14.9. Solid Noise

14.9.1. Overview

Figure 17.345. Example of turbulent solid noise

Example of turbulent solid noise

Filter Solid noise applied


Solid Noise is a great texture maker. Note that this noise is always gray, even if you applied it to a very colorful image (it doesn't matter what the original image looks like -- this filter completely overwrites any existing background in the layer it is applied to). This is also a good tool to create displacement maps for the Warp transform tool or for the Bump Map filter. With the "turbulence" setting active, the results look quite a bit like real clouds.

14.9.2. Activating the Filter

This filter is found in the main menu under FiltersRenderNoiseSolid noise….

14.9.3. Options

Figure 17.346. Solid Noise filter options

“Solid Noise” filter options

Presets, Input Type, Clipping, Blending Options, Preview, Merge filter, Split view
[Note] Note

These options are described in Section 2, “Common Features”.

X size, Y size

These control the size and proportion of the noise shapes in X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) directions (range 0.1 to 16.0).

Detail

This controls the amount of detail in the noise texture. Higher values give a higher level of detail, and the noise seems to be made of spray or small particles, which makes it feel hard. A low value makes it more soft and cloudy.

Tileable

If you check Tileable, you'll get a noise which can be used as tiles. For example, you can use it as a background in an HTML page, and the tile edges will be joined seamlessly.

Turbulent

If you check this, you'll get very interesting effects, often something that looks much like oil on water, or clouds of smoke, or living tissue, or a Rorschach blot.

Random seed, New Seed

This option controls the randomness of the filter. The Random seed box lets you manually enter a seed for the randomization algorithm used. You can also generate a random seed by pressing the New Seed button. If the same random seed is used in the same situation, the filter produces exactly the same results. A different random seed produces different results.