Directional distance

Last update: Thu Feb 26 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

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In: Filters > Effects

Description

Draws a distance gradient from the borders of a mask in a specified direction.

Overlapping gradients are sorted by inverted normalized distance so that the distance to the closest border is drawn.

The distance of the gradient can be dynamically adjusted along the border using a distance map.

TIP

The Bevel smooth node offers similar capabilities, where the dilation is performed in all directions.

Output connectors

Parameters

Input connectors

Input Grayscale PRIMARY

The image from which the mask should be extracted. All values above 0.5 are white in that mask.

Distance map Grayscale

An optional input used when the value of the ‘Distance Map Multiplier’ parameter is higher than 0. It is used to adjust the beveling/dilation distance along the borders of the mask, where a darker value results in a shorter distance.

Angle map Grayscale

An optional input used when the value of the ‘Angle Map Multiplier’ parameter is higher than 0. It is used to adjust the direction of the distance gradient by adding its value to the direction angle, in number of turns. The ‘Angle Map Offset’ parameter lets you remap the values by specifying which value is 0.

Output connectors

Output Grayscale

The result image according to the selected ‘Output Mode’.

UV Color

A UV map where the UVs are dilated from the mask borders along the specified direction. This can be connected to a UV Mapper node to map any other image using these dilated UVs.

Parameters

Output mode Integer

The method of drawing the distance gradient from the mask borders:

Inverted Normalized Distance: A gradient from 1 to 0 where 0 is reached at the ‘Maximum Distance’, multiplied by the ‘Distance Map’ if connected
Distance: A gradient of raw distance values from the mask border, where 1 is the length of the shorter side of the input image

Maximum distance Float

The distance travelled by the distance gradient, in normalized image space where 1 is the length of the shorter side of the input image.

Angle Float

The direction of the distance gradient in number of turns, where 0 is horizontal and to the right – I.e., a (1,0) vector.

Distance map multiplier Float

Adjusts the impact of the ‘Distance Map’ over the ‘Maximum Distance’. Note: This parameter has no effect when the ‘Distance Map’ input is not connected.

Angle map multiplier Float

Adjusts the impact of the ‘Angle Map’ over the ‘Angle’.

Angle map offset Float

Remaps the values in the ‘Angle Map’ by specifying which value in that map should be 0. E.g., an offset of 0.5 means that a value of 0.75 is 0.25 turns, and a value of 0.3 is -0.2 turns.