First Render

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi WAS,

I'm not sure exactly when camera and lights were introduced in the FBX feature, but under Terragen's Main Menu there is an option to "Import FBX Scene", and that gives you the ability to import an FBX file and choose the asset types to import.

In the test example image I've exported an FBX file from Lightwave which contains two cameras, a distant light, a point light, a null object, and a cube.  All of these items have animated motions, and each of the cameras had different settings.

As you can see Terragen imported all the items with their animations EXCEPT the cube.  The distant light imported as a Sun type node and the point light imported as a Light Source node.  The null imported as a null object, as expected.  Each camera imported with their settings, however a renderer node is not created, so if your output image resolutions are different you'll need to create a new renderer and assign the imported camera to it.

In the example image I've noted that you need to be aware of "bad" rotation values that can happen when an item goes beyond 360 degrees for a given rotational axis.  In Lightwave, this is noticeable in the graph editor when you bake out a motion channel, and is easily fixed by running the "RH Euler Filter" on the item, then exporting the FBX or CHAN file.  

If the rotations are not "fixed" and they're on the camera then the motion blur will not be correct when Terragen renders the frame that jumps from 360 degrees, back to 0 degrees.  This may not be such an issue on an object, since Terragen doesn't currently have object motion blur, but it's good habit to fix the rotation anyways.

Here's the link to the FBX Importer wiki page too: https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=FBX_Import:_Scene

[denders]

Well, I've gotten the airframe material with it's udims into TG as can be seen in the attached image.

The airframe material actually has diffuse, roughness, specular amount, and specular color images. Obviously the diffuse is there and I've plugged in the roughness. I don't really know where I might be able to plug in the specular images. Note the circled colour image slot in the Airframe Shader (Default Shader). TG defaulted to putting one of the udims in that slot which had things messed up. It tries to use that image in all the udim slots.

I also messed with the propeller it has a lot of reflection on it. I even went back to SP to output a metallic image but that didn't seem to work for the propeller. It shouldn't be black.

Some of the aircraft items are objects imported into Modo (They are Modo files) which have their own set of udims. Perhaps that causes problems with TG because the red stripes on the propeller don't quite seem to line up correctly. At some point I'll have another go at it. I've spent quite a bit of time on it today.

But at least for those who didn't know that TG works with udims, it's been productive.

Dave

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for sharing your progress.

In Terragen many of the shader parameters are designed to work with each other.  For example, the final diffuse colour is the result of the Base colour value * Colour image value * Colour function value.  If you wanted the precise values from your image map you would set the Base colour vale to 1 and either assign your texture map directly to the Colour image parameter or via an Image Map Shader assigned to the Colour function parameter.  Since your workflow is using UDIMs you've chosen the correct pipeline.  The Base colour value of 0.48 is darkening the texture maps assigned to the Colour function parameters by about half.

Translucency, Luminosity, etc. all work in the same manner.

It sounds like you're using a PBR Specular workflow as opposed to a PBR Metallic workflow by the image maps you've described.  I'll have to get back with you on which specular texture maps are assigned where (as I usually use the Metallic workflow myself), but I'm sure others on the forum may have an answer to that.

Great work.

Kevin

[pixelpusher636]

I don't have any experience with UDIMS but I do remember seeing this article by Oshyan which includes a video for working with them. Might be helpful....

[denders]

Thanks, I had found that video through YT while trying to figure it out. And I've not even begun to make a dent going through all the info in these forums.

I think my next thing is to understand how the renderer and materials work in TG if I'm going to render it in TG. The crew figures, for example, aren't textured with images. They're just textured with Modo textures which seem to not translate through the mtl file exported with the obj file.

If you look at the Modo render, there is light reflected and it varies based upon the specular maps that I've used. I'm thinking that I need to use a PBR metallic roughness output from Substance Painter and the unreal materials in Modo.

Dave

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Everyone,

After watching the referenced video, I feel that the author's solution defeats the purpose of laying out the source object's texture coordinate as UDIMs in the first place.

The advantage to UDIMs is that each texture map can be a different resolution, and because they are seen as an image sequence such as Aircraft_1001.jpg, Aircraft_1002.jpg, etc. you would only have to load/assign the texture map's base name to a single defined surface in most 3D packages.

For example, the entire aircraft surface could be named "Aircraft".  The geometry defining the fuselage could be laid out across UDIM space 1 and be assigned a 4k texture map, while the geometry defining the landing gear tire could be laid out across UDIM space 2 and be assigned a 512 x 512 texture map because it requires less detail. 

Additionally from an organizational point of view, using UDIMs can result in having less stuff to keep track of.

If you've imported a model into Terragen that uses UDIMs, loading each texture map in an Image Map shader and offsetting it's position as described above is currently the recommended way to apply the textures to the existing surface. 

If you're importing a model into Terragen that already uses UV coordinates, then each surface of the object will show up in its internal node network and allow you to assign the texture maps to it.

Dave, as a starting point take a look at the documentation for Terragen's Default shader 4.5, as it can provide a PBR solution with the texture maps you can export from Substance Painter or other paint packages. 
https://planetside.co.uk/wiki/index.php?title=Default_Shader_4.5

In order to preserve your Modo textures, you would probably need to bake them out to a uv mapped image and then apply the resulting texture map in Terragen as usual.

[denders]

Thanks, Kevin.

I agree with you about that video.

I'll check out that info on the Default Shader 4.5 and I'll have to check out baking out specific textures in Modo. I'm sure it's there, just, I've not done it before.

Just for reference, most of the airframe is a texture by that name and it is spread over 3 4k udims.

I'll probably not be able to check it out 'til next week, we're away this week.

Dave

[mhaze]

Nice work.

[denders]

Another render. I've exported PBR Metallic files from SP and they're all set up in TG. The results are this render. I still have settings to update to match what I'm looking for.




Questions about animation in TG. Modo does not export an MDD file.

1. Can I animate a part of the imported object? (Propeller and wind generator propeller)
2. Can I animate an imported object? As in importing just the propellers and positioning them.
3. Can I somehow move the propeller out of the "Aircraft" object as another object, but still have it parented to the "Aircraft" so that it would translate with the aircraft? And then be able to animate the propeller?

Thanks

Dave

[Kevin Kipper]

Hi Dave,

You could import just the propellers, position them where they belong in relationship to the aircraft, and animate their rotation.  If the propellers are currently part of the aircraft object geometry, you'll have to separate them first, then bring them in as separate objects.  You'll probably want the propellers to be saved at the origin in the 3D application.  Currently, Terragen does not have parenting, so you can't parent the propeller object to the aircraft and then translate the aircraft and have the propellers follow along.  Also please note that Terragen only has camera motion blur, not object blur, so the rotating propeller blades won't have motion blur.

I think you may have mentioned that your intent was to generate still images, and if that's the case the easiest thing would be to manually position the propellers where they belong, and then rotate them.  You could have a version of your aircraft with propellers in the project to use as a template, in order to line up the propellers exactly where they belong, and then disable the template aircraft.

If you're planning on rendering image sequences with an animated aircraft/propellers and camera, I'd be happy to outline that workflow, but it's similar to the first few sections in the Terragen for VFX videos.

[Dune]

If you want blurred props, the best way would be to use an image map (of a blurred prop) instead of the props and projected on a plane/card or flat object mesh, and use a non-reflective glass shader to make the rest transparent.
An interesting thread is this: https://planetside.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,15018.0.html

[denders]

So, I thought I'd share these. The final render is from Modo but the back plate and environment for each was created in TG.

"Dave"s over China

During the Japanese/Chinese war prior to the US being involved in WW2, this type of aircraft operated from a float plane tender (ship) or from along a shoreline, like a river.


Hide and seek at Midway

They were also catapulted from larger combat ships such as Battleships and Cruisers.

I would like to create another picture showing several of these aircraft lined up along a riverbank as I hinted when I thanked Dune for the Beach water scene as a source of learning. I think it will be necessary to render that one in TG to get the interaction with the water and riverbank to work out. But it won't require having the propeller motion. It will create a lot of work bringing in all the materials for all the aircraft. Note that all four aircraft (four aircraft models) in the top picture have slightly different airframe materials.

Thanks for looking

Dave

[Dune]

Great renders and models! And interesting to learn a bit about them. Curious to see such a riverscape, so I wish you luck building it.

[denders]

From a book on IJN Seaplanes. Text is all in Japanese. (No, I can't read Japanese but the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words. It still would be nice to be able to read the caption anyway.)