hmm forgot about the color adjust node. Does it do the same thing though?
I don't know what's the use of a colour adjust shader this way.
The colour adjust shader is a shader which works similar to the "levels" function in photoshop.
It's also similar to the equalizer function in world-machine. Both are basically the same.
I'll try to explain:
You have a powerfractal with black and white colors.
This fractal generates features which are from 0 to 1 (black to 100% white).
When you feed the output of this powerfractal into a colouradjust node you can alter these generated colors in the following ways:
1) increase black point: if you set blackpoint to 0.1 you tell the shader to take the color-range from the powerfractal from 0.1 to 1 and then equalize this range back to 0 to 1.
2) decrease white point: if you set white point to 0.9 you tell the shader to take the color range from the powerfractal from 0 to 0.9 and then equalize this range back to 0 to 1.
3) black point 0.2 and white point 0.8 = take input range of 0.2 to 0.8 from powerfractal and equalize this to 0 to 1.
This is a very useful node because with increasing the black point you can get rid of unwanted small scale noise from your fractal.
Martin
Quote from: Tangled-Universe on September 06, 2009, 09:38:26 AM
I don't know what's the use of a colour adjust shader this way.
Martin
Well I just thought I'd try it, and for one.. Did you see the size of the material list above?
I can bring all the colors back to where I had originally had them set, before tg2 in it's ultimate wisdom decided to lighten them by half or more or how ever it decides it want to make your color. Adjusting so many material shaders when you shouldn't have to is a giant pain.
Still playing, thanks for the input.
Honestly if I ever had that many shaders to edit I'd open the file up in a text editor and run a "search and replace" for the errant numbers.
:)
Richard
Typical poseray material output.
#==================================================
newmtl 02 - Default2
Ns 22.62742
Ka 0.5882353 0.5882353 0.5882353
Kd 0.5882353 0.5882353 0.5882353
Ks 0.8980392 0.8980392 0.8980392
map_Kd Large Cylinder 2 Back.jpg
map_Bump LARGE CY.JPG
#bump_size 0
d 1
#r 0
#metal
#blend 0
#cell_hi
#==================================================
""search and replace" for the errant numbers."
I don't understand cyphyr, errant numbers.
That makes me think you'd want me to change something that's wrong, I haven't done a color wrong, tg2 has lightened every color, so I should darken everything first knowing that tg2 is going to cut it in half? Nine! ;)
:)
I did not mean to imply you had done anything wrong at all.
Once the obj is in Terragen, save the tgp file and open it up in "notepad" or similar.
Look for an entry called "obj_reader" and under here you'll see another entry called "Parts_shader". Under that you should see "default_shader" (the name may be different) and within there you'll see the numbers that need changing. I "think" your looking for:
"diffuse_colour = "0.3921568394 0.3921568394 0.3921568394"
that's where the change needs to be made and its a lot easier to do this in a text editor than individual node by node in Terragen.
:)
Richard
Your just to cleaver!! But I don't think tg2 blankets the numbers the same, so if I changed all the d_c= "0.8 0.8 0.8" for example I would be changing the original colors wouldn't I? If I use the color adjust node it moves everything on an even keel. I think.
The great advantage of changing things in a text editor is its relatively quick and easy.
Change all your d_c= "0.8 0.8 0.8" to something else, render a section, like it, keep it dont like it, change the numbers back or try differant numbers.
Once an object is in Terragen its colours are controlled completely by Terragen, it only references the obj's "mat" file on loading the first time (TG may still require it to be there but I don't see it referenced anywhere)
Oh just a thought, you might want to isolate the text to be edited in a new temporary file Copy everything between:
<obj_reader>
xxxxx
</obj_reader>
into a new txt file and do the find and replace on that, then copy back into the original terragen file :)
Hope this helps, I'd sure hate to have to deal with that many shaders on a model...
Richard
I'll take a look at that cyphyr but to show you what I was getting at. The bleached out pic is right out of poseray and the 2nd is looking much like the 8 or so colors I looked at in c4d. After applying the color adjust.
And
Fellas, please keep this on topic! I've split your new discussion into its own thread. ;D
- Oshyan
Sorry about that Oshyan.
Mat or Jo, care to comment on what up with imported obj color?
I don't know Mandrake. Can you be more specific? Show an object rendered in another renderer (OpenGL previews don't count), then compare with TG?
Matt
I will open Blender sometimes, open a image in the image viewer. Then I can grab colors off the image when the material editor is open. Just use the color selector, click on sample, and point at the color in the image.
This gives me the colors HSV or RGB values. I just type them in. It would be a nice feature in Terragen 2.
Sorry about the size here, I couldn't think of any other way to do this quick.
I start off in C4D with one set of values, I export to PoseRay and end up with another set of values and import to TG2 to get a third set of values.
Also, the colors look similar in poseray and C4D and render out light in TG2, any clue as to why these numbers bounce all over the place.
And why TG2 come out much lighter in the final render?
Kenny
What are the corresponding values in the exported mtl?
#==================================================
#Material list
#This file has been created by PoseRay v3.10.3.412
#3D model to POV-Ray/Moray Converter.
#Author: FlyerX
#Email: flyerx_2000@yahoo.com
#Web: http://mysite.verizon.net/sfg0000/
#==================================================
#==================================================
newmtl Mat
Ns 222.8609
Ka 0 0 0
Kd 0.3529412 0.6039216 0.3098039
Ks 1 1 1
d 1
#r 0
#metal
#blend 0
#cell_hi
Terragen 2 calculates light a little differently than other 3D apps. Blender for example calculates light in 1 direction until Global Illumination or Ambient Occlusion are turned on. Terragen 2 has Global Illumination turned on by default. This causes the overall lightness of the color values to be higher, because there is light from all directions.
So in essence, you have your sun (spot) light. Plus the ambient/global lighting. I compensate for this when I set up an object in Terragen 2 that I have made. I set up the coloring using the default opening file. I use a multishader. Each material from the object model can be accessed from the multishader. Then I go to the objects node and save it out as a tgo object file. It's now ready for which ever landscape I want, I just import it.
TG halves all diffuse colour values it imports from .mtl files. That sometimes makes them *darker* in TG. However, these values are treated as if they are in linear colour space, so they are not the same values you see in the Windows color picker. The values are converted into a gamma 2.2 space (approximately sRGB) making them lighter when they are viewed in the color picker. This conversion happens so that the colour in the color picker appears as closely as possible to that colour in the final render, otherwise there would be a different set of complaints about the colours. If you're working in another 3D app that doesn't consider conversions between linear and non-linear colour spaces, there will be differences. With TG I decided to interpret the values in the .mtl as linear values, not sRGB values, but that won't be the right decision all the time.
What does the cube look like in a final ray-traced render in C4D? Does C4D have gamma correction applied to the rendered image?
Matt
I'll look into your render question, tomorrow.
What do you think about my use of the color adjust node, it would change color on an even keel? As I said before.
Thanks for the explanation Mat.
EDIT: I was going to say that the colour adjust shader is a good solution, but then I realised a problem. The colour adjust shader is not always able to maintain reflections and some other effects that your default shaders produce. It adjusts diffuse colours and tries its best to keep luminosity as is, but other properties may be lost.
What I would suggest is that you always use textures, leave the material at default white, and figure out a system that allows you to match your textures between apps (which may involve no corrections at all).
Matt
Thanks Matt. That explanation helps me out also. I was guessing, but found my method worked.
Another thing I do when coloring objects in T2 is give them an obnoxious color to see what part of the object I am working on. Then I make the final color choice.