> Quote -   > >  > > OK This is pretty easy, so don't get scared. > > There are material zones on your figure (the horse) that we need to make rules for. > > **Open your control prop in the material and select the "Shader Rules" material to edit.** > > This material uses fake nodes to specify the shader rules. (duh) The Rule nodes try to match a material name on your target. The asterisks indicate additional characters that can be matched by that rule. Case does not matter. > > For example, the "*nail*" rule matches "nail", "nails", "fingernail", "FingerNail", and "hammerMyNail". Notice there is also a "*fingernail*" rule. When two rules both match a material zone, the longer one wins. > > Each rule is connected to a Copy node. A Copy node specifies a source material to copy from, on your control prop. > > So reading this set of rules, it means that a crapload of target zones will be copied from the "Template Skin" material on the control prop. This is why we can edit "Template Skin" and see those changes copied to dozens of target material zones. If you scroll down in your shader, you'll see other rules and other copy nodes. Study those a bit and they should make sense. > > You may wonder why I have *nail*, *fingernail*, and *toenail*, when *nail* alone would get the job done here. The reason is so you can change your mind about one of those. Suppose you want shiny, painted fingernails. You would add another source template shader - perhaps called NailPolish. You would load that template shader with nodes that accomplish that simulate that material. You would then add a new Copy NailPolish node, and then connect that to the Rule *fingernail*. Thus, you would make an exception to the *nail* rule that says if its finger nails, use NailPolish. Get the idea? > > So we have to think about what are our horsey materials. Clearly we can use Template Skin for most of the figure, although we'll probably want to actually change that shader. (Unless you want the horse to look like hairless human skin.) > > For each of the skipped zones, we need to add a rule, and maybe a Copy node and a new template. I'll let you decide what to do for each. But I'll just guide you through the individual steps either way. > > Ready? > >  

I don't have anything called "Shader Rules" in the Designer button of VSS.  See my screen capture attached.

I clicked the "Add a Copy Node" button, but all that did was give me a node that I could rename. I called it "Copy Template Wings."   But it wasn't connected to anything like in your screen capture. It was just a single detached node.

I also clicked "Add a Rule Node". I named it "Feathers" and connected the "Copy Template Wings" to the right plug of the "Feathers" rule node.

Then I clicked "Sync". I got an error about no rules matching.

I swear, once I get this figured out I'm going to do a video tutorial!!!! LOL

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This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
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