Rodney

Enjoying your breakdown of how you put your entry together. Excellent breakdown of AO and how the size of ground plane effects the scene. I can see I need to experiment with reflected AO like that.

That's an excellent example Rodger. Thanks! I've been leaning toward that too.

A case that produces a spline with odd curvature might be to take a beveled cube such as one out of the Library and decal it with an image using the spherical application method. The initial observation not having much to do with the application of the image itself so much as the layout of decal splines that appear via Decal>Edit. There should be at least one decal spline that has excessive curvature. Beyond that I'll see if I can put together a decent project file related to this.

The world would surely be a very different place if Bill Hanna had taken the bite and embraced that young buck Martin Hash.

I had a random thought so thought I should investigate. The underlying observation/conjectures: Application (and Editing) of Decal assignment in A:M can sometimes run afoul of the inherent curvature of splines. This is one of the reasons why it is useful to flatten a model before applying decals. The question Would it generally be better to peak all the splines in a model prior to applying a decal? A follow up question After the application of the decal presumably the would be an adjustment of the assignment of specific locations of the image decaled onto the model. What impact (if any) should we expect to see as a result? I'm in the early stage of finding out the answer for myself but some of you may already know the answer. My initial results seem to indicate (at least with spherical application) no significant difference.

Okay... the target keeps moving. If we want to work in compositing/nodes we can bring a whole new level of tools into the equation. A:M Composite provides a number of useful ways to bring glows into our scene from inside of A:M for starters as do the standard Post Effects (some of which are fairly recent additions to A:M). Post processing is a cheat... which I highly approve of... but we need to compare apples to apples rather than apples to disco balls. Also, keep in mind that once we invoke post effects/processing this opens up a whole new world of external programs that can work with A:M to achieve the desired results. In the referenced video almost the first step is.... go into the compositor. At this point we are in a completely different environment other than decal driven glows rendered in situ.

In my (admittedly brief) search for clues into how this decal driven glow might work I ran into several approaches but all seemed to have limitations that wouldn't be acceptable. The primary one being that most emission maps can drive the glow effect but only within the silhouette of the object (or objects) in the scene. So as we observe in a few other cases where alpha channel/transparency is set the glow effect would be clipped either all the time or when other objects don't provide a background. As has been mentioned here in this topic many workarounds exist. If anyone has a link to programming and implementation of emission/glow maps that would be useful in delving further into this.

I really like the simplicity in that. The hints to the scene being part of a much larger world makes us believers that there really is a larger world there.

Looking very good! That issue appears to be related to an internal clipping plane that is driven by where the ground plane (usually) resides. But this isn't an actual ground plane but rather the Chor Grid and that grid is likely used as a way to optimize rendering... so that unnecessary samplings and calculations don't have to be made. If this is/was either the ground plane or related to the Alpha channel we could just disable those and press on. As it is likely related to the underlying Chor grid even when we toggle it off it is still present (to assist with depth sorting and such). That's my take at least.

I've been cheating and just watching the videos. Some interesting stuff... although not sure how much in sinking in without doing the practical exercises. I'm getting a fairly good overview and it's pointed me to some other interesting concepts that might be useful later.

There are some volumetrics in the Volumetric Effects and Lens Flares so it may be quite possible to bridge the gap and get decals to drive those type of results without a major rewrite or building new foundations. If it can be done in a reasonable way I'm sure Steffen would be up to it. He knows the A:M code thoroughly. Tore, you've done your part and submitted a feature request. That's the first step toward successful implementation. The next time Steffen is in that area of the code who knows what might happen. .

Sorry. I thought we already had that feature. It's more than a little out of my experience but I think we need to use Radiosity for that. I struck out on all my attempts.

Here's a little 'steam' (again a Volumetric Effect) thrown into the mix to get some light projecting outward... These are added to the Keekat model as Action Objects) so are easily drag/dropped into place and adjusted. (This one is a screen capture of what is showing in A:M... the previous was a final render) I'm not having a lot of luck with Dust...

There are many approaches we could take. This one... uses Mist (one of those Volumentric Effects that no one tends to use): Both of these Mists (one for red/right eye and one for left/blue eye) started as copies of the same Volumetric Effect but were tweaked in different directions.

Which feature are you referring to? Ambiance maps with glow should get the desired effect. The Lens Flares is one of several alternatives. Don't tell me Robert is going to have to break out a new series of "It can't be Done!": videos. (I'm all for that!)

cool. That's something of a retro 80s game effects look.

Lens flares are just settings on lights so you can constrain a light to a model and even place a light(s) inside a model. If you place them inside the model they will automatically move and rotate with the model. For more versatility Lights can be Action Objects as well.

Here's a quick proof of concept with Lens Flare over the top of an image from your new website. Nice website! Added" I learned something new today... I didn't know that Layers could accept Light Lists!

It seems to me that a Lens Flare set on a light might be more appropriate although you could certainly adjust the surface also to add to the effect.

Eh? This is quite a very old controversy (the 3D coat voice thing). Circa 2007 even. Regarding the OBJ thing... say on. Say on. I didn't see anywhere where OBJ was suggested but I doubt they will easily be able to open native .mdl files. I'd be happy to be wrong in this. Of course perhaps we can include a subscription to A:M along with our entries.

Thank you!

We have more than a few people that can win in this category. I note that it doesn't mention a file format but I would assume at least one copy submitted would need to be OBJ. Some info from the contest: I see this as well: Terms & ConditionsIn order to qualify for the prize winnings, you must agree to terms & conditions. Things you must know The Female character challenge will run from the 13th of February to the 15th of May. There is no polygon limit, therefore both high poly and low poly models can compete for the prizes. Submissions deemed to be adult content are not eligible to participate in the contest. Cool renderings are optional but we will definitely consider the presentation of the model when judging. Only 3D models uploaded during the period from the 13th of February to the 15th of May will be treated as valid entries. Designs uploaded to the gallery are not treated as valid entries. Upon joining this challenge, you agree that your rendering scene might be used by sponsors for marketing (non commercial!) purposes. The challenge is open to everyone, including teams, legal entities and people from all over the world. You can submit as many entries as you want. Only models that do not contradict 3D-Coat’s voice will qualify for the prize provided by 3D-Coat. Participating in the challenge and uploading 3D models to CGTrader platform is free of charge. All the entries must be original and not derivable. Employees and relatives of CGTrader and sponsor teams are not allowed to participate in this challenge. Any existing taxes or duties must be paid by the winner. CGTrader is not responsible for any illegal actions taken by the prize winners. We are independent sheriffs of this challenge, so stick to the rules and don't do anything stupid.

There are two community challenges listed at present: Community Challenge#1 50 members. Community Challenge#2: An (icon) image. 512x512 is recomended although the current one is 128x128. Major customization can be achieved but that is (currently) reserved for Discord partners. The criteria for partnership is well beyond what we might expect to see happen. (ex: 10,000 followers on Youtube, etc.) Not impossible but highly unlikely in the short term although as a community we could convince the powers that be that if we count everyone in the A:M Community we have collectively produced a ton of views.

Started posting some resources... This link is set to expire in 24 hours: Resources - Misc

It remains to be seen where it might go but one does have to start somewhere. For those who like verbose mode (like me) that might be a good place to spend time. Not everyone enjoys the noise of randomized productivity. And we shall still be collecting the gems here in the forum!