Chapter 9Gradients

Introduction to Using Gradients

Gradients are extraordinary things! If the thought of gradients conjures up images of colors fading into one another such as those that are found in most vector and bitmap editing programs, leaving you to wonder what purpose they may serve for texturing purposes, then banish that concept from your mind! Gradients in LightWave are a rather different affair.

Gradients allow you to set values for any of the basic surface attributes (Color, Diffuse, Luminosity, etc.) based on definable input parameters. In essence, they are actually just a less intimidating, more pictorial method of constructing graphs. Although they are essentially rather complex by nature, constructing gradients is actually very ...

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