If a procedural texture is very noisy and appears to shift, try increasing the Filter and, or Filter Offset values to try to achieve a slightly blurred effect and to reduce the sharpness that causes the swimming. You can also try increasing the Shading Samples as a last resort.
If a texture does not stick to a deforming surface, you have a few options, each of which have advantages and disadvantages. Check the following table to find out which option is best for your particular circumstance.
| Option | Advantage | Disadvantage |
|---|---|---|
| Turn on "local" on the 3d texture or projection. | Simple, fast, uses minimal memory, and works for multiple objects. For example, the texture would move correctly with each of many asteroids even if the asteroids are moving in different directions. You don’t need to group with objects. The texture can also be animated. | You cannot customize the placement for different objects. Complex object hierarchies appear seamless only if you do a zero transform on the object first. It does, however, move with transforms on sub objects, such as the arms of a robot.The placement node does not reflect the actual position of the texture, which additionally is transformed to the position of each object (at render time). This method does not handle morphing surfaces. |
| Convert to file texture | Handles morphing surfaces (CV animation) well. Renders as file textures, which can be faster and supports blurring. Can be exported to game engines, and complex texture networks can be collapsed to a single more optimal file texture. Handles multiple objects with different transforms and instances. | Can be too blurry unless the generated resolution is high. For complex objects, this method can generate many textures that use switch nodes. This is a more complicated workflow and can consume a lot of memory; it takes time to do the convert operation. Any animation on the 3D textures is ignored. |
| Create a reference object | Handles morphing surfaces (CV animation) well. Shows animation on texture and does not blur (unlike converting to file texture). For simple objects memory usage may be substantially less than converting to file texture. | Can be complex to setup and manage, and it may affect render times and memory, particularly for large complex objects. |
Tip:
- In most cases, you should test render a file texture in Render View when filtering because you may not be able to see the results in the views or in Attribute Editor swatches.
- When bump mapping, set Filter to a low value (under 0.1). Filter is primarily used for anti-aliasing textures—distant surfaces are blurrier. This may cause a bump map to become smoother when further away. If you want the bumps to be smooth, use a small Filter Offset value for a constant blur.