Introduction to Operators

This short tutorial will cover how to use the set_parameter, collection, and disable operators to change the lights and self-shadowing of some teapots and alter the shading of the sphere. The scene contains two lights casting shadows on three teapots and a sphere with a simple utility shader assigned to it.

Tip:

Use the ignore_operators flag in Diagnostics> Feature Overrides to check what the render looks like without any operators.

Note:

The scene file can be downloaded here.

Collection

We will use the Collection operator to reference a selection. This can be used to avoid writing a selection multiple times (optional in this case).

/Teapot001 or /Teapot002

Teapot Collection

Set Parameter (Disable Self Shadows on the Teapots)

self_shadows=false

Disable Light

We can turn off one of the lights by using the Disable operator.

/ArnoldLight001

ArnoldLight001 disabled

Set Parameter: Sphere Utility Shader

Now we will change the overlay_mode for the spheres utility shader.

overlay_mode="wire"

/the_utility

utility shader altered with set_parameter

Final Operator Graph window setup

Tip:

A given Operator is set as the root operator by right mouse clicking on it and selecting Set as Target Operator. The root operator is then framed in green in the editor.