the shading editor is a note editor specifically used for editing shader nodes.
This may seem intimidating at first but notes are
very powerful tools that allow for flexible customization.
Keep in mind that many of the basic functions of how to
navigate the Shader editor will also apply to the composite er blenders.
Other note editor.
So first things first navigating in the note editors
is very similar to navigation in the view port,
middle click drag, dip in your view and scroll to zoom in and out.
Moving your notes is simple as you can simply left click drag a node over.
However, you can also use the G R and S hot keys to grab,
rotate and scale your notes respectively.
Now that we got that out of the way, let's explain how nodes work.
There is typically a starting note or several starting notes
that then combined using other nodes until they all converge
into a single ending point which is the output.
As you can see here,
the default material already has a shader node and an output note
in this case the shader node is a starting
point and the output node is our ending point.
It should be noted that it is possible to have more than one output node
but only one output can be displayed at a time.
This depends on which one was less selected which
will highlight the top of the note read.
So let's pretend we want to add an image texture to our shader but maybe
we also want to add a gradient to that texture at the same time,
simply navigate to the image file you want to use in the file browser panel.
Left click drag your texture file into the note editor.
This will create an image texture note for you.
You can then left click drag the color output of this node
into the base color input of our shader.
You might notice that the yellow circular connection
receivers are the same color as each other,
telling you that they are indeed the same data type.
Another way to quickly connect to notes is to select them both go to the node menu
and select make links.
This forms a connection of matching type between the two notes.
Prioritizing the uppermost connection slots
for hockey users simply press f as in Phil
to do the same thing.
Now this looks great. But I did say I wanted to add a gradient to this texture.
So let's go ahead and go into the ad menu
above the shader editor and go to textures gradient texture.
For hockey users simply press shift A to access the admin you at any time
after you select a note from the ad menu,
you can right click to cancel the ad or left click to confirm its placement.
Let's put it to the side underneath our other texture. We want to mix it with.
Now that we have our gradient texture.
We can test what it looks like by simply plugging it into our shader base colour node.
One way to do this is to move the outgoing connection from our image texture
to stem from our gradient texture note Instead,
if you ever want to do this, simply control left click drag the connection.
This will allow you to pick up the outgoing
connection and connect it to a different output source.
Quick note holding control is not necessary
for picking up existing incoming connections.
Let's go ahead and connect us now to our gradient texture output
as we can see
it is indeed a black and white gradient texture.
Cool.
Now we can reconnect our image texture and
figure out how to combine these two textures
because these two outputs are color outputs.
We want to manipulate these values with a color note of some sort.
This is a great way to get hints on what nodes to use in certain situations.
Let's go back into our ad menu and take a look under the colour category.
We see that there is a note called Mix RgB.
Well we do want to mix our textures in some way.
So I think it sounds like something we want. Let's add it in.
You might notice that before you confirm the notes placement.
If you hover over an existing connection it will highlight that connection,
placing the note over an existing highlighted connection will
automatically sandwich it between the two connected nodes.
Let's do this for our new mixed RGB node.
Now that we have are mixed Note connected.
You'll see that our texture has gone a bit gray.
That's because the mix note currently is using a default gray
color as the secondary input to mix our texture with.
Let's simply connect our gradient texture node into the bottom half
of this mixed editor to replace the default gray color.
As you can see we're already getting there.
The gradient texture is now mixing with our image texture.
Okay but let's say I want to quickly
compare the difference between having the gradient mixed
and having nothing mixed at all.
To do that, blender allows you to mute nodes
simply select a note and right click for the context menu,
then select toggle node, mute.
You can then select it again to unmute the node
for hockey users simply press M as in mute to do the same thing
as you can see
muting a node allows the connection to bypass the effects of the node.
The gradient is no longer being shown.
Keep in mind that muting a node will choose
the uppermost input to bypass as the output,
ignoring all other inputs.
So let's say I toggle between my options gradients or no gradient
and I decide that I prefer it with no gradients at all.
Well for that we might as well delete the mix node.
There are a few ways to delete a node.
Most forms of deletion work here in the same way as they do in the three D view port.
Let's select the Mixed note and press X. Or the delete key to delete it.
However,
as you can see this forces us to manually reconnect
the image texture node back to our shader node.
This is a bit tedious
but luckily there is a way to avoid it.
Let's go ahead and hit undo until we have our mixed node back.
Now we can right click are mixed node and select delete with reconnect.
As you can see
the mixed note has been deleted but keeps the connection intact.
For hockey users, you can simply press control X.
Another trick you can use is to simply
click drag the Nodaway.
This will disconnect the node without disrupting the existing connection.
Wonderful.
Now my shader looks exactly the way I want it.
Or does it.
What if I changed my mind and decided that I wanted no image texture at all.
How do we completely disconnect our image texture from our shader.
One way we can do that is to simply click and
drag the end point of the connection off of our shader node
and release.
This is intuitive but can be very tedious.
A faster way is to cut the connections with the links, cut tool.
You can select the links, cut tool and the quick tools menu on the left.
Once you select it you can use this tool by left
click dragging over the line of a connection or connections.
This will break any intersecting connections immediately.
For hockey users
simply hold control and right click drag.
I hope this gives you a good introduction on how to navigate the note editors,
as well as how to manipulate notes.