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Material Creator — Workflow

The Create Materials Python Panel is a companion tool for building and publishing material assets directly into your Copernicus Painter library.

It has four modes, selectable from the buttons at the top:

Mode Purpose
Material Manager Browse, preview, and manage existing materials in the library
Smart Material Creator Export a COP subnet as a smart material .cpio and render its icon
Smart Mask Creator Export a COP subnet as a smart mask .cpio
Settings Read-only view of the library paths set in Copernicus Painter

Material Creator

Material Manager

Material Manager

Browse all materials, smart materials, and alphas currently in the library. Switch between the Materials, Smart Materials, and Alphas tabs. Use the search bar to filter by name.

Automatic Channel Detection

When you add a material to your library, Copernicus Painter automatically maps each texture file to the correct channel (Base Color, Roughness, Normal, etc.) based on filename keywords. In most cases this works without any manual setup.

However the detection can sometimes be wrong. In that case you can manually configure the channel mapping for a material:

  1. Select the material thumbnail in the Materials tab
  2. Click Setup Material Channels
  3. Manually assign each texture file to the correct channel
  4. Confirm — the material will receive a ★ star icon to indicate it has a custom channel mapping

Rendering Icons

If a material or alpha thumbnail is missing, incorrect, or was never generated, you can re-render it directly from the Material Manager:

  • Select the material or alpha thumbnail
  • Click Render Icon

For smart materials, if the icon failed during creation (e.g. the shaderball render did not complete), you can also re-render it here by selecting it in the Smart Materials tab and clicking Render Icon.

Smart Material Creator

Smart Material Creator

This mode lets you turn a COP subnet into a reusable smart material preset.

Step 1 — Build the subnet in Houdini

Inside a COP network, create a subnet node. Inside it, build your material graph using any COP nodes (generators, filters, color corrections, etc.).

Output naming convention — this is the critical part:

The subnet must have named outputs. The tool reads output labels to know which channel each output belongs to. Use exactly these labels:

Output Label Channel Type
BaseColor Base Color RGB
Roughness Roughness Mono
Metalness Metalness Mono
Specular Specular Mono
Normal Normal RGB
Height Height Mono
AO Ambient Occlusion Mono
Opacity Opacity Mono

To set output labels on a subnet in Houdini: select the subnet → go to its parameters → set Output 1 Label, Output 2 Label, etc.

You do not need to provide all channels — only the ones you define will be exported.

Input naming convention (for bake-driven smart materials):

If your material needs baked maps (position, world normals, occlusion, etc.) as inputs, add subnet inputs with these exact labels:

Input Label Source
position Baked position map
worldnormal Baked world-space normal map
occlusion Baked ambient occlusion map
curvature Baked curvature map
edge Baked edge map
cavity Baked cavity map
thickness Baked thickness map
alpha Baked alpha map

Copernicus Painter will automatically wire the corresponding bake stash nodes to these inputs when the smart material is applied to a layer — but only after baking.

Step 2 — Load the subnet

In the Smart Material Creator panel:

  1. Select your subnet node in the Houdini network editor
  2. Click Load Selected COPNET
  3. The Detected Output Channels section will show which outputs were recognized

Step 3 — Name and create

  1. Enter a Material Name (e.g. rust_procedural)
  2. Click Create Smart Material

The tool will: - Export the subnet as a .cpio file into your Smart Materials folder - Render a shaderball preview icon using the subnet outputs - Add the material to the library automatically

Smart Material Workflow

Smart Mask Creator

Smart Masks Creator

This mode lets you turn a COP subnet into a reusable smart mask preset. It works very similarly to the Smart Material Creator.

Step 1 — Build the subnet in Houdini

Inside a COP network, create a subnet node. Inside it, build a mask graph — anything that produces a single greyscale (mono) output.

Output naming convention:

The subnet must have exactly one output, labeled:

alpha

This tells Copernicus Painter the output is a mask channel.

Input naming convention (for bake-driven smart masks):

Exactly the same as smart materials — use the bake stash labels (position, worldnormal, occlusion, curvature, edge, cavity, thickness, alpha) so Copernicus Painter can wire the baked maps automatically after baking.

Important: Label names are case-sensitive and must match exactly. A subnet input labeled Position (capital P) will not be wired automatically — use position.

Step 2 — Load the subnet

  1. Select your subnet node in the Houdini network editor
  2. Click Load Selected Subnet
  3. The Output Validation section will confirm the output is valid
  4. Any promoted parameters on the subnet will be listed under Subnet Parameters

Step 3 — Name and create

  1. Enter a Mask Name (e.g. edge_wear)
  2. Click Create Smart Mask

The tool will: - Export the subnet as a .cpio file into your Smart Masks folder (inside a subfolder named after the mask) - The mask will appear in Copernicus Painter's Smart Masks library after refreshing

Settings

Read-only view of the library paths. To change paths, go to the Settings tab in Copernicus Painter.

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