Greebler Object

The Greebler object is the generator object which creates greebles and nurnies on input objects childed to it. The Greebler tag, used for greebling by polygon selection (Polygon Selection tag), still requires a Greebler object to generate the results. You can have as many Greebler objects as you like in a scene. You can even greeble a Greebler object by childing it to another Greebler object.

The end result, if made editable, is a hierarchy containing the target objects (those receiving the greebling), if they are retained, and a series of objects for each specific type of Greeble (Base, Stock Greebles, Custom Greebles, Nurnies). These are named according to several factors which will also be relevant if you want to texture the resulting Greebler geometries without making the Greebler object editable.

The above image shows one result of Make Editable (C key) for the Greebler object. The Greebler geometries and other objects are childed to the target object geometry or a Null object similarly named if the target object is not retained. Note that a naming hierarchy is constructed which will allow you to apply custom texturing to specific areas of the Greebler results even while the Greebler object is still procedural (not made editable). The target object's texturing is typically passed on to the results if no others are specified. Nurnies retain the texturing on the referenced Nurnie objects. You texture specific areas of the Greebler results by creating Materials/Shaders and adding them to the Greebler object so as to create respective Texture tags. The restriction to particular Greebler areas is done by naming convention of the Texture tags. As we see in the image above, if you wanted to use a specific material for the Cube's Custom Greebles, the relevant Texture tag on the Greebler object would be named "Cube.Greebles.Custom". While this appears to be simple enough, there is even more in-depth texture control. The full specification is detailed below.

  • Texture tag names are delineated by '.' characters.
  • Each name starts with the input object's name.
  • If restricting the greebling of an object's polygons using a Greebler tag, the Polygon Selection name is added next.
  • ".Base" if Base enabled
  • Greebles
    • ".Greebles" if combining Stock and Custom Greebles
    • ".Greebles.Stock" for Stock Greebles
    • ".Greebles.Custom" for Custom Greebles
  • If Selections for Base or Greebles is enabled, add any of these as available or desired:
    • ".Top" always available
    • ".Sides" always available
    • ".Bevel" if Beveling is anything but 0.0
    • ".Cap" if 'Add Bottom Caps' is enabled

For example: Input object's name is "Cube", Bases enabled, not combining Stock/Custom Greebles, Selections enabled for both, Bevels for both, Bottom Caps for Base, no Bottom Caps for Greebles. If you were restricting the greebling to a Polygon Selection named "TopFace" referenced in a Greebler tag, you would then add that after the input object name, shown here optionally []. PolygonSelections available for your Greebler Texture tags would then be:

  • Cube[.TopFace].Base.Top
  • Cube[.TopFace].Base.Sides
  • Cube[.TopFace].Base.Bevel
  • Cube[.TopFace].Base.Cap
  • Cube[.TopFace].Greebles.Stock.Top
  • Cube[.TopFace].Greebles.Stock.Sides
  • Cube[.TopFace].Greebles.Stock.Bevel
  • Cube[.TopFace].Greebles.Custom.Top
  • Cube[.TopFace].Greebles.Custom.Sides
  • Cube[.TopFace].Greebles.Custom.Bevel

You can combine overall and detailed texturing. For instance, to use one texture for the Base of "Object" while using another to cover just the Base sides, you would name the former Texture tag "Object.Base" and the latter "Object.Base.Sides". In this way, you can selectively texture results while maintaining a general texture for other areas.

The pages below describe the tabbed interfaces and controls available in the Greebler object.

Object
Base
Stock Greebles
Custom Greebles
Nurnies
Utility
Presets