More Interesting Noises

Blender only offers a few different noise nodes, but by combining them it is possible create a wide range of textures and patterns.

Domain Distortion¶

Domain distortion is a technique used to create interesting and unique noise patterns by modifying the way that procedural noise is generated. Essentially, domain distortion involves warping the input space of a noise function in a non-uniform way, creating a distorted version of the original noise pattern.

For example, take this Voronoi noise used to displace the terrain surface:

Now take the RGB color output of a regular noise node and subtract (0.5, 0.5, 0.5) from it using a Vector Math node to center it around zero.
Scale the noise vector using a Vector Math node to control the distortion strength.
Add the noise vector to the position vector using a Vector Math node and a Position input node.
Input the new vector to the Voronoi noise node.

Curve Remapping¶

The Float Curve node is a great way to reshape the noise into anything we want.

For example reshaping the Voronoi noise output:

Now adding domain distortion like mentioned above:

This could be cracks in the ground if it were small, or we could scale it up and make it into something resembling canyons: