Make copies of Layered Materials?

[tennet]

Hi,
I have created labels for some products using 'Corona Layered Materials' in the Node Editor (in the latest Corona Beta/C4D R19). If I make a copy of my "final" Layered Material and then update/change any textures in the new "duplicate".. then it also updates my other 'Layered material' (the original version) at the same time.

How do I copy a 'Layered Material' so I can have two separate versions that I can make changes to individually?

[Beanzvision]

Hi,

I can't seem to reproduce it here, all is working. Can you share a screen recording at all?

[tennet]

Hi,

I have just created a simplyfied version of the scene and uploaded it using your "private uploader" / Dropbox (Tennet-NodeMaterials_Error.zip). I have a material in this scene called "Bar", created using the Node Editor, and if I make a copy of this material and make any changes to this new copy, then textures and nodes are being removed from the original "bar" material also. This is very annoying, so hope you can help if I am doing something wrong or if this is a bug.

Also, if I just disconnect a node from another node, then the whole node-hierarchy is often deleted (in this same scene).. and I can't 'Undo' this, so I have to re-create the node tree again - or Close the scene and open my last saved version (sometimes faster).

*** This scene also crashes a lot (every five minutes) when working with IR active.. I let it render for a short while, make some edits to a material.. then crash (not all the time, but too often). Or if I start a render and change some things, then restart the IR render.. this also often causes crashes with this scene. My workstation has dual 14-core XEON cpu's, so it renders fast otherwise.

Hope you can help!

[tennet]

Attached is also a typical view of my 'Node Editor'. I have connected a 'Projector Shader' to a 'Filter' to a 'Layer Shader'.. and Everything after the Projector Shader becomes black? This also results in a completely black 'Glossiness' channel, so it doesn't seem to be an issue with the preview not being updated.

Sometimes I have noticed that the order of the nodes being connected also causes different results and sometimes errors (like black channels). For this attached example then the channels was updated after I first went to the 'Filter Shader' and pulled the Brightness slider up and down again (or Gamma).. then the material was updated and worked (even with the Layer Shader). So there seems to be some issues with the Node Editor here.

[BigAl3D]

If I understand you question correctly, you make a duplicate of the LAYERED material and rename it. Then you edit the materials that it uses? Is this correct? If so, this is perfectly understandable. The layered material is just a placeholder for what you want stacked on top of each other. You would also need to duplicate the actual materials and only make edits to THOSE duplicates. Then drag those into whatever layer they need to be in the new Layers material. Make sense?

For example, I have a bunch of car paints that use layers. There are four parts: The Layers material holder, the base color, the flakes and the top coat. If this paint is red, but I want to add a blue paint to my scene, I can't just dupe the layers and edit the materials to blue. I would then only have blue paint for both layers.

[tennet]

Hi BigAl3D,

Thanks, yes I'm aware of that. But my "original layer material" was changed/damaged/corrupt even if I created A NEW BASE MATERIAL and replaced it in my "new duplicate Layer material". Or if I made a copy of my orignal BASE MATERIAL and then changed any textures/settings inside the new copy (using the node editor), then my original Layered Material was also changed.

So as I experienced it, it was like the 'duplicate' of the Layered material (or any other material I created using the Node Editor) - SOMEHOW - was still connected to their original versions.. I understand the principle of the Layer Material being a placeholder of whatever I connect to it..

[tennet]

Maybe it is me using the Node Editor in the wrong way.. Should I always right-click and "Remove from View" when I am done editing a material in the Node Editor? So that the material is deleted from the editor, before I continue editing a new material?

I have created "New Views" for new materials, but this maybe still keeps them connected between different "Node Editor views"?

[BigAl3D]

I don't know a lot about the new Node window, but from what I understand, you can just have them all in the window and pan around, plus each can share a single node. There is no "this material has its own node editor" thing with Corona. I'm not 25 anymore, so I may not be remembering the details correctly.

[Matej Ovsenek]

The problem here is the conversion of nodes/maps to CoronaShared nodes. The CoronaShared map copies, but the nested map always stays the same, because the node editor just copies the CoronaShared which contains the original map, so the original becomes instanced - 1 map for all CoronaShared nodes so to speak instead of being a copy inside the CoronaShared.
The problem is in the node editor, not your workflow... I've had my share of frustrations with that... had to reload all the base maps when copying materials.

[tennet]

Matej! Spot-on! Thanks, that sounds exactly like the problem I am trying to explain.. so this must be some kind of "bug" then, or maybe the node editor isn't fully developed yet? This feels like a pretty basic feature that should be fixed though. It's extremely frustrating if I have a big nest of nodes and I want to change something and suddenly all my "connected" (CoronaShared) materials are changed.. and I can't undo my changes made in the Node Editor either, that just messes up even more.

I just created two new views (in the Node Editor) for two separate materials - 'wall A' and 'wall B'. In the new 'view Wall A' I loaded some existing textures ('add existing') used by material 'Wall B'... when I then deleted these texture nodes again from 'view Wall A' (since I added the wrong textures), then those textures had been deleted from the material 'Wall B' also.. at the same time. And I can't undo this, so I have to reload my scene again and start over.

[katzenwaffe]

Have the exact experience as Tennet. Very frustrating.