Anisotropy Map

Brushed metal and satin are the textures that separate a nice material from a believable one, and the thing that makes them read correctly is anisotropy - the direction light stretches along the surface. x1AnisotropyMap derives that directional map from a base texture so you don't have to paint a flow field by hand. It lives in the Surface/Maps branch of MKRShift Nodes, the same lane that gives you cavity, clearcoat, and roughness derivations before you pack them into a PBR set.

This pack is young - no impressions yet, no Reddit presence I could find - so treat it as fresh but well-structured code. The map nodes in particular follow one clean, repeatable shape: pick a source, derive a scalar, normalize it, mask it.

How it works

The node turns your texture into a two-component flow field. source_mode picks what drives the material response - combined_anisotropy is the built-in heuristic that looks for smooth, metallic, fiber-like regions that want directional highlights. direction_mode then sets the flow: horizontal, vertical, a fixed angle, or computed flows like gradient_tangent (follows stripes, brushing, and weave already in the texture - a strong default), radial, or tangential. gradient_radius controls how much the gradient directions get smoothed.

Here's the part that surprises people: the image output is encoded, not a plain grayscale. R and G hold the direction, B holds the strength. That's the format x1PreviewMaterial's anisotropy input expects, so the intended path is image → x1PreviewMaterial → anisotropy, no hand-remapping. If you just want the scalar strength, grab the mask output instead. anisotropy_info logs the resolved settings.

Inputs that matter

• direction_mode + direction_angle_deg - the flow direction is the whole look
• source_mode - combined_anisotropy is the sensible default; the direct channels (luma, saturation, detail) are there when the heuristic misses
• normalize_mode / percentile_low / percentile_high - the standard MKRShift strength remap; auto_percentile is what you want 90% of the time
• detail_strength - how strongly local texture breakup suppresses the anisotropic response
• center_x / center_y - the origin for radial / tangential flows

Installing

ComfyUI Manager → search MKRShift Nodes, or:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/criskb/MKRShift_Nodes

Restart ComfyUI. No models, no requirements.txt - it runs on what ComfyUI already ships.

Where people get burned

• The image output is not a viewable scalar map - it's the encoded direction map. Previewing it raw looks like noise/color mush. Reach for the mask output for a readable strength map, or plug straight into x1PreviewMaterial.
• These derivation nodes are all-or-nothing on normalization: if you flip to manual_range, you own value_min/value_max, and a wrong range can clip the whole map to solid black or white.
• The mask output is the derived strength scalar, not the optional input mask you fed in. Same pack-wide convention, same confusion.

Brushed steel, satin clothing, carbon fiber, anodized parts - any material with a visible machining or weave direction. That's the job this node exists for.