Advanced Cells
A custom Voronoi cells node for Substance Designer that gives you full control over cell distribution through an input mask. Drive density, clustering, and scale per region instead of being locked into the uniform output of the default Cells nodes.
Core feature: Mask-driven distribution
Feed any grayscale mask into the input and the node redistributes Voronoi points based on the mask values. Multiple modes let you choose how the mask influences the pattern:
- Density modulation: more points where the mask is bright, fewer where it is dark
- Cluster mode: pulls points toward bright areas to form tight groups with sparse surroundings
- Scale variation: changes cell size locally based on mask intensity
- Inverse modes for each, so you can flip the behavior without pre-inverting the mask
- Non-uniform edge distribution for even more organic patterns
Outputs
Multiple outputs ship with the node so you do not have to rebuild the same patterns downstream:
- Cell pattern (filled)
- Cell edges (crack pattern)
- Distance field
- Cell ID / random per-cell grayscale
- Crystallized
- Masked Cells
Use cases
- Non-uniform cracks that follow stress maps, curvature, or hand-painted guides
- Localized shattering and damage that concentrates around impact points
- Stylized rock, dirt, and organic surfaces where uniform Voronoi reads as fake
- Procedural foliage scatter, pebble distribution, and tile variation driven by terrain masks
- Sci-fi panel breakups and tech surface detailing
Why it matters
The default Cells nodes in Substance Designer produce evenly spaced points. Every workaround involves stacking warps, slope blurs, and tile samplers to fake non-uniformity, which is slow to author and slow to cook. Advanced Cells solves this at the source. One node, one mask, full control.