Breaking up a SSS?

[james adamson]

I am proving slow on the uptake here. Having trouble trying to break up my simple shape mask. I have tried fractal breakup in between  SSS and mask input plus
noise functions with no success. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

[WAS]

I'll whip up a few examples for you James, hold on.

[WAS]

Here you go James. Check out these tree examples.

Left to right; Fractal Warp, Warp by Redirect, and Warp by Vector Displacement

[WAS]

Here's another example showing a [perlin] 0 noise variation and 0 displacement roughness redirect example. Great for rivers and stuff.

[james adamson]

Nice one.
Thanks WAS.

[WAS]

Nice one.
Thanks WAS.

You can also play with the edge softness of the SSS shapes and use the breakup input of surface layers to further break them up or warp them along the soft zones of the mask.

[james adamson]

Hey WAS.
Just getting my head round the redirect method. Here is how I understand why you would use that. I am probably way off I am a 2d comp artist by training.
The power fractal would usually be for a 3d effect mountain etc? By using the the redirect only on x you are essentially turning into an image warper?

[WAS]

Hey WAS.
Just getting my head round the redirect method. Here is how I understand why you would use that. I am probably way off I am a 2d comp artist by training.
The power fractal would usually be for a 3d effect mountain etc? By using the the redirect only on x you are essentially turning into an image warper?

That's not an entirely wrong way of looking at it, actually, James. In essence, it is only X, but the X space is in 3D, so there is effects happening on Y up and down, and different areas on Z, because the displacement in the redirect is still in 3D space, and applied in 3D space (XYZ).

So, if it was a mountain, while the effect is on X, it will be across the whole height of the mountain, creating a lean effect to on X; positive or negative.

Mind you I'm not good at explaining things like this and why I shy away from tutorials. I'm fairly confident another user could explain far better.

[WAS]

Here's a more 3D example.

[james adamson]

No that makes perfect sense. My own explanation of my understanding was oversimplified.
A great help.
This software is as odd to use as it is incredible results wise. I mean you can get awesome stuff from it relatively quickly but there is sooooo much depth to what you could do with it. A steep learning curve is what I am on!
Thanks.
James.

[james adamson]

Great. Dali would be proud!

[WAS]

No that makes perfect sense. My own explanation of my understanding was oversimplified.
A great help.
This software is as odd to use as it is incredible results wise. I mean you can get awesome stuff from it relatively quickly but there is sooooo much depth to what you could do with it. A steep learning curve is what I am on!
Thanks.
James.

It'd say it can be worth it in the long run. There is some amazing stuff you can do with TG. Even as a novice you can achieve some pretty amazing stuff.

[Dune]

You have to be able to visualize in 3D space, indeed, and think of white (+), black (0) and negative ('-white', or 'etihw') as blobs in 3D space, effecting colors, masks and displacements.
Btw. if you use vdisp or redirect, and want an evenly wide line and no surprises when land is going up or down, stretch Y and the direction the line is warped to. And when you want to keep the center of the line in the original center, set vdisp X/Z to 1 and offset to -0.5 and use final multiplier to set its amount.

[james adamson]

Thanks for the info Dune. I have lots of experience using fractals as particle generators and displacement srcs in Modo Nuke and Flame so I am not completely lost but Terragen seems to be layer upon layer of fractals effecting fractals so it is a giant leap in complexity and the visualisation one has to do in ones head. But it is great fun and extremely rewarding when you get the desired result. Thanks very much for your feedback.
James.