulence noise is now represented in 2D space.
Notice the UV seam on the right-hand side of the model, which shows the border of a patch.

Turbulence node represented in 2D space.

The following image is the UV view of the model to give you a better idea of the noise layout.

UV view of the model.

Related Nodes

UV Node

Position Node

Vector Node