DigitalClay3D

Chapter 4 — Surface Decoration

The Texture tab is where flat clay walls become studded, ribbed, fluted, or scaled. DigitalClay3D ships ~40 procedural patterns split into 1D (stripes that run around or up the body) and 2D (tessellations covering the surface in a grid). The Pattern Graph Editor lets you compose your own patterns from primitives.

1D vs 2D — the key distinction

Pick the dimension via the dropdown at the top of the Texture tab.

Picking a pattern

1D pattern picker grid

The 2D catalog is large enough to spread across two halves of the panel (scroll the grid to see the second page in-app). The orange-rimmed cards in the lower half are the graph-driven presets — Twisted Spike, Helix Ribbon, Scattered Knobs, Onion Spire, Soft Flutes, Draped Folds, plus your own Custom Graph slot.

2D catalog Screenshot
Top half — built-in tessellations 2D pattern grid — top
Bottom half — organic + graph presets 2D pattern grid — bottom

Each card shows a thumbnail rendered from the actual pattern math, so what you see in the grid is what you'll see on the vase. Click a card to apply it; the 3D viewport updates immediately. The orange-rimmed cards (Twisted Spike, Helix Ribbon, Scattered Knobs, Onion Spire, Soft Flutes, Draped Folds) are graph-driven presets — they're authored in the Pattern Graph Editor and can be customized further.

Tuning a pattern

Once a pattern is selected, the parameter panels below activate. The 1D and 2D pattern types expose slightly different knob sets — the 1D panel is a single column (waveform + amplitude + scope), the 2D panel fans out into stud / spike / cell-shape controls plus the shared scope band:

Variant Screenshot
1D pattern parameters 1D parameters
2D parameters — stud group 2D parameters — top
2D parameters — UV + scope 2D parameters — bottom

Common controls across all patterns:

Scope (mask band) controls

You usually don't want texture covering the entire vase — the rim and foot look better smooth. The Scope controls let you confine texture to a vertical band:

Twist & UV transform

The Pattern Graph Editor

The graph editor is a Grasshopper-style node canvas that authors texture graphs visually. Open it from Tools → 🧠 Pattern Graph Editor or click the ✎ badge on any graph-driven preset card.

Pattern Graph Editor — split mode

Layout (split mode by default):

Header buttons:

Pattern Graph Editor — fullscreen

Wiring nodes

  1. Click a node's right-edge output socket. A pending wire follows the cursor.
  2. Click another node's left-edge input socket to complete the connection.
  3. The mesh re-renders immediately.

To disconnect: click the wire OR click the connected input socket OR right-click either the wire or socket. All three paths work.

The orange-bordered node is the graph's output (the root). Pick which node is the output via the inspector's Set as Output button.

Node categories

Category What's inside Examples
Generator Sources of signal — produce values without inputs. Constant, Gradient, Sine, BumpGrid, Noise
Math Combine two scalar inputs. Add, Subtract, Multiply, Min, Max, Mix
Modifier One-input transforms. Power, Clamp, Remap, Threshold
Mask Confine signal to a region. MaskBand, PowerEnvelope
Warp Bend the sampling space. Twist, Offset

Sine node — density-responsive

The Sine node has a Density-Responsive choice (true/false). When true, its frequency scales with the user's RowPatternSize / UvScale knobs at runtime — so a flute-based preset can let users dial in 6 vs 32 flutes via the standard Texture-tab density slider. The flute presets ship with this on; toggle it in the inspector if you want a fixed frequency.

Saving custom graphs

Every change in the editor streams to the model's UserGraphJson field. When you close the editor (or click Apply), the active texture becomes GraphCustom with your JSON applied. The graph travels with the project file (.t3d) automatically.

To make a custom graph reusable across projects, save the project to the Library — the thumbnail captures the whole look so you can recall it with one click.

Tips