Poser 5 Nodes 101, pt I
Thanks to Ajax for taking the time to explain the basics of nodes in Poser 5 and for allowing me to post this information here!
[Note from Ajax: This is something I posted in answer to a forum question about what P5 material nodes are and how you use them. Because of that, it's more of a list of examples of the possibilities when working with material nodes, rather than a step by step tutorial. I've shown a few node based materials I made for my own projects and in some cases I've explained the thinking behind how they are put together. The materials presented here are available for download so you can look at them close up, play with them and modify them for your own needs. Bear in mind that all of the glass and water materials need raytracing to be turned on in your render options. How many raytrace bounces you use will depend on the complexity of your scene. I hope you find something in here that's useful for you]
Basically a node is one point in a hierarchical tree of information that all comes together to make a material. A node can be the originator of information or it can be a filter, modifying information that comes into it before passing that information on to the next node. Eventually the information gets to the root node, which tells the material how it's supposed to look on the model. The root node is very similar in function to the Poser 4 materials editor.
There are a lot of different types of nodes and they all do different things. All nodes except the root node have one place to output information. Many nodes have one or more places where they can take information input. Some have none. Most nodes have several parameters which control how information is produced or filtered by them.
Sample nodes - pages may take time to load due to image size. Please be patient - it's worth the wait.
Here's the nodes used in the examples.
| Here's an example for making refractive water. (The water is a simple flat plane.) |  |
| Onto the ground. Or the sky. |
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| Or to the looking lens. |
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Please note - if you'd like to post a copy of this tutorial elsewhere, you'll need to contact Ajax directly. Ajax retains all rights to this work - I only have permission to post it on my site.