Why and how does this work?

[hectorthedog]

Hi, here i have a tile sampler, a level, and a distance. When i plug levels into the distance all the white specs get much bigger - why does this happen?

Also when i plug the tile sample into the distance it changes the white speck to white grey ad black, i have no idea whats going on or why it does that?

Thanks for any help, the results of plugging nodes in and seeing the output is extremely confusing.

[davescm · Accepted solution]

If I plug levels into the mask input without changing any levels parameters then it looks identical to the direct connection without the levels node. I assume you are using a levels node to adjust the mask input.

As for the grays - zoom in to the tile sampler output and see the starting points. Are they pure white or shades of grey. Normally it will be the latter after scaling,  so those shades are used in the source input and combined with the calculated values from the mask input.

Depending on what you are trying to do, either disconnect the source input, or use a levels input on the source. Alternatively you can feed it with a different image as in the example below.

More on the distance node here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/substance-3d-designer/substance-compositing-graphs/nodes-reference-for-subst...

Dave

[hectorthedog]

Thank you for the help. Im still wrapping my head around substance designer. It seems its for adjusting black, white, grey and color values to achieve a desired outcome. Its a bit of a beast to get to grips with!

[davescm]

No problem. You are doing the right thing. Try things out, experiment and shout out if you encounter something that doesn't seem to make sense.

Dave