Grass Clip - 'Idiotproof Update' v.1.0...

Started by dandelO, April 17, 2008, 09:10:27 AM

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dandelO

Here's a little clip of my grass that I've been plugging away at since last year.
I made a tutorial for it months ago which can be viewed here... http://stonefingeriiii.googlepages.com/t2grasstutorial

This clip however, has more detail and variety across the whole surface. It now has light and dark patchiness.
Attatched is a test render and the nodes view for reference, simply plug the 'final grass surface' layer into the child layer of your last base rock shader. No altitude constraints are set, only slope so if you want to change that, use the 'final grass surface' contraints tabs, not the internal layers. (By all means change them aswell if you like but for ease of simple, uniform control of the whole surface you shouldn't need to use these).

The business end of this layer is inside it's own internal network, it also incorporates a mud layer for the grass to sit on, so you needn't worry about creating one yourself.

[attachimg=#]

dandelO

The network...


maulsull

Thanks for sharing! the test render looks really good.

rcallicotte

Cool.  Thanks dandel0.

By the way, is that with an O or a 0?   :D
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

dandelO

No problem. :)

And, that's an 'O', not an '0'. unless the name has been picked or is unavailable when I sign up for a site or such. I'm dandel0 on DA, dandelO everywhere else.

Dandelo is the name of a character from a series of books by Stephen King called The Dark Tower. He's a kind of psychic vampire, who draws it's sustenance by making you laugh and feeding on it, you think you're having the best fun when really, you're being eaten. :)/ :'(

rcallicotte

Thanks for making me hate you.  LOL

Unless, you're really not...oh, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.  I suddenly feel like I've lost weight.  DandelO-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

Seth

I'll bring Ronland Of Gilead right here... we'll see who's the best guy in here ^^

mogn

Thanks for the clip file. I just discovered, that it is possible to use the inputs from inside network of a shader.
I think I have tried this in a previous update, without success. Very important.

Another thing that would be useful, is to be able to put a comment in a clipfile ( e.g via a text editor)
Just for marking the clipfile with the autors name.

dandelO

Quote from: seth93 on April 18, 2008, 05:04:33 PM
I'll bring Ronland Of Gilead right here... we'll see who's the best guy in here ^^

I'm not too worried about ol' Ronland, if you were to bring that cowbow, Roland though, I might be a little afraid, he has the big guns!

;)  :D

As a sidenote, here's a Dark Tower TG2 render I made some time ago... 
I've learned so much with TG2 since this though that I have been considering a new approach to the Dark Tower. Once I get all my programs into this new pc I'll make a start, for now, I have to work with TG2, Google Sketchup and The Gimp because my pc won't accept XP service pack 2 and most of my software requires it, very frustrating!

rcallicotte

Good luck on getting a better PC. 

Very spooky image, too.   ??? <-- Me, afraid.
So this is Disney World.  Can we live here?

child@play

perfect image dandelO! read the books aswell, well, the first 4, and this looks exactly like the picture i had in my mind. the roses, perfect man!  ;D
perfection is not when there's nothing more to add, it's reached when nothing more can be left out


dandelO

Note on low POV's:

In this clipfile I've just noticed that the 'final grass surface' shader's coverage is left set to 0.9, change this to 1.
It'll stop the ground showing through so much when your camera is down low.

It holds up well, and is indeed best used with a POV of about 5-10 metres above the ground (although high or distant shots are good too). I get the nicest results with it at about 7m. When you go lower, the foreground colour begins to drop/dull (due to the shadow effect of the individual displacement spikes, I imagine).
Really close up (from 0 - 1 metres.) will obviously resemble vomit though since this is just a layer of dense, nasty perlin spikes.

Matt

dandelO,

Great use of internal networks here. However, can I make a small suggestion? You have tied up the "Input node" link of your shader as an internal link unnecessarily. (I guess you had to edit the .tgd to do that?) A slightly more "correct" and flexible way to do this would be to feed "Grass Mud Mixer" into the top of "Grass Patchiness Dark" which you have connected as a child layer. I think the rendered result would be the same, but you would free up the Input node which should always be available on the outside of a shader in case you want to chain it with something else in future.

Matt
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

Matt

#13
Update: actually I think maybe my suggestion will change the way it renders. The way you have it now, the coverage and distribution of your shader will affect the luminosity and the child layers but not the ones you've connected as Input node. Perhaps that's what you wanted, but it means it's not obvious to the user that the coverage and distibution only affect some parts of your surface while the underlying mud/grass mix appears everywhere. Maybe that's why it's a child of separate surface layer? :)

Matt
Just because milk is white doesn't mean that clouds are made of milk.

dandelO

QuoteYou have tied up the "Input node" link of your shader as an internal link unnecessarily. (I guess you had to edit the .tgd to do that?)

Cheers, Matt.
I didn't need to edit the .tgd externaly, is that what you mean?
To have the input node inside it's own network you just stick the desired shader for it inside first(without connecting it) then, click 'up one level', select the shader from this window by right clicking the 'input node' button. Once you visit the internal network again, it has refreshed the node view and you'll see it has moved inside by itself. I'm sure you'll know this already though and I just have the wrong end of the stick...

The rendered result isn't the same as it is with the 'G/M Mixer' going to the 'GP Dark' node. There is a difference in the way the luminosity and dark patches react to the underlying layer that way, subtle but different none the less.
I see what you are saying about the input node being used up although, I didn't need it to be used for anything else, it was meant to be an all inclusive grass shader that simply needed to be dropped into any scene and added as a child layer for entire coverage, kind of like choosing a shader from the library in Vue/Carrara etc. I aim to make many different shader sets that anyone, begginer to top-end users, can just plug and play. You're right about the distribution part though, I didn't test that before uploading obviously, sorry for any confusion. ;)

This is easily remedied and, with this updated clipfile attatched, the 'final grass surface' from the original clip has been put inside the group aswell(it should've been in there already and been left alone to do it's job of being the actual surface layer and not it's own distribution) and, a new layer 'Planetary Grass Distribution' is the 'mother' to the entire clip, this is now your overall surface coverage AND distribution shader for dropping grass onto any scene.
This final shader now controls the overall distribution of all parts of the grass/mud layers.

Thanks, Matt.