Displace

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Use the Displace node when you want to transform the surface of the object. Add a Displace node to the Geometry socket of the root Material node, then add a Texture Map to the Displace socket of the Displace node.

Displace Settings

Displacement Height

The textures’s white areas are displaced with the value set in Displacement Height while black areas will not be displaced. Negative values will cut into geometry.

Offset

The Offset slider adjusts the origin of the displacement. When the Offset is set to 0 (default) the black areas will be on the surface of your geometry.

Triangle Size

The Triangle Size slider allows you to set the size of the triangles that makes up the displacement.

Triangle Size in Pixels

By default the triangle size is set in the current scene units. Enable this if you want to set it in pixels.

Max Triangles

The Max Triangles slider allows you to limit the amount of triangles (in millions) used to displace each part. Note that the value is the targeted max, the actual amount produced can be slightly higher.

Connected nodes

The Displace socket of the Displace node is where the texture is applied. In order for the displacement to have effect on your geometry you need to connect a texture. The light areas of the texture will raise the surface of the geometry while black areas stay.

Displacement Map Settings

Contrast: The Contrast slider under the Texture Map properties, Color settings will control the linear displacement height.

*The Texture has concentric circles of grey. From the center, 0% black, 20% black, 40% black etc.*

*Contrast = 1: The increase in displacement height is not linear.*

*Contrast = 0: Each step adds the same increase in displacement height.*

Displacement Animation

A displacement map may also be used to create interesting geometry animations. Animated geometry has a wide variety of applications to illustrate the movement of surfaces and objects. Learn more about how to create displacement animations.

Quick Tip

Displacement Overview

This Quick Tip provides an overview of how to use the Displace feature, a geometry shader available for advanced material editing via the Material Graph in KeyShot Pro.

Combining Displacement

In this KeyShot Quick Tip, we show you how to combine two displacement maps using the Color Composite Utility node via the Material Graph in KeyShot Pro.

Displacement Animation

In this KeyShot Quick Tip, we show you how to use an animated displacement map to animate a Displace node via the Material Graph in KeyShot Pro.