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Poisson Cells

The Poisson Cells texture is a procedurally generated texture. Procedural textures are mathematically created at render-time and, therefore, have no fixed resolution. They can be magnified almost infinitely with no loss in detail. The Poisson Cells texture can be addressed by its two zones: the Cell and Filler values. The texture modulates from one zone to the other based on your settings. Each zone can have either a Value setting or Color and Alpha. The applied zone is dependent on the Layer Effects to which the texture is applied. For example, if you apply the texture as a Displacement, then Modo uses the Value settings, but if you set the texture effect to Diffuse Color, Modo uses the Color and Alpha settings for the Cell and Filler values.

The Poisson Cells texture is very similar to the standard Layer Properties texture in many ways, but it produces a more regular distribution of cells across a surface. You can achieve the best results when you apply the texture to a surface with a UV map or one of the planar projection types. By doing this, the texture can seamlessly tile outside of the defined boundary.

Note: For information about adding and working with Shader Tree item layers, see the Shader Tree topic.

Layer Properties

Enable	Toggles the effect of the layer on and off. This duplicates the functionality of toggling visibility in the Shader Tree. When disabled, the layer has no effect on the shading of the scene. However, Modo saves disabled layers with the scene, and they are persistent across Modo sessions.
Invert	Inverts the colors (RGB values) for the layer to produce a negative effect.
Blend Mode	Affects the blending between different layers of the same effect type. With this, you can stack several layers for different effects. For more about blending, see Layer Blend Modes.
Opacity	Changes the transparency of the current layer. If there are layers below this layer in the Shader Tree, reducing this value increasingly reveals the lower layers. Reducing the value always dims the effect of the layer.
Locator	Sets the association for the Texture Locator. Most texture layers have a Texture Locator that Modo automatically creates in the Item List. This defines the mapping of the texture (how Modo applies the texture) to the surface. You can specify alternate locators, but this is normally not required. Although you may want multiple texture items to share a single locator.
Projection Type	Defines how a texture/material is applied to a 3D surface. Types vary significantly in their effects. For a guide to each Projection Type see Projection Type Samples.
Projection Axis	The texture/material is projected down this axis. This applies to Planar, Cylindrical, Spherical, Cubic, Box, and, Light Probe projection types.

Poisson Cell Properties

Poisson Cell
Cell Value	Determines the magnitude of the texture where the cell is most concentrated. This value ramps to the Filler Value. You only use the Cell Value option when you set the texture layer to an effect that does not require color. Note: When using Bump or Displacement effects, the Cell Value can be used to adjust the height of the cell.
Cell Color	Determines the color of the texture where the cell is most concentrated. This color ramps to the Filler Color. You only use the Cell Color option when you set the texture layer to an effect that requires color.
Cell Alpha	Determines the opacity of the Cell Color value. When the value is below 100%, underlying Shader Tree layers show through attenuating to fully transparent at 0%. Note: You can adjust the Alpha value using the Color Picker.
Filler Value	Determines the magnitude between the cells. This value ramps to the Filler Value. You only use the Filler Value option when you set the texture layer to an effect that does not require color. Note: When using Bump or Displacement effects, the Filler Value can be used to adjust the height of the cell.
Filler Color	Determines the color of the texture between the cells. This color ramps to the Filler Color. You only use the Filler Color option when you set the texture layer to an effect that requires color.
Filler Alpha	Determines the opacity of the Filler Color value. When the value is below 100%, underlying Shader Tree layers show through attenuating to fully transparent at 0%.
Type	Specifies the style of the Poisson Cell texture. These options determine how the texture interpolates between its sample points. • Angular- Creates a somewhat linear interpolation between the sample points in the texture for an effect similar to cobblestones (with the default setting). You can use this to generate effects ranging from a lunar surface to craggy skin. • Round- Creates circular spots randomly distributed based on the texture. In the default settings, the texture looks like overlapping, soft-edged dots. Adjusting the settings can yield effects ranging from cauliflower to chipped rock. (In the example, these are stretched because of the UV map stretching around the sphere.) See Type for examples.
Cell Width	Determines the maximum scale of the texture's features. At 100% the maximum scale of any single detail in the texture is equal to the texture size as set on the Texture Locator tab. To change the scale of the details of the texture, use this value. To set the overall scale of the texture, modify the texture scale on the Texture Locator tab. See Cell Width for examples.
Transition Width	Controls the amount of gradient falloff around each of the texture details. Setting this value over 100% can yield interesting effects. See Transition Width for examples.
Cell Density	Controls the cell size by determining the amount of coverage for each cell within the defined grid area. Outside the grid area, the Poisson cells tile infinitely, so increasing the density makes more cells within a single tile. See Cell Density for examples.
Level	Defines the number of cells in a given solution. Each increase doubles the number of cells from the previous level. See Level for examples.
Solid 3D Cells	When enabled, allows you to apply a non-planar solid projection on the target surface. Doing this, loses the tiling functionality, and the corners of some cells may intersect with the surface causing non-uniform cells to work more like the regular cellular texture. Normally, the Poisson Cells texture applies a planar-type projection to a surface, where curved glancing angle areas stretch the texture. By applying the texture as a 3D solid, the target surface carves out the texturing from the 3D volume.
Brightness	Determines whether the texture favors the Cell values or the Filler values. Increasing this value causes the texture to favor the Cell values over the Filler values. Decreasing the value causes Modo to favor the Filler values. See Brightness for examples.
Contrast	Affects the falloff of the gradient ramp between the Cell and Filler values, which is similar to a gamma control. Setting the Contrast to 100% creates a very sharp falloff effect; setting the value to 0% creates a plateau around the value (or color mid-point) with sharp falloff on either extreme of the gradient. See Contrast for examples.
Hue Variation	Varies the hue (or color) of each individual cell randomly. Higher numbers increase the color differences between cells; lower values create fewer color variations. See Hue Variation for examples.
Saturation Variation	Varies the color saturation of each individual cell randomly. Higher numbers increase the color differences between cells; lower values create fewer saturation variations. See Saturation Variation for examples.
Value Variation	Varies the brightness (or luminosity) of each individual cell randomly. Higher numbers increase the differences between cells; lower values create fewer brightness variations. See Value Variation for examples.
Use Profile Gradient	When enabled, uses the embedded gradient control to get extra control over the appearance of the cells. This gradient replaces the smooth linear transition between the Cell and Filler values specified by the Transition Width setting. When you enable this, you make the embedded gradient profile visible.