Description

The Blend (Material by Height) node performs a blend between two Material inputs, using their height maps to guide the blend.

The node blends the Foreground input material on top of the Background material. The intersection of the material heightmap values determines where one or the other material has more influence.

Using the Offset property, you can control how far the foreground material is offset above the background. You can also adjust the Contrast value to increase the sharpness of the transition at the points of intersection between the two materials, or the Falloff value to make the transition softer. Opacity controls the overall visibility of the foreground material input.

Usage

To blend two materials using the Blend (Material by Height) node, follow these steps:

Ensure that the materials you want to blend are already in your Node Graph, and that each of them contains a correctly labelled Height map.
Create a new Blend (Material by Height) node on the graph. It can be found under the Composition category in the Node Library.
Connect the material you wish to use as the Foreground into the corresponding input port, and the other material into the Background port.
Adjust the Offset property to set the placement of the foreground material over the background.
Modify the sharpness of transition between the two materials in the blend result by adjusting the Contrast and Falloff values, as well as the Opacity of the foreground layer.
View the blend result by bringing the Blend (Material by Height) node into the 2D and/or 3D Viewports.

Node Reference

Node category	Composition
Node execution style	Automatic

Ports

Input Name	Input Type	Description
Foreground	Material	The material you wish to blend on the foreground layer. This material must contain a correctly labelled Height map.
Background	Material	The material you wish to blend on the background layer. This material must contain a correctly labelled Height map.

Output Type	Description
Bitmap / Material	The material that the node produces by combining the two inputs using their height map information. Alternatively, the individual Bitmaps that make up this material. The number and type of Bitmap outputs depends on the maps used in both of the input Materials.

Properties

Property/Setting	Description
Output Type	Choose between Bitmap and Material to determine whether the node outputs the entire material or the individual textures that it consists of.
Offset	Set a value between 0 and 100 to change the height offset of the Foreground input above the Background. At 0, the foreground layer is completely below the background. At 100, it completely covers the background.
Contrast	Set a value between 0 and 100 to increase the sharpness of transition at the points of intersection between the two materials.
Opacity	The overall visibility of the Foreground input over the Background, as a value between 0 and 100 percent. At 0, the foreground layer is completely transparent. At 100, it is completely opaque.
Falloff	Set a value between 0 and 100 to increase the softness of transition at the points of intersection between the two materials.