Rolling Clouds

[dhavalmistry]

Does anyone have any idea as per how to animate clouds like in the video (but only much slower)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKkZc310QzE

[Hetzen]

If you have the animation module, you can animate a Transform Shader's X and Y, which you connect between the cloud density fractal and cloud node. This will unfortunately have an ease in and out between the keyframes.

You can get around this with a little blue magic taking a get frame number, multiplying that with a constant vector (1,0.7,0), then plug that into a displacement shader driving a warp shader between the density fractal and cloud node.

[Tangled-Universe]

If you have the animation module, you can animate a Transform Shader's X and Y, which you connect between the cloud density fractal and cloud node. This will unfortunately have an ease in and out between the keyframes.

You can get around this with a little blue magic taking a get frame number, multiplying that with a constant vector (1,0.7,0), then plug that into a displacement shader driving a warp shader between the density fractal and cloud node.

The constant vector isn't available yet Jon.

At the moment people would need to use a redirect shader instead of the constant vector.
Plug the get frame number function network into a displacement shader and then into a  redirect shader's X/Y/Z input.
That output goes into a warpshader as described above.

As you can see, in the future it will be easier

[Hetzen]

I think you're getting mixed up with another node Martin. Constant Vector has been around since I've been using TG. But you are probably right in needing to use a redirect as well as displacement node.

[Tangled-Universe]

Oops, yes you're right. Of course I can't mention which node I mixed up, but I guess that we both understand now which one as that node will replace the redirect shader of this setup in the future
Sorry for the confusion.

[dhavalmistry]

Thanks for the reply guys! I was aware of the transform shader  trick but more specifically I wanted to know how to get the clouds to form and disapper (if that makes sense) like in the video.

[Hetzen]

Moving the Density Fractal through Y will do that.

[Kadri]

... This will unfortunately have an ease in and out between the keyframes.
...

I am making a basic logo animation with TG2 clouds in the background and i didn't know this (my first real animation with TG2). Thanks.
Fortunately(i hope) this will probably not evident in the shot .
It will not of use to me for this project ,but i really want that the new TG2 upgrade will come soon.

[Hetzen]

I would put in a 100 frames at the begining and end of your animation to set the start and end keyframes for your clouds, then render from frame 100 to the end of your desired segment.

But this is precisely why I like to use Get Frame to drive constant animation effects, you don't have this ease in out, you don't have to find the frame you put the keyframe on, you have just one value to change the speed of the animation, and it doesn't matter how long the animation becomes during the project (the speed will always be constant).

Although the new animation module will make all of this a lot easier.

All the best with your project.

Jon

[dandelO]

I like the transform method but I also have a different way that works very well for this, too.
Simply animate the 'warp amount' of your cloud fractal. I have a 30 second length render running right now, I did do one last night but the scales were to large and the warp amount was too slow to be fully appreciated.
You only need a very little amount of warp! Over 750 frames I went from warp amount of '-0.1 to 0.1'. It is a good range even if it appears very small but because the scales of the fractal were too large it didn't look as good as I'd hoped.

The new one I have running just now uses a smaller feature scale and a warp range of '-0.2 to 0.2' now. I have 'less warp at feature scale' and 'vertical warp' enabled. This lets the lead-in scale 'pull' the smaller 'feature scales' around with its warping, I'll post a thread when it's done. In the meantime, here's some old tests(very small) that I did with the very same method... http://forums.planetside.co.uk/index.php?topic=5666.msg58707#msg58707, You can see the rolling effect in the cumulus test, created only by the density fractal's warping.
The new one is bigger and more subtle than those old tests which are very fast. It should be done in a couple of hours or three, I'm on frame 222  of 750 right now.

[Hetzen]

That's a nice effect Martin. In your thread, did you just animate the warp? It seems that this would have to be tweaked for different Lead-In-Scales. I can see a very good use for this in planetry weather systems.

I'll knock up a quick .tgc for the Get Frame method, just in case that's of any use for Kadri.

[dandelO]

Yes, just the warp amount, Jon. It's way overdone in those small tests but the warp amount really only needs a small range over the entire animation to be nice, especially if, like I said above, you let the lead-in scale just pull the features around, the feature scales react very convincingly to the large warp stretching with 'less warp at feature scale' enabled.
Don't overdo it, though! I've used a range of only '0.4' difference over 750 frames for 30 seconds of footage, and I think that might be too much. Post later on, frame 272 now...

[Hetzen]

Look forward to seeing it Martin.

Martin H was right, you do need a redirect. It's been a while since I've used this for clouds.

To set the cloud speed, change the values in X Y Z of "Constant Cloud Vector" top right of clip file. This will move the "Density Fractal Here" the same amount of meters per frame. Negative values will reverse the direction.

Plug the output of the bottom warp shader into your cloud node, or straight into the planet to see how things change as you advance the frames.

*** EDIT *** I double sent the clip file, both are the same.

[Kadri]

Thanks guys   It is unfortunately too late now. But as i said the animation do not need much precision  .
Think a parachuter we see over the clouds  and then a basic logo etc.
The cam is going fast . My main problem to change this would be that i imported the cam chan file from Lightwave and changing that would not so easy now.
But your input is very valuable as always guys