Original subtitles

in this blender tutorial i will show you

how to create this procedural tree bark

material in blender so about a year ago

i made another tutorial on how to make

procedural tree bark but i really wasn't

too happy with the result and ever since

then i've been wanting to create a

really nice tree bark material but it's

been a year of creating procedural

materials and i really think i've

improved my skills over the year and so

just recently i created this really cool

procedural tree bark and i really like

this result so that's what i'm going to

show you how to create in this video if

you'd like to purchase this procedural

material and help to support this

channel then you can do that over on my

gumroad store and my patreon page i'll

have the links in the description and

you can also check out my blender

procedural material packs if you'd like

to purchase more of my materials and if

you'd like to learn how to create all of

my procedural materials you can also

check out my blender procedural material

tutorial playlist on youtube all the

links are in the description so real

quick i'm just going to show you what i

have set up in the 3d space so i like to

preview my procedural materials on

spheres so i just added this icosphere

and i subdivided the icosphere so it's

nice and round but then i also wanted to

preview this material on a cylinder

because it is a tree bark material so

it's going to be added on a tree stump

or a tree trunk so i just added this

cylinder here and then i just kind of

extruded and inserted the faces here and

i also gave it a lot of loop cuts and

that is because we are going to be using

the displacements in the node editor to

actually displace the mesh so i do want

it to be somewhat subdivided so that's

what i did in the 3d scene with these

two objects just to preview the

materials and then i also added a camera

and pointed the camera at the objects

now for the lighting i added in these

two plane lights so i added a big plane

light right here on the side and this

object has an emission material with a

strength of 30 and also it just has a

very light blue color just to give some

natural light blue lighting and then

also i added in this plane right here

and this plane just has a subsurf

modifier so that it is round and then i

also gave this an emission material with

a strength of 30 and it's shining down

on the objects to just get some nice

bright lighting and then also to get

some really nice realistic lighting and

reflections i added in an hdri so this

is the loppenheim04

1k hdri this is a free hdri from

polyhaven.com link is in the description

if you'd like to download it so i

downloaded the 1k version and the hdr

version and then right here in the world

settings you can click on the new button

to add a new world and then right here

on the color you can click on the yellow

dot and you can choose environment

texture and then just click on the open

button and you can just add in the

downloaded hdri and then to make it a

little bit brighter i just turned the

strength up to like a 1.5

so this will give some nice realistic

lighting and reflections on the object

now i am going to be using the

displacements in the node editor to

actually make the bark bump out and i

would highly recommend that because it

is really going to make the tree bark

look much more realistic so right up

here on the render properties you need

to make sure this is set to cycles

because the displacements in the node

editor only work in the cycles rendering

engine so make sure you're using cycles

and then i am also going to be using the

adaptive displacements so if you want to

use the adaptive displacements you're

going to need to change the feature set

here to experimental and this is again

right over here on the render properties

so i'm going to change that to

experimental so then right over here on

the modifier properties i just added the

subdivision surface modifier so you can

click on add modifier and just add the

subdivision surface and i added the

subdivision surface modifier onto both

of these objects and then because we set

the feature set to experimental now that

it's set to experimental right back here

on the modifier properties we have the

adaptive subdivision setting so i just

turned that on and this way where you're

closer up it's going to add more detail

but then if you're farther away it'll

add less detail so on this tree trunk

object right here on the cylinder i

turned on the adaptive subdivision and i

just set the dicing scale to one i think

that's pretty good and then on this

object right here i turned on the

adaptive subdivision and i just turned

the dicing scale to five and that's just

because this object is already pretty

detailed that already has a lot of

geometry so i didn't need to turn the

detail up too high alright so now i'm

gonna click on this object and then

right over here i have the shader editor

so i'm going to click on new to add a

new material and i can just rename this

material to procedural tree bark and

then i want this object to be on the

other object so i can just click and

drag and drag this material and drop it

onto this object as well alright and

then there is one more thing that we're

going to need to do to get the

displacements to work you need to go

right over here to the material

properties and then in the material

properties you need to open up the

settings tab so you can see right here

on the displacement it just says bump

only but i want to click on this and i

want to change it to displacement and

bump so this is going to tell the

material that it can use the

displacements so i can just make this

smaller and we can start making the

procedural material just one more thing

though before we start i am going to be

using the node wrangler add-on to

preview the different nodes so if you

don't have the node wrangler enabled you

can just click right here on edit and

then you can open up the preferences and

then right over there on the add-ons tab

you can go over to the search and you

can search for nodewrangler and just

checkmark the nodewrangler add-on and

i'll show you how to use it in the video

so let's start by creating the base

texture for the tree bark so i'm going

to press shift a and i'm going to go

here to the search and i'm going to add

a voronoi texture so you can just search

for the voronoi and i'm going to add the

voronoi texture and drop it here and

then i want to preview it so i'm going

to hold down the ctrl and shift key and

select the voronoi texture that's using

the feature from the node wrangler and

it's going to preview that texture now i

don't want this material to look like a

bunch of little circles here or a bunch

of little dots so i'm going to click on

this drop down and i'm going to change

this to the chebyshev and now by

changing it to the chebyshev you can see

that we have a bunch of squares and that

is kind of what i want because if you've

looked at bark materials it kind of

looks like there's a bunch of squares or

a bunch of rectangles but the rectangles

are kind of scaled upwards or stretched

upwards but then of course they're very

natural and organic and random and they

have a bunch of noise and they're kind

of bumpy so this is what i'm going to

use for the base of the texture and then

also on the scale here i'm just going to

turn the scale to like an 8 so it is

smaller now also with the voronoi

texture selected i'm going to press ctrl

t and that is going to add the texture

coordinate and mapping now i want to use

the object coordinates so i'm going to

take the object and we're going to plug

that up to the vector now as i said

earlier the main texture of tree bark

seems to be stretched up so i want to

use this mapping node to actually

stretch the texture up so right here on

the mapping node on the very bottom one

right here on the scale i'm going to

turn the z scale to just like a 0.2 and

now you can see that all those squares

are actually going up and down and that

is starting to look a bit like tree bark

of course it isn't very natural or

organic it is very straight and so i

want to add much more randomness and add

more noise so what i can do is i can add

another texture here in between the

texture coordinate and the mapping to

actually distort the voronoi texture so

i'm going to press shift a let's go to

the search and i'm going to search for a

noise texture and i'm just going to drop

the noise texture right here between the

texture chord and the mapping so it's

going through the vector and so now the

noise texture is actually distorting the

displacement of the voronoi now i want

to turn the detail all the way up to the

max which is 15 so there's lots of

detail and then i also want to turn the

scale up to like eight now there is a

problem with this and that is that it's

distorting it way too much so you can't

even see those square shapes at all so

what i want to do is make the effect

less strong so i'm going to press shift

a let's go to the search and i'm going

to search for the mix rgb and i'm just

going to drop the mix rgb right here

after the noise texture so i can now

bring the noise texture down and then i

want to take the object from the texture

coordinate and i want to put that into

color 1 so then this noise texture is

going to go into color 2. and make sure

you put the color into color 2 not the

factor so now if i change the factor you

can see it's going to change how much is

being affected now i actually want to

click on the mix here and i want to

change the mix to the linear light so

change it to linear light and now when i

drag the factor you can see that the

texture isn't being moved around as much

and so we can actually kind of preview

what it's doing better so if i turn this

factor value all the way to zero it's

just using the object coordinates but if

i turn the factor all the way up to one

it's just using the noise texture so i

mostly wanted to just use the object

coordinates and i just wanted to use the

noise texture a little bit so i'm going

to drag the factor way down and make it

very small and i'm going to be using a

value of 0.08

so in the factor right there you can

type in .08 and now if you look at that

texture you can see that it is mostly

keeping the shape it is keeping the

shape of those squares or those

rectangles but there's a little bit of

noise here and there which is kind of

distorting it so now it looks much more

random and organic and we have a really

cool texture here now right here on this

noise texture we also have a roughness

value and i do want to turn the

roughness value up because if i turn it

up it's going to add even more detail

and roughness and i think it just makes

it look more like bark but i don't want

to just turn the roughness up evenly so

that there's more roughness all over the

place i want some parts to have more

roughness and then other parts to have

less roughness so i'm going to take the

texture coordinate and bring it over and

then i'm going to select this noise

texture here and i'm going to press

shift d to duplicate it and we're going

to stick it down here so i can now take

the object from the texture coordinate

and i'm going to put that into the

vector so i can now take the color from

this noise texture and i'm going to put

that into the roughness so this way

instead of just evenly changing this

with this factor value by using the

color from this noise texture some parts

are going to have more roughness and

then other parts are going to have less

roughness now on the scale here on this

noise texture i'm just going to turn the

scale to like a 3 and then i will leave

the detail at the max which is 15 so

it's very detailed now i want to have

more control over this so to have more

control over the colors i'm going to

press shift a let's go to the search and

i'm going to search for the color ramp

and we're going to stick the color ramp

right here in between both of these

noise textures so i now want to take the

black tab and i'm going to drag the

black tab out and i'm going to bring it

out to about here and then i can take

the white tab and i'm going to drag that

over as well so now if i zoom in here

you can see most of this doesn't have

any roughness but then some parts here

and there have lots of roughness now i

don't want it to be that contrasty

because that's very contrasty i do want

to have some amount of roughness all

over the texture so to do this i can

click on the black tab and i can make

the black tab lighter so i'm going to

click on the color and i'm going to make

this lighter and as i make it lighter

you can see there's more and more

roughness and if you want to use the

exact same color that i'm using you can

click on this tab and you can go here to

the color and if you click over on the

hex value you can type in b1 b1 b1 so

that is the exact color that i'll be

using and then i do want to take the

white tab right here and i just want to

make this white tab a little bit darker

and again if you want to use the exact

same color that i'm using right over

here on the hex value you can type in c

e c e c

so now if you zoom out here you can see

some parts definitely have more

roughness but then other parts have less

roughness so it just makes the texture a

bit more random and organic now i want

to organize my nodes very well just so

that they're very easy to understand so

i'm going to be putting these nodes in a

frame so i'm going to press b for the

box select and i'm just going to box

select all these nodes here but not the

texture coordinate and not be principled

so just all these nodes here in the

middle i can now press ctrl j so ctrl j

is going to join them together into a

frame and then i can just kind of push

them together just so that they're

compacted a bit more so something like

that maybe even bring these down a

little bit so they're a bit more

compacted all right so i can now click

on the frame and i want to rename the

frame i want to add a label so i'm going

to press the f2 button and that is going

to change the node label and i'm just

going to rename this to like bark

texture all right bark texture so that

is the base of our bark texture so what

i'm going to do now is take the distance

from the voronoi and i'm going to plug

this up to the base color of the

principled and then i can also control

shift and select the principled bsdf and

that is going to preview the shader now

of course that doesn't look very much

like bark because it is just black and

white so i want to add a color ramp in

here to change the different colors and

make it look like bark so i'm going to

press shift a and let's go to the search

and i'm going to search for the color

ramp node and i'm going to stick the

color amp right here between the voronoi

and the principle so i can now change

the colors in here and that'll change

the bark color so i'm going to click on

this black tab right here and then i'm

going to click on the color and for this

first color i'm going to make this a

very light color and then kind of a

brown color so a very light brown and if

you'd like to use the same exact color

that i'm using you can go over to the

hex value and you can punch in

seven 96775 nine so that is the exact

color that i'll be using and then i

wanna add a color in the middle so i'm

gonna hold down the ctrl key and click

right in here and that is gonna add

another tab and then i wanna bring this

tab over a little bit so it's over here

and then this one i'm going to click on

the color and i'm going to make this a

brown color as well so something like

this and it's going to be a bit darker

and again if you want to use the exact

same color that i'm using over here on

the hex you can punch in five nine three

f two nine so that is the exact color

that i'll be using and then for this

last one here i want this to be brown as

well so let's make this a brown color

but this one is going to be very very

dark and right over here on the hex

value if you want to use the same color

i'm going to be using a hex value of

0d0905

so just a very nice dark brown color and

i'm also going to just drag the black

tab over a little bit so that it's just

a little bit more contrasty so now we

have some really nice colors there for

the bark now if you zoom in here you can

see the bark is kind of shiny and i do

want it to be pretty rough because bark

is very rough so i'm going to take the

distance from this voronoi texture and

i'm going to plug a wire into the

roughness and that way this texture here

is going to control how rough it is now

i want more control over this because i

really don't have much control so i'm

going to press shift a let's go to the

search and i'm going to search for

another color ramp and let's just stick

the color amp right in here between the

voronoi and the roughness so just stick

it right there so i can now change the

colors of the color ramp and that's

going to change how rough or shiny the

actual bark is so if i make the colors

lighter then it's going to be more rough

so i can click on the black tab right

here and i can make this brighter and

brighter and you can see that now it is

much more rough and if you want to use

the exact same color that i'm using you

can click on this tab right here and go

to the color and i'm going to be using a

hex value of b3

b3 b3 and then also right over here on

this white tab over on the other side if

you want to use the same color that i'm

using you can go to the hex and you can

punch in e d

e d e d so this is basically just a

white color but it's very very slightly

gray so now you can see that tree bark

is very rough and that looks much more

realistic so the next thing that i want

to create is the moss so i'm going to be

creating the moss right up here so i'm

going to press shift a let's go to the

search and i'm going to search for a

noise texture and let's stick the noise

texture right up here and then i want to

use the object coordinate so on the

texture coordinate i'm going to take the

object and let's put that into the

vector and then i can control shift and

select the noise texture to preview it

now on the scale i just want to turn

this up to like a 7 and then i do also

want to have lots of detail so let's

turn the detail all the way to the max

which is 15. and then i do want to add

quite a bit of roughness so i'm going to

turn the roughness up to like

8.65 so 8.65 and now that has a lot more

detail and then i do think the moss

looks pretty cool if it has a bit of

distortion so on the distortion value

i'm just going to turn this up to like a

0.3 so there's a little bit of

distortion now what i want to do is

create a mask to tell the texture where

the moss is going to be so i need to

make this more contrasty so to do this i

can just press shift a let's go to the

search and i can search for a color ramp

and let's click on the color ramp and

i'm just going to drop it right in here

in this wire and just make sure you ctrl

shift and select the color ramp to

preview it so i can now bring these two

tabs together and that is going to make

it more contrasty so i'm going to drag

this black tab to about here and then

i'm going to drag the white tab out so

that the actual white parts are brighter

so just bring it to about there so

wherever the white parts are that is

where there's going to be moss so you

can play around with this if you want

very little moss you could just bring

these over here and now there's not

going to be very much moss or if you

want a lot of moss you can drag this

over so this way there would be a lot of

moss i don't really want that much moss

so i'm going to drag this over to about

there so let's zoom out here and i want

to join these together into a frame just

to organize them very well so i'll press

b for the box select i'm just going to

box select these two nodes and then i

can press ctrl j and ctrl j is going to

join them together into a frame and then

with this frame selected i can press f2

and that's going to bring up the node

label and i'm just going to rename this

to moss so just rename that to moss all

right so i now want to add the moss into

the base color so i can actually see it

so to do this i want to mix this color

ramp in with the color of the texture so

i'm going to select this color amp hold

down the shift key and select this color

ramp and then i can press ctrl 0 and

that is using a feature from the node

wrangler add-on and it's going to add a

mix rgb so i'm just going to open up the

mix rgb just click on the arrow to open

it up and then i'm going to just box

select these nodes right here and i'm

just going to bring these nodes over so

we have a bit more space so i actually

want to take the color from the mix and

i'm going to put that into the base

color all right so then i want to

control shift and select this mix to

preview it so right now you can see that

it is adding the moss but the moss is

all white so what i want to do instead

is take the color ramp here from the

moss and i want to put this into the

factor and the factor is going to tell

it what parts are going to be color one

and then what parts are going to be

color two so then we can take this color

ramp here with the brown colors and i'm

gonna put that into color one so now

color two is going to be the moss color

because this color ramp right here is

telling it where it's going to be moss

and where it's going to be the bark so

right back over here on color 2 i can

just click on this color and i'm going

to make this kind of a greenish brownish

mossy color and if you want to use the

same exact color that i'm using on color

2 you can go to the hex value and you

can punch in 4 3

6 c 2 8. so that is the exact color that

i'll be using so i can now control shift

and select the principled shader alright

so this is definitely looking more like

a bark material but it doesn't really

have any bump it's very very smooth so i

want to add some bump into the normal to

make it look like it's bumpy so i want

to add three layers of bump so the first

layer of bump that i want to add is the

voronoi texture because this is the

actual bark texture so i'm going to take

the distance from the voronoi and i'm

going to pull out a wire and i'm going

to stick that into the normal now

there's some weird shading issues and

that is because we need to convert this

data into normal data because this is

just black and white data but this

actually needs to be normal data you can

see that as a purple dot there so to

convert this to normal data i can press

shift a let's go to the search and i can

search for the bump node and we're going

to stick the bump node right here

so then the distance can actually go

into the height value of the bump and

then the bump normal can go into the

normal of the principal shader and this

way it's going to convert it to normal

data so now you can see that looks very

bumpy and that looks really nice and

also i can rename the bump node so if i

click on the bump node to select it i

can press f2 and i want to rename this

to bark bump so just rename that to bark

bun now this is a bit too strong and i

want to make it a bit more subtle so

let's turn the strength value on this

bump node to just like a 0.35 i think at

0.35 is pretty good so now that's not

quite as strong alright now i also just

want to add some noise all over the

texture just to make it look more

organic and natural so i'm going to

press shift a let's go to the search

here and i'm going to search for a noise

texture and we're just going to stick

the noise texture right down here now i

want to use the object coordinates so

we're going to take the texture

coordinate we're going to take the

object let's pull out a wire and i'm

going to drag this all the way over and

we're going to plug this into the vector

of the noise texture and then i can ctrl

shift and select the noise texture to

preview it so let's take the scale here

on the noise texture and i'm just going

to turn that to like 4 and then i'm

going to turn the detail here all the

way up to the max which is 15 so it is

very detailed and then i do want a

little bit more roughness so let's turn

the roughness up to like a 0.6 so it has

even more detail

all right so i now want to take this

noise texture and i want to plug it into

the bump just to give the entire texture

a little bit of bump so i'm going to

take this bark bump i'm going to take

this node and i'm going to press shift d

to duplicate it and i'm going to drop it

right here so the normal can just go

through the normal because it's already

been converted to normal data from this

one so we now have this extra height

value that we can add data into

so i'm going to take the factor from the

noise texture and i'm going to plug that

into the height and then i can control

shift and select the principled shader

to preview it so now it's just adding

some procedural noise all over the

texture now if i click on this bump node

i can also press f2 to rename this and

instead of it being bark bump i just

want to rename it to a noise bump so now

it says noise bump and then i do want to

make it a bit more strong so on the

strength value let's just turn this up

to like 8.4 so it's a bit more strong

and actually if you ctrl shift and

select the different bump nodes you can

actually preview what they're doing so

that's what the first one is doing and

then control shift and select this bump

node and that's what the second one is

doing now i want to add one more layer

of bump and that's going to be the moss

because if i control shift and select

the principled shader if i zoom into the

moss you can see the moss isn't really

popping out but i do want the moss to

look like it's bumping out so i'm going

to take the color ramp here from the

moss and i'm going to put that into the

normal as well

so let's take this bump node and i'm

going to press shift d to duplicate it

and i'm just going to drop it right here

so again the normal can just go through

the normal so we now have this extra

height value that we can plug data into

so i'm going to take the color from the

color ramp and i'm going to bring this

way down and i'm going to stick it right

there into the height value and then if

i click on this last bump right here i

can press f2 to rename this and i don't

want to rename it to noise bump i want

to rename it to moss bump because it is

the bump for the moss and then i do want

it to be popping out quite a bit so i'm

going to turn the strength value all the

way up to 1. so now if you zoom in there

the moss is popping out and that is

looking very good so this is definitely

looking like tree bark but there is one

really important thing that i want to do

here at the end and that is to add the

displacements and this is really going

to make it look like actual tree bark

because it's actually going to be

displacing the mesh so what i want to do

is i want to take the bark texture and i

want to put that into the displacement

to actually displace the mesh so i can

take the distance from the voronoi

texture and i'm going to pull out a wire

and i'm going to plug this into the

displacement here on the material output

now it's going to do something but you

can see that that's really weird and

that's all messed up it's like shooting

out in a random direction and so that is

because this is just black and white

data but this needs to be displacement

data so just like we did with the bump

nodes i need a node in here to actually

convert it to displacement data so to do

this i'm going to press shift a let's go

to the search and i'm going to search

for the displacement node and i want to

drop the displacement node right here in

this wire and then i can just drag this

down and i'm going to stick this right

down here underneath the principle and

then also you can see that this wire is

kind of overlapping so to make it not

overlapping i can hold down the shift

key and i can right click and drag and

i'm going to drag a line over the wire

and then let go and what that's going to

do is going to add this little reroute

and then i can just drag the reroute

over this is optional you don't need to

do it if you don't want to but i just

want to organize my nodes very well so

i'm going to bring that over and that

way it's not overlapping all right now

if i zoom in here you can see it's not

really doing anything and that is

because i actually need to take this

wire and i want to put it into the

height value instead so the voronoi

texture from the bark texture needs to

be going into the height value of the

displacement and now you can see that is

actually working so that is looking

pretty cool but it is way too strong so

i'm going to take the scale value and

i'm going to turn this way down to like

8.14 so just change it to like a 0.14 i

think that is a good size we'll just

wait for that to load up and there we

have it so i'm just going to zoom into

this object here make this a little bit

bigger so you can see it's actually

displacing the mesh and so that looks

very cool and it really does look like

procedural bark you can see those little

bits there are kind of popping out here

and there and it looks good from all

sides so even if you look at this on the

side of the cylinder or the back of the

cylinder it has a really nice texture

there and i really like how that is

actually popping out of the mesh and

that is it so that is the procedural

tree bark material so i'll just give

this a final render so i hope you found

this tutorial helpful and thank you for

watching and if you'd like to help

support me and this channel then you can

purchase this procedural material on my

gumroad store and my patreon page i'll

have the links in the description and

you can also check out my blender

procedural material packs if you'd like

to purchase more of my materials and if

you'd like to watch more procedural

tutorials then you can check out my

blender procedural material tutorial

playlist on youtube all the links are in

the description so i hope you enjoyed

this tutorial

and thank you for watching