Can One Blur A Simple Shape?

Started by fuzzyEuclid, July 08, 2016, 01:06:23 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

fuzzyEuclid

Greetings good people. Wiser and smarter people who are good. Bad people, you can move along. Oh wait, there are no bad people in the TG community. (buttered up enough?)

Hopefully someone can riddle me this: is it possible to blur a simple shape shader? I have one plugged into a WARP shader to build a non-geometrically-perfect river. Unfortunately, it's geometrically perfectly carved into the landscape. Is there a way to apply a sort of gaussian filter of a sort, or any kind of blur really, to soften the transition?

Or do I need to rethink this approach?

I have attached an informative picture, because I can actually increase confusion when trying to explain something. It's a super-power. Don't be jealous.

Oshyan

Experiment with the Edge Profile settings in the Simple Shape Shader...

- Oshyan

fuzzyEuclid

Thanks for the reply Oshyan.

I had tried that, but there's not enough control. It fades out one edge, not both (see pic). I know the simple shape shader is supposed to be simple :) ...but it would be nice if there were a gradient with some control - you could specify edges, fades, variations across the gradient.

Oh, sorry, I lost myself there!

Anyway, I couldn't find a way to merge multiple shaders with the fading I needed, so I resorted to the trusty Painted Shader, which altered things a bit but still delivers a satisfactory result, complete with smoother edging. I can also use that (untested) to mask in some stones and edging along the stream.


Oshyan

Hmm yes, I see your point. Perhaps something to add in the future.

- Oshyan

Kadri

#4
Quote from: Oshyan on July 08, 2016, 09:42:32 PM
Hmm yes, I see your point. Perhaps something to add in the future.

- Oshyan

Other options are good (like in both ways feathering,blurring) but he uses a circle. That behavior is kinda expected i think?

Dune

I don't understand why you changed the colors. If you move that back to default, it works. What do you want to achieve, anyway?

bobbystahr

Agree with Dune and also curious why you switched up the B&W boxes.
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

fuzzyEuclid

The ring was supposed to be a river wrapping around a landmark. A simple ring, warped, was my thought. But of course my ignorance of TG and all that - I didn't realize how thorny that would be.

I was trying to get a soft fade from BOTH sides of the ring, to soften up the transition. It looks wayyy too neatly cut out without a soft fade = highly unnatural.

The colors are switched up because I was trying to combine two SSSs - one fading in from the inner edge, one fading in from the outer edge. My thought was taking those and combining them into a single mask. I think I got pretty close, but my issue is the "middle" fills in when I go back to default, which blows out my landmark and wipes out the inner fade from the SSS with the reversed colors.

Does that make sense? The end of the work week tends to see me pretty rough: consistent lack of sleep that builds across the week leaves me a little less able to clearly communicate  :-\  Normally a sense of humor keeps me afloat but alas, that seems to be staying submerged today.

Now the solution is actually pretty clear to me. I just tested it and it worked - and it does involve reversing the colors on one of the shaders. Pictures being worth a thousands words and all that, I'll include a snapshot to explain and show the effect (raising the landscape in this case, to make it easier to see. And I used the RTP for the preview :)   ...points? (okay, tiny fin showing of a sense of humor)

bobbystahr

You're going to show us the final product right? Y got me curious.
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist

Dune

Some things are really easy... once you know them  ;)

fuzzyEuclid

I'll definitely post the results, and some wips. I think I'm going to try and push myself with this image. It's already changed a bit, in me widdle head, but that's a good thing :)

One of the primary components of the feature for the image is a willow tree. I've been having a devil of a time making a good one. Today I managed to get a little closer (I've thrown out some of my more ambitious life-paths as logistically unattainable at this time, which opens my weekend up a bit to do things more enjoyable, which means more TG4 time!)

I pulled my Willow V.2 into TG to see how it would go - went pretty well actually! The leaf textures came in fine and the transparency works perfectly (png file w/ alpha). I used PFs to color the rest, to get a fair idea of how it will look.

Unfortunately, it's too scattered for me - I wanted a more robust tree with those almost palm palm looking bunches falling to the ground. I'm not there yet, but if you saw my first efforts (no, no one will EVER see those), this one is a fair step in the right direction.

The two points I proved with this import was:
1) my graphics pipeline works!
2) TG has no issues handling the poly count (didn't think it would, but you never know, being a foreign object so to speak). That means I can take the poly-count up much higher, which should bring me closer to my objective of a Hero Willow.

bobbystahr

That looks pretty good already but I know where you're headed and it'll be worth the effort. The weeping willow is a lovely tree.
something borrowed,
something Blue.
Ring out the Old.
Bring in the New
Bobby Stahr, Paracosmologist