bubba Posted March 16, 2011 Posted March 16, 2011 I thought it would be relatively simple - but how wrong I was! But I have learned a lot so far; but I know that I have a long way to go. Side_View_Dust_v10_sphere.mov Front_View_Dust_v10_sphere.mov I am trying to weaponize it now. I found the tutorials on making an electric arc in a Jacobs Ladder and I thought this would serve as the output of the PPCs. Having trouble though. Quote
Admin Rodney Posted March 16, 2011 Admin Posted March 16, 2011 Nice Mech! My thought with the dust is that you could render out the scene twice, once with dust and once without. Then composite the layer with dust over the other with the appropriate transparency. That would soften then harshness of dust a lot. You are well on your way now. Keep it up! Quote
bubba Posted March 17, 2011 Author Posted March 17, 2011 Thank you I will give that some thought and see what happens. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 17, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 17, 2011 I think there's also a "falloff" setting or something like that that to soften the edges of the volumetric effect. But congrats on getting your first model going and animated! Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 17, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 17, 2011 Here's three dust objects all at their defaults except the falloff is set to 25%, 50% and 100% I bet the fall off could be animated also for added effect. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 17, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 17, 2011 This is probably more what the makers intended for a dust effect DustB000.mov DustTest02.prj As with all CG, the more you consider what your goal looks like the more you can make the tool look like it. Quote
bubba Posted March 17, 2011 Author Posted March 17, 2011 Yes, it is a property that can be animated. I have it going from 0 % falloff at the peak to 100% falloff at the end. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 17, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 17, 2011 Take a look at the settings in my sample PRJ and see how I varied the size and falloff softness to make the cloud expand quickly then dissipate slowly. Quote
bubba Posted March 17, 2011 Author Posted March 17, 2011 Here is a screen shot of what my channels look like. The small line is the falloff percentage (0 - 100). The bigger line is the falloff (3 meters to 0 or so) Quote
bubba Posted March 17, 2011 Author Posted March 17, 2011 Ok does this look any better. I changed the 0% to 10%, then raised it to 20% then up toward 100%. Side_View_Dust_v10_sphere.mov Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 17, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 17, 2011 I think that looks too much like a flash of light. Too bright and too solid. The first frame of dust is so small that it's getting missed, it needs to be closer to the full size. I think the dust falling back down needs to settle evenly. Right now it's settling a little then collapsing real fast. If anything, real dust is slowest at the end. Quote
bubba Posted March 18, 2011 Author Posted March 18, 2011 The first frame of dust is supposed to be when the heel spur hits. I will check the brightness of the volumetric. I will also look at the dust falling back down and see if I can do it more slowly and evenly. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 18, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 18, 2011 The first frame of dust is supposed to be when the heel spur hits. I just think it's so small that the next frame looks like a sudden pop Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 18, 2011 Posted March 18, 2011 Here's using a sprite emitter (smoke2 material from the A:M cd, you can find the image needed there). It not a good representation of you mechs foot, but should give you an idea. And here's the project file as well. You could set this up in an ON/OFF pose. Then all you need to do is animate the ON/OFF pose as the foot makes contact with the ground. dust.mov dust.prj Quote
Admin Rodney Posted March 18, 2011 Admin Posted March 18, 2011 Nice one Mark! I've downloaded your project just in case. I'd love to see if I could create a dust devil. Quote
bubba Posted March 19, 2011 Author Posted March 19, 2011 Mark, Where did the Smoke2 material come from? When I open your project, it goes looking for a TGA. Could you embed all objects/materials into the project and re-post. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 19, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 19, 2011 That looks wonderful mark! Here's using a sprite emitter (smoke2 material from the A:M cd, you can find the image needed there). The A:M CD image I have only has SmokeOne SmokeOne.tga (try it, but it's obviously not going to look the same as mark's movie) Quote
bubba Posted March 19, 2011 Author Posted March 19, 2011 Found Smoke2 inside the Data/Materials/Sprite folder. Imported it as a new material. Looked like it was all set up as a sprite already. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 19, 2011 Posted March 19, 2011 The image Nancy posted is the correct one. Images do not embed into projects. Quote
bubba Posted March 20, 2011 Author Posted March 20, 2011 Mark, Did you just title the group "emitter" or is this something special? Quote
bubba Posted March 20, 2011 Author Posted March 20, 2011 Ok I have added the material, created groups on the feet, dropped the material onto each group. Now how did I get it (smoke) into the choreography? I thought updating the object (model) automatically translated into the choreography? Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Turn particles/hair On in the top menu or "Shift+8" for pc, not sure what it is on the mac. Quote
bubba Posted March 20, 2011 Author Posted March 20, 2011 Turn particles/hair On in the top menu or "Shift+8" for pc, not sure what it is on the mac. Sorry to bother you again but I don't know what the top menu is and Shift+8 does not seem to do anything? I have it turned on for rendering. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 Sprites won't show on the first frame, unless you set a preroll in the material. You may not see them until you scrub through the animation. Quote
bubba Posted March 20, 2011 Author Posted March 20, 2011 I cannot seem to get the sprites into the choerography like your example EDIT: Ok I figured out how to update the choreography. I 'nd the shortcut and selected Cache(). That did the trick. Now the sprites show up. Even though I tired to use your same settings my looks no-where near as nice as yours. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 20, 2011 Posted March 20, 2011 If you model scale is different than the example I posted, you may need to adjust the size of the sprite in the material and the rate of emissions. A larger model will have smaller particles, where a smaller model will have larger particles. Quote
bubba Posted March 21, 2011 Author Posted March 21, 2011 I just re-opened my project and the groups are gone! from the choreography. And I have NO idea why. I am rendering the scene right now and the sprites are there but I don't know how I will be able to make any adjustments in the choreography without the emitters being there. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 21, 2011 Posted March 21, 2011 Show more than drivers on the model in the chor. That will allow you to access the groups that the material is applied to. Quote
bubba Posted March 22, 2011 Author Posted March 22, 2011 Project file: WarHawkAlt10_v16_sprite.prj Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 23, 2011 Posted March 23, 2011 I made adjustment to the material and setup your chor. Here's how it renders and a modified project. mech.mov WarHawkAlt10_v16_sprite_Mark.prj Quote
bubba Posted March 23, 2011 Author Posted March 23, 2011 Thank you Mark! The rendering looks wonderful. I will study the modified project. Can you tell me (in a few words/sentences) what I was doing wrong (didn't understand.) Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 24, 2011 Posted March 24, 2011 There were a couple of things, first the normals on some of the patches of the emitter groups were facing the wrong way. The main thing in the chor was once you set the keyframes on the rate of emission, you needed to set the interpolation to HOLD. Quote
bubba Posted March 25, 2011 Author Posted March 25, 2011 Ok, I got the normals fixed (I think), and got the keyframes for the rate of emission to HOLD. But I am having trouble with the color. Mine still seems to be white. I went through your settings starting the Material, then Objects, then Choreography. There did not seem to be any consistency in the color settings. How does this all work? Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 25, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 25, 2011 color of what? the particles? Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 25, 2011 Posted March 25, 2011 The color is animated in the material itself. If you look at the color method over life property, with the timeline open, you will see keyframes set (I reset them and set it to a different colors). Quote
bubba Posted March 25, 2011 Author Posted March 25, 2011 Mark, do I care about the Tint settings in the Sprite Emitter that is the child of Smoke2? And why does the second Sprite Emitter have the Property Additive Color ON while the first is OFF. See your snapshot above. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 25, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 25, 2011 Mark, do I care about the Tint settings in the Sprite Emitter that is the child of Smoke2? And why does the second Sprite Emitter have the Property Additive Color ON while the first is OFF. See your snapshot above. Something I often do in situations like that is to render a few representative frames with the parameter set one way and then the other and see what the difference is. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 25, 2011 Posted March 25, 2011 I think you may need to change the tint color as well. About the additive color, that was just how it was set in the original settings I believe. You may not even need to set it to ON. Quote
bubba Posted March 26, 2011 Author Posted March 26, 2011 Help, I have screwed things up - again. I have no dust (smoke.) I was trying to adjust the color so that it looked more like dust instead of smoke. Now I don't even have smoke. Here is the project. All the help I can get will be greatly appreciated. Especially of you can point out where I made my mistakes. WarHawkAlt11_v16_sprite.prj Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 26, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 26, 2011 Why not just go back to the version before and try again? When i'm doing something new I just change one thing at a time and test it. If it doesn't work i know what did it. Quote
bubba Posted March 28, 2011 Author Posted March 28, 2011 Ok, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I have NO dust (smoke) in my Choreography. I have gone through every setting umpteen times and cannot find my error. Would someone PLEASE me. Thanks. Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 28, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 28, 2011 Ok, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why I have NO dust (smoke) in my Choreography. I have gone through every setting umpteen times and cannot find my error. Would someone PLEASE me. This one doesn't work anymore? http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?s=&am...st&p=348037 Load it, try it, it worked before. Then change ONE thing only and try it again. Do not change a bunch of things at once. Quote
mtpeak2 Posted March 28, 2011 Posted March 28, 2011 Size over life in the material is set at 0%. At 0% in the timeline, set the over life to 100%. Also, you should lower the percentage of the over life in the opacity property (30%). Quote
bubba Posted March 30, 2011 Author Posted March 30, 2011 Ok, I think I am back to where I thought I should be. Here is short movie of what I have done to create "dust." Right now the colors are white and black. I removed the ground to see better. I am disappointed at the rendering speed. I thought I had a fairly fast machine. It took 2 hours and 10 minutes to render the 170 frames, at an average speed of 45 seconds. And I only rendered it as a VGA resolution. Side_View_Dust_v11_sprite.mov Quote
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted March 30, 2011 Hash Fellow Posted March 30, 2011 That's a lot of dust! On Mark's he had just a thin sliver at the bottom of the feet emit particles but on yours it looks like the entire sides of the feet are emitting particles. Is that the case? Quote
bubba Posted March 30, 2011 Author Posted March 30, 2011 Possibly. It was very hard to just get the bottoms of the feet. Besides an 85-ton machine just might kick up that much dust. Quote
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