STACX integrates itself as a channel shader into the material system of CINEMA 4D. As its name implies, STACX is working with layers in order to advance into the third dimension. You can stack up to 32 shader and define a certain thickness for each layer. In this way you will get a three-dimensional material that you can use like a volume shader.

Infinitely wide landscapes

With a few relatively small bitmaps the basis for huge landscapes can be created in an easy and resource-saving way. You just stack some textures for different height levels (e.g. grass, gravel, rocks, snow...) and assign the material to a landscape object. Done! Depending on the altitude level the corresponding texture is visible. In combination with several transitions between the texture layers, varied, none-repetitive structures are formed.

Animated transitions

Beside mathematical functions like sine or pulse curve, you can define a noise with editable frequency as a transition between the texture layers. This creates natural structures, that can also be animated along the time, to get e.g. a bubbling or soft undulations.

Volume models

For the orientation of the shader layers three volume models are currently available: cuboid, sphere and cylinder. Cuboids are suitable for all plane-oriented objects, such as a landscape model; the spherical model can be used for instance to figure a cutaway model of the globe in a simple way.

Since STACX acts like a real volume shader, animations which deform or cut an object, work. You will find some examples in the video gallery.