Getting Started with Tartan
Okay, so I had this idea, I wanted to make a tartan pattern. Not like, actual cloth, but a digital material I could use for some projects. First thing I did was just look up what tartan actually is. Found out there’s a bunch of different types, like ancient ones, modern ones, even hunting and dress styles. Apparently, it’s traditionally woven wool, but the key thing is the pattern itself, the intersecting stripes.
Figuring Out the Digital Approach
Since I wasn’t weaving anything, I needed to figure out how to build this pattern digitally. I decided to use my usual material creation software, the node-based kind. Seemed like the best way to get the control I needed.
I started simple. Needed stripes, right? Horizontal and vertical. So, I dropped in some stripe generator nodes. Just basic black and white lines to start, to get the layout locked down.
Making the Stripes Intersect
Here’s where it got a bit fiddly. Just putting horizontal stripes on top of vertical ones didn’t look right. Real tartan has that woven look where colors change where the stripes cross. I had to combine the outputs of my horizontal and vertical stripe generators. Messed around with different math nodes, like multiplying them or adding them together, trying to get those little squares and blended areas where the stripes overlap.
Adding Color and Texture
Once I had a pattern structure I was okay with, it was time for color. I picked a classic kind of scheme – deep reds, greens, some black lines, and maybe a thin yellow or white line for accent. Took a bit of work mapping these colors onto the different parts of the pattern I’d generated. Had to use the black and white patterns as masks to tell the colors where to go.
But even with colors, it looked way too flat. Like plastic, not fabric. So, the next step was texture. I found a subtle fabric weave texture image and also used some noise generators. Fed these into the bump or normal map input of the material. This gave it that slightly rough, uneven surface look, like real woven threads. I also used a tiny bit of noise on the colors themselves, so they weren’t perfectly solid. Makes it feel a bit more natural, less computer-perfect.
Refining and Finishing Up
Looked at it again. The lines still felt a bit too sharp, maybe? Added a very slight blur or used a node that subtly softened the edges between colors. Mimics how dye bleeds a tiny bit in real fabric. Adjusted the scale of the whole pattern until it looked proportionate.
Finally, I applied the material to a simple 3D shape, like a sphere or a plane, just to see how it looked with light hitting it. Made a few last minor tweaks to the roughness and color intensity. Yeah, pretty happy with how it turned out. Got that recognizable tartan look down as a reusable material.
