00:01 Hey everybody, Martin from Quad Spinner
00:02 

00:02 here and today we're going to be
00:04 

00:04 covering dusting. Dusting is one of my
00:06 

00:06 favorite nodes for snow in Gaia. It can
00:09 

00:09 give you extremely nice micro detail
00:11 

00:11 that truly enhances the texture of the
00:13 

00:13 mountain and you get a bunch of controls
00:14 

00:14 so you can dial it in perfectly to your
00:17 

00:17 needs. So without further ado, let's
00:19 

00:19 jump straight into the node and
00:20 

00:20 afterwards I'll kind of run down how I
00:22 

00:22 made this kind of cool mineralrich
00:24 

00:24 looking rocky hill/ mountain with a
00:28 

00:28 bunch of snow on top. So, when we get
00:29 

00:29 into this node, this is kind of what
00:31 

00:31 you'll see. We'll get into the settings
00:33 

00:33 right away. The snowfall settings are
00:35 

00:35 quite simple. The strength, of course,
00:37 

00:37 is the strength of the snowfall. So, if
00:39 

00:39 we lower it, you'll get a lot less snow.
00:41 

00:41 And if you turn it up, you'll get more
00:42 

00:42 snow. The snow line controls the height
00:45 

00:45 of the snow. So, if you want the snow to
00:47 

00:47 be purely placed on your upper peak
00:49 

00:49 areas, you'll just turn it up. And
00:51 

00:51 lowering it will make sure the snow
00:52 

00:52 becomes visible at lower areas, too. The
00:54 

00:54 fall-off works a little bit differently
00:56 

00:56 than your regular gradient fall-off. It
00:58 

00:58 actually kind of controls the strength
01:00 

01:00 instead of just having a gradient
01:02 

01:02 fall-off where it just kind of fades
01:04 

01:04 out. You'll notice that the upper areas
01:06 

01:06 are a lot more full and dense than the
01:08 

01:08 lower areas where it's a lot more kind
01:09 

01:09 of scattered and see-through. Normally,
01:12 

01:12 I work with a fall-off of around.5,
01:14 

01:14 which is the default setting. Now, if we
01:17 

01:17 want to have our mountain with a lot of
01:19 

01:19 snow on top, but we also want to keep a
01:22 

01:22 little bit of like scattered sprinkled
01:24 

01:24 snow in the valley, we can just turn up
01:26 

01:26 the falloff and you'll get that snow
01:29 

01:29 down there very lightly. The cool thing
01:31 

01:31 about this fall-off is that it really
01:33 

01:33 looks natural because it will have some
01:35 

01:35 really dense bits even at lower areas,
01:38 

01:38 just less of them, while the top area of
01:40 

01:40 course is just completely covered in a
01:42 

01:42 denser layer. Now for the distribution,
01:44 

01:44 we'll see that the base setting is set
01:46 

01:46 directional. This means that the snow
01:48 

01:48 will only be on one side of the
01:49 

01:49 mountain. You could use this to mimic
01:52 

01:52 sunlight hitting a mountain from a
01:53 

01:53 certain angle. You can think that the
01:55 

01:55 dusted snow is quite thin, so when the
01:57 

01:57 sun comes up and hits one side of the
01:58 

01:58 mountain, it melts on that side.
02:00 

02:00 However, it stays on these shadowy
02:02 

02:02 areas. If you look at a lot of reference
02:04 

02:04 imagery, you'll see that this is quite
02:05 

02:05 common. We can control the direction of
02:08 

02:08 the snow by just playing with the
02:10 

02:10 direction slider. If we lower the
02:12 

02:12 coverage, the angle at which the snow is
02:13 

02:13 appearing becomes smaller and smaller.
02:15 

02:15 And if we increase it, you'll see that
02:17 

02:17 the snow kind of starts creeping over
02:19 

02:19 and you'll see that the snow becomes
02:21 

02:21 more visible at more angles of the
02:22 

02:22 mountain. If we turn it all the way up,
02:24 

02:24 you can almost get like a full coverage.
02:26 

02:26 You only see that the density is a
02:28 

02:28 slightly different. So you'll see on
02:30 

02:30 this side is completely dense and on
02:32 

02:32 this small side it's a little bit less
02:34 

02:34 dense. If you just want your mountain to
02:36 

02:36 be fully covered in snow, you can also
02:38 

02:38 just turn off the directional setting
02:39 

02:39 and you'll have an even spread all
02:41 

02:41 across your terrain. The coverage slider
02:44 

02:44 does not impact the snow distribution
02:46 

02:46 anymore once the directional setting is
02:48 

02:48 turned off. At this point, you just use
02:50 

02:50 your strength and melt settings to kind
02:51 

02:51 of dial in that density. The peak
02:54 

02:54 setting will actually distribute more
02:56 

02:56 snow along the peaks. So, if you want
02:58 

02:58 your peak of the mountain to be
02:60 

02:60 completely covered, then you can just
03:02 

03:02 turn this up and you'll see that you'll
03:04 

03:04 get extremely white, densely packed snow
03:07 

03:07 on the peaks of your terrain. Slope
03:09 

03:09 coverage kind of speaks for itself. It
03:11 

03:11 masks the snow from the slope. So, if we
03:13 

03:13 lower this, you'll see that the slopes
03:15 

03:15 become a lot less affected by the
03:17 

03:17 dusting. And if we turn it up, you'll
03:19 

03:19 see a lot more of the dusting all over
03:21 

03:21 the terrain. Now, if we turn off flow,
03:24 

03:24 you actually see it more accurately.
03:29 

03:29 I would say that slope coverage is a
03:31 

03:31 great way to kind of mask out your cliff
03:33 

03:33 areas. But if you want to be more
03:34 

03:34 precise, you can always just use a
03:36 

03:36 multiply with the actual slope selection
03:39 

03:39 like so on top of your dusting just to
03:42 

03:42 make sure that you really don't get any
03:43 

03:43 dusting on cliff areas. Flow will kind
03:46 

03:46 of create a flow texture on top of the
03:48 

03:48 dusting. It also kind of blurs out the
03:50 

03:50 dusting. So you'll see that it's less
03:52 

03:52 intense. So if we turn it all the way
03:54 

03:54 off, you see it's quite sharp. And if we
03:56 

03:56 turn it up a bit, it blurs the actual
03:58 

03:58 distribution a little bit, but you'll
03:60 

04:00 also get these little flow lines running
04:02 

04:02 down your mountain. I personally turn it
04:04 

04:04 off and use color erosion just to have a
04:06 

04:06 little bit more control. But if you just
04:08 

04:08 only want to use dusting, you can easily
04:10 

04:10 use the flow setting inside of the node.
04:13 

04:13 Melt works a little bit differently from
04:15 

04:15 strength. Uh whereas strength actually
04:17 

04:17 controls kind of the overall density.
04:19 

04:19 Melt really dials in kind of the faded
04:22 

04:22 areas. So dusting is not just a one and
04:25 

04:25 zero value. There's a bit of a fade in
04:28 

04:28 between. You'll see this a lot in real
04:29 

04:29 life imagery where the snow is not dense
04:32 

04:32 enough to completely turn the terrain
04:35 

04:35 white. You'll kind of get this grayish
04:37 

04:37 looking effect uh of the dusting laying
04:39 

04:39 on top of the terrain. And we can get
04:41 

04:41 that by turning down the melt. You'll
04:43 

04:43 see a bit of this grayish like half
04:46 

04:46 dense area appearing. Now the base value
04:49 

04:49 is set to 0 4 where it's less visible.
04:52 

04:52 But basically lowering the melt can just
04:54 

04:54 kind of make your dusting look a bit
04:56 

04:56 more soft rather than a very sharp
04:60 

04:60 falloff. If we turn up the melt, as you
05:02 

05:02 can see here, it becomes very contrasty.
05:04 

05:04 Gritty is just a very light contrasty
05:07 

05:07 effect. If we turn it off, it's a very
05:09 

05:09 slight difference, but you'll see that
05:11 

05:11 the brighter areas are becoming a little
05:13 

05:13 bit less bright. It's a very light
05:15 

05:15 effect and it's better seen at higher
05:17 

05:17 resolution. If we use include existing
05:20 

05:20 snow, it will take the snow from the
05:21 

05:21 previous snow nodes and add it on top.
05:24 

05:24 This way you don't have to use a
05:25 

05:25 combined node to combine the two
05:26 

05:26 together if you'd like to keep your node
05:29 

05:29 stack quite compact. We also have se
05:31 

05:31 controls and then we have artistic
05:33 

05:33 control which actually masks out flat
05:35 

05:35 areas of your terrain. It's just an
05:37 

05:37 interesting control in case you need it.
05:39 

05:39 However, most of the time you'll
05:40 

05:40 probably keep this at zero. The texture
05:42 

05:42 input is quite useful for people who
05:43 

05:43 don't want to create a very large
05:45 

05:45 texturing node stack. You can actually
05:47 

05:47 just plug in your color texture right
05:49 

05:49 into this texture input and you get it
05:51 

05:51 all together at once. However, doing it
05:54 

05:54 this way, you do lose the include
05:56 

05:56 existing snow option. So, be aware of
05:58 

05:58 that. All right. So, now I'm going to
05:59 

05:59 actually showcase to you guys how I
06:00 

06:00 created this kind of sandstone
06:03 

06:03 mineralrich looking hill with a bunch of
06:06 

06:06 detail and the snow is really making
06:08 

06:08 sure that those details pop. Let's start
06:11 

06:11 from the beginning. I use a voronoi just
06:13 

06:13 to get an interesting base shape and
06:15 

06:15 then use an edge node set to round style
06:18 

06:18 to create this singular terrain.
06:20 

06:20 Afterwards, I use rivers to make the
06:22 

06:22 terrain a bit more natural looking and
06:23 

06:23 create these natural valleys which first
06:26 

06:26 were just, you know, the classic voronoi
06:28 

06:28 where you have this very sharp concave.
06:30 

06:30 Rivers will make sure that turns into a
06:32 

06:32 bit more of a natural looking valley. At
06:34 

06:34 this point, I use a thermal shaper with
06:36 

06:36 a 66 shape. So, it's actually going to
06:38 

06:38 bulk up our terrain. And I set the scale
06:40 

06:40 to 60. This scale is going to bulk up
06:42 

06:42 some of the individual elements, but
06:44 

06:44 also bulk up the whole terrain together.
06:47 

06:47 I use a warp set to the max blend mode
06:49 

06:49 to just create some rock detail. As you
06:51 

06:51 can see, it's starting to pop some rock
06:53 

06:53 details out here. You'll get some cool
06:55 

06:55 cliff details on top of your terrain
06:57 

06:57 without really changing the base shape
06:59 

06:59 too much because it's set to the max
07:00 

07:00 blend mode. Now, I'm going to hop into
07:02 

07:02 erosion 2. Eosion scale set to 500,
07:05 

07:05 duration 25. So, quite a bit. I also
07:08 

07:08 make sure that there's a decent amount
07:09 

07:09 of bed load and coarse sediments being
07:12 

07:12 added. So we get this rocky detail, but
07:14 

07:14 then afterwards also a kind of a smooth,
07:17 

07:17 very sedimented slope, turning this into
07:19 

07:19 a rocky hill rather than like a mountain
07:22 

07:22 with deep valleys. At this point, I take
07:24 

07:24 the slope and add a sandstone on top.
07:27 

07:27 This is just going to bring back some of
07:28 

07:28 the detail that we may be losing from
07:30 

07:30 the erosion and make this, you know,
07:33 

07:33 rocky cliff detail really pop out. And
07:36 

07:36 lastly, I use a snow snow line set to.16
07:40 

07:40 and melt 24. This way, we're going to
07:42 

07:42 get these small little pockets of deep
07:44 

07:44 snow added on top. After this, I use a
07:48 

07:48 choke point and we start the texturing
07:50 

07:50 process. For the ground texture, I use a
07:52 

07:52 texture base set to equalize and a
07:54 

07:54 texturizer. And I combine them together.
07:58 

07:58 I get a sap map like this and use a
08:00 

08:00 medium roughness. There's not much
08:02 

08:02 detail on this sap map because I'm going
08:03 

08:03 to use color erosion to really make this
08:06 

08:06 look like a very sediment heavy
08:07 

08:07 mineralrich terrain.
08:09 

08:09 Here I'm using color erosion just to get
08:12 

08:12 those flows in there. And at this point
08:14 

08:14 we're going to add the snow. So I'm
08:16 

08:16 using dusting here. No direction used.
08:19 

08:19 Quite a high snow line but a lot of
08:21 

08:21 falloff. So you'll see that the top of
08:23 

08:23 the mountain is very dense but the snow
08:25 

08:25 runs all the way down to the bottom
08:27 

08:27 areas here. And there's still some
08:28 

08:28 sprinkle down here. I'm using a 0.25 025
08:31 

08:31 on the peak. So I'm making sure that the
08:32 

08:32 peaks are really covered in quite a
08:35 

08:35 thick layer of snow. I'm using the 0.5
08:38 

08:38 like the base snow coverage. This will
08:40 

08:40 make sure that the cliff areas are not
08:43 

08:43 covered with snow. I turned the meltdown
08:45 

08:45 to 2. This way I kind of get the faded
08:47 

08:47 snow at the lower areas that's still
08:49 

08:49 very visible. And I also opted to keep
08:51 

08:51 the flow set to zero because this way I
08:54 

08:54 really maintain that sandstone detail
08:56 

08:56 that you can see through the slope here.
08:58 

08:58 If I turn the flow up a bit, you'll
08:60 

08:60 start losing that detail because it
09:01 

09:01 starts flowing over these small ridges.
09:03 

09:03 However, because the flow is off, this
09:05 

09:05 snow mask is going to be very contrasty,
09:07 

09:07 and you might actually spot the pixels a
09:09 

09:09 little bit too easy if you actually
09:10 

09:10 render this out. So, I'm going to use a
09:12 

09:12 color erosion here with a diffusion set
09:14 

09:14 to one and a transfer distance of 01.
09:16 

09:16 What this will do is slightly blur out
09:18 

09:18 the snow. You can see it right here. The
09:21 

09:21 diffusion kind of warps and blurs the
09:23 

09:23 actual snow mask, and this way it looks
09:25 

09:25 a bit more natural and soft. I also use
09:27 

09:27 a min blend mode. This will make sure
09:29 

09:29 that the cliffs or the really dark areas
09:31 

09:31 are maintained and you don't get the
09:34 

09:34 snow blurring over areas you don't want
09:36 

09:36 it. At this point, I use a combine node.
09:38 

09:38 Set the screen with the actual snow
09:41 

09:41 output. From here, I use a portal to get
09:43 

09:43 the snow and I combine it together.
09:47 

09:47 And then lastly, I use another combine
09:49 

09:49 node to combine the snow and the actual
09:51 

09:51 color map using screen. It's very
09:54 

09:54 important you use screen because if you
09:56 

09:56 use add, you will actually get this
09:58 

09:58 effect where it brightens up the color
09:60 

09:60 map at these lower values. So this kind
10:01 

10:01 of gray value will be added on top of
10:04 

10:04 this color map which will kind of create
10:06 

10:06 this weird saturation issue/ brightness
10:09 

10:09 issue.
10:10 

10:10 If you use screen, you avoid this and
10:12 

10:12 you maintain your original color map
10:14 

10:14 without being affected too much by the
10:16 

10:16 snow. Lastly, I'm just using a light X
10:18 

10:18 node to showcase this terrain in all its
10:20 

10:20 glory. So, there's dusting for you. And
10:23 

10:23 I think we can all agree that dusting
10:25 

10:25 really adds so much detail and
10:27 

10:27 threedimensionality to this terrain. And
10:29 

10:29 it especially really pops those details
10:31 

10:31 you get from the sandstone by kind of
10:33 

10:33 like showing them. You can really see
10:34 

10:34 those ridges in this terrain. Now, so
10:36 

10:36 yeah, dusting is an amazing node to add
10:38 

10:38 snow onto your terrain and it's pretty
10:40 

10:40 much a must for every snowy terrain out
10:43 

10:43 there. I hope this was a very useful
10:44 

10:44 video for you guys and I hope you guys
10:46 

10:46 will use dusting a lot. It's an amazing
10:48 

10:48 node and it gives you such great micro
10:50 

10:50 detail. Anyway guys, hope this helped a
10:53 

10:53 lot. Let me know what you guys think and
10:55 

10:55 I'll see you guys in the next one.