Shader

Tip:Note also the Shader Field, which works similarly within the Field functionality.
Above, a noise (Voronoi) is used to define position and rotation of the clones via its gray scale values.

The Shader Effector primarily uses a texture's gray scale values to transform clones. To do this, the texture somehow needs to be projected onto the clones. UV-mapping is used in place of Material tags.

The Shader Texture can also be used to color clones (as well a Lights!) directly. Simply define the following:

When using linear or radial clone modes, we recommend using the 2D-U Color Gradient shader.

NoteThe Shader Effector serves well as a basic Effector if, for example, you only want to influence the clones based only on their position, scale and angle falloff settings. Make sure no shader or Material tag has been loaded in the Shader tab.
TipThe Shader Effector is also effective for creating attractive, random, discreet values. So, what exactly does that mean?
From left to right: Cloned surface; Shader Effector with noise; Shader Effector with noise and additional Colorizer.

Let's say you want to clone a surface in a grid array and the clones should be randomly rotated in 90-degree steps. The Shader Effector (Parameters tab: W.H = 360°) can be used to create a random grayscale dispersion that will reduce the colorizer to 4 discrete gray tones:

Since the levels of intensity are defined in steps of 25% the Shader Effector can only rotate the clones randomly by 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees. Using this method, any random discrete value can be generated. All you have to do is match the colorizer gradient to the number of steps involved.