Each person in the network??”each node??”plays a
part in the final production.
Getting back to LightWave, the final production our imaginary team is creating is analogous
to the destination node in a LightWave surface-node array. The destination node
links to one or more surfaces in a LightWave model and controls its surface attributes.
But instead of specifying those attributes based on a handful of settings and shader
attributes, the destination node generates surface characteristics based on inputs from
other specialized nodes??”comparable to Tom, Nancy, and their colleagues??”each contributing
its own specific surface-attribute information. LightWave nodes can contribute
textures, images, mathematical functions for generating patterns or distortion, and
much, much more. A given destination node may only require input from a few nodes,
but it??™s possible to pool the input of dozens or even hundreds of them at a time to create
extremely sophisticated surfaces. Starting with Exercise 11.1, you??™ll see how connecting
nodes lets you create a web of textures, shaders, materials, and other attributes to
create amazing surfaces.
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