Cineversity

Hello,

I have an image sequence that I’d like to use as a texture node in multiple materials.  I’m planning on tweaking the timing using the animation property, and I’m trying to not have to do the tweaking in a separate texture node inside each individual material.  I know I can use a Reference Node for a material, then pipe that into multiple materials.  But I was wondering if it was possible to set up one texture node, then bring that in (just the one texture) as a Reference Node to put into multiple materials?

Thanks,
- Greg

Hi Greg,

So far, I’m not aware of such an option; it sounds so plausible that it makes me uncertain if I miss something. The last information I got related to that was about problems with a “feed-bak-loop”. If you create a feed-back-loop, your project file is gone for good. I’m not aware how to heal that. So, be careful.

The Reference Material outputs “surface,” and I can’t find a way to split that information up, to filter out the texture.

I would propagate* the path “parameter” you like for each material. Name them in the absolute same way. While all needed Materials (with the propagated parameters you need to adjust) are selected, you can change the value of the propagated input at once for all selected materials in the attribute manager.
You can create a Selection Object, drag all the Materials inside, and delete any other objects in that list if there are any. This allows you have all material with the input set up active in the Attribute Manager with an extra click.

* Those propagated inputs could also be fed via XPresso; I checked if the animation of sequences is given. So far, I have not seen a problem, but I have not used this kind of setup anywhere near production, so test this carefully.

A node like the Material Reference is not available to my knowledge; perhaps the support has an idea for a workaround. While you are on the support page, perhaps open a suggestion ticket.

All the best