Polka Dot
Regular dot grid with a single control for dot size.
The Polka Dot node draws an evenly spaced grid of dots. It is the simplest of the pattern generators — one control for dot size — and works well as a halftone base, a mask, or a retro backdrop.
- One texture output; two optional texture inputs (domain warp and composite)
- A single control, Thickness (dot size), plus the standard transform block
- Found in nerdGRAPH under Generators as Polka Dot
The image on the right is the example patch itself — drag and drop it onto the app (or load it with File → Load) to open the full graph.
Inputs and outputs
| Port | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Input | Texture | Domain warp — the red/green channels displace the sample coordinates |
| Composite Input | Texture | Composited over the output using the node's Blend Mode and Opacity |
| Output | Texture | The grayscale dot grid on black |
Feed an animated texture into Input to make the dots wobble; the warp strength scales with Scale.
Parameters
Opacity, Blend Mode, ALPHA, Invert Alpha, Threshold Min / Threshold Max — the standard operator header; see Perlin Noise for details.
Structure
- Thickness (0.01–1, default 0.3) — the dot radius relative to the grid spacing. Small values give fine dots; values toward 1 swell the dots until they touch.
Transform
- Seed (0–99999) and the shared Scale / Offset / Rotation block. Scale sets how many dots fill the frame.
Dynamics
- Speed (0–5, default 1) — drift rate of the per-dot brightness animation, compounding with the global animation speed. 0 freezes it.
Every slider has a per-parameter animation bar, so any of these can be animated, audio-driven, or MIDI-mapped — see Parameters and Controls.
Troubleshooting
Dots too small to see — raise Thickness, or lower Scale for a coarser grid with bigger dots.
Dots merge into a grid of squares — lower Thickness so they stay separated.