Cellular As a 3D Map

Cellular is the first runner-up in the map popularity contest.
Rather than randomly mixing two colors to produce an effect, Cellular works by producing small, cell-like patterns.
The distribution of the pattern is completely procedural, meaning that it is also random.
As a result, Cellular works great for creating organic surfaces.
As a Diffuse map, it can create a great skin like texture.
As a Bump map, it is great for creating a scaly surface.
You might use Cellular.
The Cellular interface resembles nothing of the Noise map's interface.
As with the Noise map, however, the primary way to manipulate Cellular is by visual reference and not getting hung up on all the technical terms.
Some nomenclature has been carried over from the Noise map.
The three colors allow you to control the colors of the cells (Cell Color) and the colors that exist between the cells, which are called divisions (Division Colors).
The default colors work well for most bump map usage, but you will more than likely need to change the colors or add a color map-such as a bitmap-for using Cellular as a Diffuse map.
The Cell Characteristics section alters the overall shape and size of the cells and the amount of space between them.
Circular works great for scaly, bumpy surfaces while Chips works great for dry, cracked surfaces, such as dry lake beds.
By increasing or decreasing Spread, you can increase or decrease the spacing between the cells, respectively.
The cells have no variation of the color within themselves.
The Fractal check box allows you to introduce a Noise-like pattern into the cells and their divisions.
This produces a more splotchy pattern that you might use to distribute something across a surface, such as rashes across skin.
The only hitch to the Cellular map is the rendering speed.
Rendering a material that uses a Cellular map can often take as much as four times longer than the same material that uses a bitmap instead.
For that reason, you might consider using the Material Editor's Render Map feature.
That way, you can render the Cellular map to a bitmap and use the Bitmap map versus the Cellular map.
Because your 3D application does not need to do any underlying calculations during rendering time, your rendering speed improves significantly.