Hi

I was wondering if anyone knows of a good free tutorial on giving something an aged appearance without sinking cash into Anything Goos?   I just don't have the budget for it and my normal methods aren't producing the desired results.  I need to make some distressed and rotting wooden planks for the Halloween Contest.  I have tried making an texture map in PSP to use as a layer, but I need to make it more of a procedural so they don't all look the same.  Any help appreciated.

Rich
Sparrownightmare

 Well, the typical method is to create custom texture maps. (at least if you want distressing exaggerated at the edges and seams)

If you just want to have overall imperfections, you can use multichannel mixers to blend perfect and aged shaders.

 Forgot to mention that you can augment the Multichannel mixer with the landscape elevation and slope options to create more distress on upward facing surfaces. The Carrara Snow shader is also a great tool for this.

Hmmm..  I didn't even think of using the snow shader.  That should be pretty cool.  Thanks for the idea.  I wish you could have a single shader that randomized as a procedural for every instance.  The best you can do that I have found is to set the scale really small and set it to world instead of local.  But it still doesn't look all that great.  The snow should be interesting, I will let you know how it looks.