Gradient Preview Basic Inputs Outputs ContextInputs
Here you can define a value between 0 and 1 to define the Position along the gradient at which the color value should be extracted.
There is a difference between a color’s calculated brightness and the brightness that we perceive. For this reason, many recording and playback devices use gamma curves, for example, to apply a 50% gray to the monitor to adjust the brightness accordingly. In fact, this offsets brightness along a grayscale gradient and compresses or expands the brightness regions. This leads to a reduction of brightness information in particular in extremely white and black areas. For this reason, Cinema 4D foregoes the inclusion of gamma profiles by default by using its linear workflow. All brightness will be displayed to reflect the actual color values. This mode reflects the Blending Space setting Linear for color gradients. If you want to have a gamma profile 2.1 displayed, set Blending Space to RGB.
Color
Knot Position [0..100%]
Bias Position [0..100%]
Interpolation
Details about using the color gradient can be found under Color Gradient in Nodes.
Distortion
This menu can be used to make the color transitions in the gradient appear less uniform. This effect is comparable to the Turbulence option of the Gradient shader in the standard Material System.
Use this option to enable the evaluation of the following Strength and Color settings.
The Strength value is a simple multiplier for the intensity of the color distortion within the gradient. Since negative values can also be defined, the direction of the distortion can be reversed.
Use this setting to define the color components and brightness that should be multiplied by the Strength value. The basic value is 50% gray and causes no distortion, regardless of the Strength value defined. Darker colors result in a negative multiplication of the Strength value, brighter colors are multiplied positively with the Strength value.
Projection
This menu contains functions for modifying the direction of the gradient and controlling its repetitious behavior.
Here you can define the number of repetitions for the gradient separately for the U and V directions. Note that the repetitions will only be visible if the Repeat option is enabled. Otherwise Local Repetitions will only lead to a scaling of the gradient.
The position, scale and rotation of the color gradient within the defined Context structure is dependent on the location of the pivot point. Its position within the texture tile is the origin for rotations and scaling particular. Its position is defined via percent values for the U and V directions relative to the bottom left corner of the texture tile.
This setting can be used to contract or expand the color gradient along the U and V directions. The origin for this scaling is the Local Pivot’s position.
The gradient’s position can be offset within the Context structure in the U and V directions using this setting.
Local Rotation [-5729577951308232523776..5729577951308232523776°]
Use this setting to rotate the gradient around the position of the Local Pivot. Positive rotations will produce a counterclockwise rotation.
If Mode is set to Angular, the gradient will by default fill the Context structure with a linear progression from left to right. Additional progression directions are also available, as does the Gradient shader in the standard Material System:
- Angular: The progression direction follows the U direction of the local Context structure.
- Radial: The gradient will be applied clockwise originating from a straight line between the center of the Context structure and its top edge. At the twelve o’clock position, the colors of the tiles’ left and right edges will meet.
- Circular: The gradient begins at the center of the Context structure. The gradient’s colors will be applied circularly around this point.
- Box: The gradient begins at the center of the Context structure and expands from that point parallel to the texture tile’s borders.
- Star: The gradient begins at the corners of the Context structure and each consume half the width and height of the texture tile from that location. At the center of the texture tile, a star shape will remain that is colored only by the color from the left end of the gradient, hence the mode’s name.
- N-Angle: Comparable with the Circular mode, the gradient also starts at the center of the Context structure but will not be circular. Instead, a defined number of beam-shaped gradients will be applied. The number of these beams can be defined using the Corners setting.
Rotation [-5729577951308232523776..5729577951308232523776°]
This setting can be used to rotate the selected gradient shape around its center point. The point of rotation is independent of the Local Pivot setting. Positive rotations lead to a clockwise rotation.
If the Repetition option is enabled, the number of repetitions can be defined here. Repetitions will first be visible within the texture file at those locations at which the color from the right edge reaches the gradient.
Corners [-2147483648..2147483647]
If Mode is set to N-Angle, the number of outer edges or sides for the n-gon can be defined here.
This option corresponds to the Material tag’s Seamless option and results to an alternating reversal of the gradient’s progression at every other repetition. This makes it possible to avoid hard color transitions for repetitions when different colors are used at the left and right ends of the gradient.
Enabling this option will invert the gradient’s progression. If the colors are normally taken from the left end of the gradient first, followed by the colors to the right, this will be inverted by enabling the Flip option. The progression will then begin with the colors at the left end of the gradient and work its way to the right.