(Blender) Procedural Texture - IMPERFECTION 3.0

If you would rather view the below information via a video demonstration, take a look at the below links:

• Reveal Trailer
• Usage Demo
• Full Tutorial - Timestamps for specific nodes and parameters in the description of the video.
  
  

IMPERFECTION 3.0: An all-in-one solution for adding photorealistic detailing to objects. 

IMPERFECTION adds edge wear to exposed sections of geometry, dirt to the crevices and cracks, sunbleaching to the flat areas, dust on the top, mud spray on the bottom, fingerprints, wipe patterns, fake beveling, color, roughness, and normal map variation, all controllable with a single slider, or with fine individual control. 

Gradient of different age values on the IMPERFECTION: Simplified Controls node.

IMPERFECTION can adapt to your objects as you create them, leading to quick and easy prototyping: No UV mapping or scale/rotation/location applying required. It also acts as a direct stand-in for the default Principled BSDF, allowing you to easily add it to existing materials.

After you are satisfied with your detailing, IMPERFECTION can work with the Bystedts Blender Baker addon (not affiliated, just makes the process easier) to bake multiple objects at once into image maps. IMPERFECTION can then process these maps back into a final material automatically, while even retaining some basic controls, like the color of dirt and mud, and retaining the ability to switch back to an un-baked texture.

IMPERFECTION also comes with a few additional tools separate from the main node setup:

All the nodes that come with IMPERFECTION.

• MACRO 1.0: A tool to vary color and roughness maps with layered noise that does not look repetitive at large scales.
  

MACRO can vary the hue, saturation, and value of any map you put into it in a natural looking way, breaking up repetition in image textures, or making a flat, single color texture a bit more interesting.

• Edge Detector: A simple tool to detect the edges of an object.
  

Edge Detector can create an edge map for objects it’s applied to, and when given a vector, can apply some random variation to the thickness of those detected edges.

• IMPERFECTION CORE: The free, lighter version of IMPERFECTION.
  

IMPERFECTION CORE is a stripped down version of IMPERFECTION, useful for simpler detailing applications.

Comparison with CORE enabled on the right side.

• IMPERFECTION 3.0 Manual: All IMPERFECTION features explained within Blender.

The IMPERFECTION 3.0 Manual (accessed by selecting the node with that name then pressing the tab key on your keyboard) contains a node graph with the main IMPERFECTION node in the center, and explanations for each parameter connected to the inputs and outputs of the node.

IMPERFECTION and Edge Detector are incompatible with Eevee, however neither will crash Blender when switching to Eevee or LookDev. When in baked mode, IMPERFECTION becomes compatible with Eevee.

INSTALLATION:

Upon purchasing IMPERFECTION 3.0 you will receive 4 files:

Procedural Texture - IMPERFECTION 3.0 (2L&L) - All content in one .blend file.

Procedural Texture - IMPERFECTION CORE (2L&L) - Just IMPERFECTION CORE.

Utility Node - Edge Detection (2L&L) - Just Edge Detector.

Utility Node - MACRO 1.0 (2L&L) - Just MACRO 1.0.

The first file is the recommended one to download.

After you have downloaded one of the above files, locate your Blender assets folder, normally found at C:\Users\USER\Documents\Blender\Assets, where user is your username on your computer. If the Blender or Assets folders are missing, create them yourself.

IF YOU ARE ON MAC, LINUX, OR INSTALLED BLENDER WITH STEAM YOU MAY NEED TO CREATE YOUR OWN ASSETS FOLDER. You can set Blender to use your assets folder, or check where the current one is by going to Edit > Preferences > File Paths > Asset Libraries, and then changing the path in the wide box labeled “Path”.

Then, drag the downloaded file into your Assets folder. This will add it to Blender’s asset browser automatically, which can be accessed by changing any panel in Blender to the Asset Browser panel (the icon looks like 3 books). In order to access the materials, make sure the asset browser is set to “User Library” instead of “Current File” via the dropdown in the top left of the panel.

Now you can add IMPERFECTION material setups to your objects just by dragging the material preview spheres from the asset browser onto the object in your viewport.

It is also recommended to activate the Node Presets addon that is built into blender (Edit > Preferences > Add-ons then search “Node Presets” and click the check box), and then switch the file path to your Blender Assets folder (press the drop down on the add-on after enabling it, and then under the preferences tab change the “Directory of blend files with node-groups” path to C:\Users\USER\Documents\Blender\Assets [or your custom assets folder], where user is your username on your computer). 

This will allow you to add all IMPERFECTION nodes directly into your shader editor using Shift + A > Template and then clicking on your desired node.

Thank you for choosing IMPERFECTION 3.0! Please email me at 2landlgroup@gmail.com for any questions or feedback!