Quote from: Matt on August 09, 2018, 02:35:31 PM
Hi DD,
That R&D project is what led to Easy Cloud. I don't like to say it, but the main reason we haven't shown this complete node setup is because I know that it could easily be ported to any other node-based software or even incorporated directly into the presets of competing software. I consider the workings of Easy Cloud to be a trade secret which - for the time being - we have to protect so that we have something unique in the market, generate some revenue to put back into hiring more developers so we can work faster, and into producing more documentation and training materials.
The material we intended to release from this R&D is Easy Cloud.
There are some aspects of this R&D setup that didn't make it into Easy Cloud, but I'm aiming to close the gap with improved presets in future.
In current builds it is possible to get something not too far off this look by using the 'Altocumulus castellanus' preset and making sure to switch 'Model' to '3.9.04'. You may need to try many seeds before you get something that looks great, but that was also a problem in the R&D setup - different seeds would create blobs that separated from the main cloud and/or too many smooth areas.
The wispy edges are something I plan to incorporate into Easy Cloud in future. But perhaps I could make a tutorial that shows how to combine Easy Cloud with other methods to get something similar.
Hi Matt, thank you for replying.
while it wasn't the answer I was hoping for, I can understand and respect your reasons for doing so.
Easy Cloud certainly generates some lovely out of the box results. The big downside with black box solutions of course is that the user has no access to what lies under the hood.
I almost always find myself in a situation where Easy Cloud setups get me 75-80% of the way where I want to be, even after a lot of seeding and tweaking. When VFX sups ask for that last 20-25%, where is the artist going to get it from? Too often the answer is: "from somewhere other than TG." And that is unfortunate.
Node systems are great, precisely because they are so in-depth and powerful in the right hands. To see compounds get closed behind lock and key is not where I hope the future of TG lies. It's what made me turn away from the likes of Vue.
Having said that, I think everybody would welcome more of your tutorials. I'm personally very interested in getting on closer terms with the blue nodes and how to unleash their strengths in situations like this. But perhaps they're not relevant in this case.