Software:
Maya 2018 | Arnold 5
An example of a basic traditional (not scanned) cloth material setup in Arnold 5 for Maya using an aiStandardSurface shader.

The shading network uses a classic angle dependent color blend to simulate the color of the cloth being washed out at grazing angle of view.
Explanation of the node graph:

- A black and white fabric weave texture that will serve as input for multiple shading channels.
* This is actually not the best example of such a pattern, and could be replaced with a much better texture.

- A remapValue node is used to set contrast to the fabric pattern (reduce contrast in this case) prior to it being multiplied with the fabric colors.
* Note that only one of the textures RGB channels is connected to the remapValue node since it’s a float (mono) processor and not RGB.

* Note that depending on the fabric texture, you may have to design different curves to achieve the right effect.
- Two colors are defined with colorConstant nodes:
A deep color as the main fabric color, and a washed out color for grazing angle view (“side color”).
- An aiFacingRatio node is used as an input for incident angle info.
* Note that in this case I checked the node’s invert option to make it behave more like other systems I’m used to (if you don’t use invert, the angle blend curve in 5 will be different..)
- Â A remapValue node used to set the angle blend curve or in other words, how much does the color appears washed out per change of view angle of the cloth surface.
* The longer it take the curve to become steep from left to right, the more the main color will be dominant before the washed out color will appear.

- A colorCorrect node is used in this example just as a way to convert the remapped float value back to RGB for being multiplied with the cloth colors.
* We could also connect it directly to the individual float components of the RGB colors but this way the node graph is cleaner.
- A multiplyDivide node is used to multiply the processed fabric texture with the 2 fabric colors “baking” the pattern into the color.
- A blendColors node is used to blend the 2 processed fabric colors together according to the processed facingRatio angle input.
The result is the final cloth color that is connected to the aiStandardSurface shader.
- An aiBump2d node is used to convert the fabric pattern to normal data that will be connected to the aiStandardSurface shader to produce bumps.
- An aiStandartSurface shader serving as the main shading node for this material.
* Note that under Geometry the Thin Walled option is checked so that the Subsurface layer of the shader will act as a Paper Shader rather than SSS.
* The main cloth color is connected to the SubSurface Color input.

More Arnold shading posts