W³ ?
These materials are Tim Borgman's wire materials with the addition of color control. His excellent tutorials and project files are here along with his stunning abstract images and many other Realsoft related items at his (BT)3D website
Those not familiar with theses materials should begin there before proceeding with this explanation.
Usage and Controls
There is, also included in the project, an altered version of Tim's “Simple Color Material”;it simply has the parts affecting color removed, but retains the reflection and illuminaton shaders. As with the original material this material should be added with a default type mapping. It is not necessary to add this material unless a relective effect is desired.
Color Curve: Controls the colors that are used on the strands, they are mapped in a mostly literal manner; the left end of the curve corresponds to the beginning of each instance of the patten, the right end to the center. The curve type is set to Boolean, this seems to give the best results, but other types can be used as well. The curve type is changed by setting the interface to advanced, selecting the curve object in the hierarchy and then choosing from the "Type" list in the right-click menu.
Surface Properties Shader
Variables
ColorTemp: Temporarily holds color values
Operations
Curves: Curve operators, determine the color of the various “strands”. The input values are copied The result of the curve operators, are output to the variables ColorTemp and ColorTempMirror.
Linear: The result of the curve operator, illum_temp, is copied to Realsoft's “Color” channel.