Mix node as identity function What is the difference between the following two node setups?




I was hoping to use the mix shader as a scaler, but it's not behaving as I'd expect..

Here are the render results:




The "direct" line is much stronger than the one going through the mix shader.
This is because you are using a Mix shader (Add node > Shader > Mix).

This does not work because:


A color output (yellow socket) is not a valid shader input (green socket).
A shader output (green socket) is not a valid value input (gray socket)


If you instead use a Mix RGB node (Add node > Color > MixRGB), it will work as expected: