Alright, Got it. Minor hiccup here or there along the mathematical road but I have a solution. Had to remember how to play with quadratic equations. So for an edge mask what we're essentially looking for is to modulate a hard edged mask with a more natural looking one at a specific point. Namely the point right close to…
funky.. you're not actually using the model's normal map to control the deposits. easy to plug that in later anyway. I spent some time last night chasing down a solution.. got a few close things, but nothing that worked exactly right. I have a similar desposit example shader made up, but I was using an IF based threshold…