Shorty Series
Version 1.0, Updated Dec 2025 using Octane 2026.1 and Cinema 4D 2026.1
~850 words, average read time: 5 min
About this guide
This is a “shorty” guide (less than 1,000 words) that hyper-focuses on one single setup within Octane. In this case we’re looking at the new-to-2026 Distorted UVW node.
Downloads
All materials created using this guide can be 💾 found here
This guide is also available in 📄 PDF format here
What is it?
A node that distorts a texture projection in 3D space (UVW), creating all kinds of fun and interesting effects.
This node relies on understanding texture projection, specifically 3D projection. Lots of info on that can be found in this Texture Projection guide.
Can I see some examples?
This illustration shows the Distorted UVW projection node affecting various textures in various ways. You can download these in C4D and ORBX formats to dissect.
The C4D version has comments on the materials in the node editor to help understand it better.
Basic Setup
This is the simplest way to set this node up effectively:
or
- Make a cube and add a material to it
- Put a checks/checker/checkerboard texture (depending on DCC) in the Diffuse/Color/Albedo Channel (depending on the material chosen)
- Attach a Transform (Transform value) node to the Checkerboard node and scale the checkerboard texture down (~0.25-0.4 depending on DCC) on S.X, S.Y, and S.Z until it shows a few rows and columns of checks).
- Create a Distorted UVW node (or a Projection node set to Distorted UVW if you’re using a DCC like C4D) and attach it to the Checkerboard node.
- Optionally - but a good idea, especially in C4D - attach another Projection node to the Input Point pin of the Distorted UVW node, and set it to XYZ to UVW projection.
- Put an Octane Noise (or Noise Texture) into the Scale X Axis pin of the Distorted UVW node. This only distorts the texture along the X axis.
- Use the Strength slider (or add a Float Texture/ Grayscale to Float node into the Distorted UVW node’s Strength pin), and set it to 0.33. This will lessen the effect so we can see what’s going on.
- Play with the minimum and maximum range values for Scale X Axis to see what they do.
What does what?
Input Point is where an external projection node attaches. Some DCCs have an internal projection node baked into the Distorted UVW node already, but attaching an external projection node overrides it (and is a good idea, especially in C4D as we’ll see later in this guide).
Strength will change the intensity of the overall distortion effect. A simple 0-1 float texture (or internal 0-1 control if you dcc has it) is the easiest way to do this, but more complex effects can be had if a grayscale texture is attached.
Translation/Scale/Rotate on X, Y, or Z: tells Octane how to distort the texture - by pushing, scaling, or rotating the affected areas an amount specified by Strength. These parameters can be driven by something as simple as a float texture (0-1 slider), or as complex as a grayscale texture.
Ranges limit the values of each axis (XYZ) in each transformation (TSR). This is good for fine-tuning the effect and stopping it from getting too crazy on any one axis. These can also be driven by textures, but it’s hard to predict what that does (and rotation is particularly hard because it works in degrees) - much easier to just adjust the values one at a time to see the effect.
Strategy
When we’re first exploring the node, there are two main simple paths we can take:
- We can put our distorting texture into the Strength pin and then adjust each individual parameter using a simple 0-1 value…
- …or we can put the distorting texture into one or more of the individual parameters and use the 0-1 value to determine the overall strength of the effect (like in the walkthrough above).
Once we’re more comfortable with the node, we can start mixing and matching textures in all the pins and go crazy.
Before running a distorting texture into the Distorted UVW node, it’s a good idea to pipe it into the Albedo (or Color or Diffuse, depending on material) channel so we can get a visual on how it’s falling on the model and adjust accordingly before trying to use it to distort another texture.
C4D Caveats
As of this writing (Early December 2025) in the 2026.1.0 C4D plugin:
There is no dedicated Distorted UVW node - we need to create a new Projection node and select Distorted UVW from the dropdown.
The internal projection in the Distorted UVW Projection node is set to MeshUV. It will still work this way, but it’ll rely on the mesh’s U and V coordinates, and disable the W axis (which essentially turns it into a Distorted MeshUV projection node). To get around this, attach a second Projection node set to XYZ to UVW into the Distorted UVW’s Input Point pin. See the downloads above for examples of this.
The labels on the ranges aren’t clear - the top one is the minimum of the range, the bottom one is the maximum.