Arnold Standard Surface
Note: The non-active inputs (highlighted in gray) help drive the shaders but have no effects on the canvas. This page is based on the Arnold Standard Surface shader documentation, for more information, see https://docs.arnoldrenderer.com/display/A5AFMUG/Standard+Surface.
Control |
Type |
What it does |
Notes |
---|---|---|---|
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toggle |
Toggles the influence of channels connected to the shader without disconnecting them from the shader input. |
Displacement Map is toggled off by default. |
Inputs | Diffuse Weight |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the diffuse weight effect of the shaded surface. |
Default is 0.8 |
Inputs | Diffuse Color |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the diffuse color effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Diffuse Roughness |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the diffuse roughness effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Metalness |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the metalness effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Specular Weight |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the specular weight effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Specular Color |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the specular color effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Specular Roughness |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the specular roughness effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Specular IOR |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the specular IOR effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Anisotropy |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the anisotropy effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Anisotropy Rotation |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the anisotropy rotation effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Transmission Weight |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the transmission weight effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Transmission Color |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the transmission color effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Transmission Depth |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Transmission Scatter |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Transmission Scatter Anisotropy |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Transmission Dispersion |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Transmission Extra Roughness |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Subsurface Weight |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the subsurface weight effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Subsurface Color |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the subsurface color effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Subsurface Radius |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the subsurface radius effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Subsurface Scale |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the subsurface scale effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Clearcoat Weight |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the clearcoat weight effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Clearcoat Color |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the clearcoat color effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Clearcoat Roughness |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the clearcoat roughness effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Clearcoat IOR |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the clearcoat IOR effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Sheen Weight |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Sheen Color |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Sheen Roughness |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Thin Film Thickness |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Thin Film IOR |
dropdown |
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Inputs | Emission Weight |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the emission weight effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Emission Color |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the emission color of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Opacity |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the opacity effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Normal Map |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the normal map effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Bump Map |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the bump map effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Vector Map |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the vector map effect of the shaded surface. |
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Inputs | Displacement Map |
dropdown |
The channel controlling the displacement map effect of the shaded surface. |
Displacement Map is toggled off by default. |
|
button |
Adds a new channel for the shader component. |
Base
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Weight |
text field, slider |
The base color weight. |
Color |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
The base color sets how bright the surface is when lit directly with a white light source (intensity at 100%). It defines which percentage for each component of the RGB spectrum that does not get absorbed when light scatters beneath the surface. Metal normally has a black or very dark base color, however, rusty metals need some base color. A base color map is usually required. |
Roughness |
text field, slider |
The base component follows an Oren-Nayar reflection model with surface roughness. A value of 0.0 is comparable to a Lambert reflection. Higher values will result in a rougher surface look more suitable for materials like concrete, plaster, or sand. |
Metalness |
text field, slider |
With metalness 1.0 the surface behaves like a metal, using fully specular reflection and complex Fresnel. |
Specular
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Weight |
text field, slider |
The specular weight influences the brightness of the specular highlight. |
Color |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
The color the specular reflection is modulated with. Use this color to 'tint' the specular highlight. You should only use colored specular for certain metals, whereas non-metallic surfaces usually have a monochromatic specular color. Non-metallic surfaces normally do not have a colored specular. |
Roughness |
text field, slider |
Controls the glossiness of the specular reflections. The lower the value, the sharper the reflection. A value of 0 gives you a perfectly sharp mirror reflection, while 1.0 creates reflections that are close to a diffuse reflection. You should connect a map here to get variation in the specular highlight. |
IOR |
text field |
The IOR parameter (Index of Refraction) defines the material's Fresnel reflectivity and is by default the angular function used. Effectively the IOR defines the balance between reflections on surfaces facing the viewer and on surface edges. You can see the reflection intensity remains unchanged, but the reflection intensity on the front side changes a lot. |
Anisotropy |
text field, slider |
Anisotropy reflects and transmits light with a directional bias and causes materials to appear rougher or glossier in certain directions. The default value for Anisotropy is 0, which means 'isotropic.' As you move the control towards 1.0, the surface is made more anisotropic in the U axis. |
Anisotropy Rotation |
text field, slider |
The rotation value changes the orientation of the anisotropic reflectance in UV space. At 0.0, there is no rotation, while at 1.0 the effect is rotated by 180 degrees. For a surface with brushed metal, this controls the angle at which the material was brushed. For metallic surfaces, the anisotropic highlight should stretch out in a direction perpendicular to the brushing direction. |
Transmission
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Weight |
text field, slider |
Allows light to scatter through the surface, for materials such as glass or water. |
Color |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
This filters the refraction according to the distance traveled by the refracted ray. The longer light travels inside a mesh, the more it is affected by the Transmission Color. Therefore green glass gets a deeper green as rays travel through thicker parts. The effect is exponential and computed with Beer's Law. It is recommended to use light, subtle color values. |
Depth |
text field |
Controls the depth into the volume at which the transmission color is realized. Increasing this value makes the volume thinner, which means less absorption and scattering. It is a scale factor so that you can set a transmission color and then tweak the Depth to be appropriate for the size of your object. |
Scatter |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
Transmission Scatter is suitable for any liquid that is fairly thick or where there is enough of it for scattering to be visible, such as a deep body of water or honey. If you have a glass of water, there is not that much scattering, however, for an ocean, it is required. Other examples include materials like ice, opalescent glass or milky glass. |
Scatter Anisotropy |
text field, slider |
The directional bias, or anisotropy, of the scattering. The default value of zero gives isotropic scattering so that light is scattered evenly in all directions. Positive values bias the scattering effect forwards, in the direction of the light, while negative values bias the scattering backward, toward the light. |
Dispersion |
text field, slider |
Specifies the Abbe number of the material, which describes how much the index of refraction varies across wavelengths. For glass and diamonds, this is typically in the range of 10 to 70, with lower numbers giving more dispersion. The default value is 0, which turns off dispersion. |
Extra Roughness |
text field, slider |
Adds some additional blurriness of a refraction computed with an isotropic microfacet BTDF (Bidrectional Transmittance Distribution Function). The range goes from 0 (no roughness) to 1. |
Subsurface
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Weight |
text field, slider |
The 'blend' between diffuse and subsurface scattering. When set to 1.0, there is only SSS, and when set to 0 it is only Lambert. In most cases, you want this to be 1.0 (full SSS). |
Color |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
The color used to determine the subsurface scattering effect. For example, replicating a skin material would mean setting this to a fleshy color. |
Radius |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
The approximate distance up to which light can scatter below the surface, also known as “mean free path” (MFP). This parameter affects the average distance that light might propagate below the surface before scattering back out. This effect on the distance can be specified for each color component separately. Higher values smooth the appearance of the subsurface scattering, while lower values result in a more opaque look. |
Scale |
text field |
Controls the distance that the light is likely to travel under the surface before reflecting back out. It scales the scattering Radius and multiplies the SSS Radius Color. |
Clearcoat
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Weight |
text field, slider |
This attribute is used to coat the material. It acts as a clear-coat layer on top of all other shading effects. The coating is always reflective (with the given roughness) and is assumed to be dielectric, such as the clear-coat layer for car paint or the sheen layer for a skin material. For example, for an extra oily layer or wet skin. Other examples include objects that have been laminated or a protective film over an aluminum cell phone. |
Color |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
This is the color of the coating layer's transparency. |
Roughness |
text field, slider |
Controls the glossiness of the specular reflections. The lower the value, the sharper the reflection. In the limit, a value of 0 gives you a perfectly sharp mirror reflection, while 1.0 creates reflections that are close to a diffuse reflection. You should connect a map here to get variation in the coat highlight. |
IOR |
text field |
The IOR parameter (Index of Refraction) defines the material's Fresnel reflectivity and is by default the angular function used. Effectively the IOR defines the balance between reflections on surfaces facing the viewer and on surface edges. You can see the reflection intensity remains unchanged, but the reflection intensity on the front side changes a lot. |
Sheen
Control | Type |
---|---|
Weight |
text field, slider |
Color |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
Roughness |
text field, slider |
Thin Film
Control | Type |
---|---|
Thickness |
text field, slider |
IOR |
text field |
Emission
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Weight |
text field, slider |
Controls the amount of emitted light. It can create noise, especially if the source of indirect illumination is very small (for example, light bulb geometry). |
Color |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
The emitted light color. |
Geometry
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Thin Walled |
checkbox |
When enabled, provides the effect of a translucent object being lit from behind (the shading point is 'lit' by the specified fraction of the light hitting the reverse of the object at that point). It is recommended that this only be used with thin objects (single sided geometry) as objects with thickness may render incorrectly. |
Opacity |
swatch, / Color/Scalar icon |
Controls the transparency of the surface, white is fully opaque and black is fully transparent. |
Advanced
Control |
Type |
What it does |
---|---|---|
Caustics |
checkbox |
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Internal Reflections |
checkbox |
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Exit to Background |
checkbox |
When enabled, this causes the Standard Surface shader to trace a ray against the background/environment when the maximum GI reflection/refraction depth is met and return the color that is visible in the background/environment in that direction. When the option is disabled, the path is terminated instead and returns black when the maximum depth is reached. |
Indirect Diffuse Weight |
text field, slider |
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Indirect Specular Weight |
text field, slider |
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Displacement
Control |
Type |
What it does |
Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Displacement |
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Displacement Bias |
text field, slider |
How much the white or black values are pushed or pulled from the surface. |
Ranges from 0 to 1; defaults to 0.500. |
Displacement Scale |
text field, slider |
How much displacement is applied to the shaded surface. Lower values equal smaller displacement; higher values equal larger and more obvious displacement. |
Ranges from 0 to 1; defaults to 0.500. |
Displacement Range |
text field |
What the range of displacement is. This setting is multiplied by the Displacement Scale to give the displacement. |
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Max Tesselation |
text field, slider |
How many texels the surface is tessellated to. |
Ranges from 1 to 64; defaults to 10. |
Perturb Normals |
dropdown |
Selecting Yes changes the displacement so that it moves the surface but leaves the surface normals as they are. |
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Bump
Control |
Type |
What it does |
Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Bump |
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Bump Weight |
text field, slider |
How much weight the bump map has. Lower values are smaller bumps, higher values are larger and more obvious displacements. |
Ranges from 0 to 10; defaults to 1.000. |
Bump Mode |
dropdown |
Displays bump quickly (Fast), accurately (Accurate), or less accurately (Fastest). |
While Fastest is very fast, it works better with live procedural layers rather than painted or cached layers. |
Bump Space |
dropdown |
• UV - Normals are calculated relative to the UV coordinates space. • World - Normals are calculated relative to the World coordinates space. |
By default, Bump Space is set to UV. |