How to Add Realistic Dust With Arnold’s Utility Shader

Sam Tato Shows How to Add Dust and Paint Specks With Arnold in Cinema 4D, Using the Utility Shader.

Freelance 3D Modeler, Animator, and Materials artist Sam Tato adds to his 1-minute tutorial series with one that covers creating realistic dust and specks with Cinema 4D using Arnold. “This technique uses the Utility Shader to select upward facing geometry which can be used as a matte to add dust and paint splatter,” Tato says.

Arnold’s Utility Shader is typically a diagnostic tool that can help debug scenes. Meant as a general and all-purpose utility node that can create various passes to help to flag potential issues with renderings. In this case, Tato uses the shader to select all the parts of the model that face a particular direction. That information can then be used as a matte to add effects like dust and other things.