Functional Caustics - by dandelO

Started by dandelO, May 31, 2010, 01:33:15 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

dandelO

Power fractal blend:
[attachimg=#]
[attachimg=#]

Painted shader blend:
[attachimg=#]
[attachimg=#]

There's just a few different blending methods, all 'straight out of the box' caustics layer.(I removed the negative colour offset of the internal distribution fractal, just for better visibility in these demos).
The caustics layer simply gets added after the last shader you want it to appear over, usually, your last surface shader, like this:

[attachimg=#]

Any more problems, give's a shout. I don't have any difficulties in blending this shader at all.
Maybe if you tried to blend it by a smaller scale than the actual voronoi cells, or something, it might have difficulties but, I haven't found that. Hopefully, these make things clearer. :)

choronr

Quote from: dandelO on June 04, 2010, 05:49:49 PM
Strange. I really have no problems making the layer localized by using its own constraints tabs and a blending shader.

It is correct that it appears everywhere once you plug it into your scene, though, Bob. It would be wrong if I were to have set up constraints on the clip file parent layer. If there were any constraints set then, most likely, they would not fit your particular scene. This way, as they are, you get a complete layer of caustic patterns that you then need to tell where to appear(where your waterlines/depth cut-offs are. I could easily have set it up so that no caustics appear over 'Y=0m' but that would not be applicable to most scenes.
For the default settings then, the caustics layer will appear, just as if you have created any other 'surface layer'(all over everything), then you must tell it where you want it.

For demonstration sake, I'll attach a few different blending methods for it here. Really though, it's no different from the main 'surface layer' that it is, which holds all the caustic function nodes. Give me 10 minutes and I'll pop up a couple of blending demos using the most common methods...
Thanks Martin,

In my case, it was more of a situation where the caustics would not apply correctly due to the scene with water. Obviously, the sun needs to be high with the point of view being high with the camera above the shore and beach for a optimum view of the caustics. It is difficult to compose an interesting scene where you can add other interests. I've got one WIP that will hopefully display the best of the caustics ...we'll see.

choronr

Looking good Martin ...thank you for your efforts in making this clear.

dandelO

:)

Really, they're not that advanced at all, Bob. You could have NO Sun in your scene and still see these 'caustics' because, they're just a simple luminosity function of a default surface layer.

Hopefully, we'll see them put to good use in the future! I await your results, good luck! :)

choronr

Quote from: dandelO on June 04, 2010, 07:01:32 PM
:)

Really, they're not that advanced at all, Bob. You could have NO Sun in your scene and still see these 'caustics' because, they're just a simple luminosity function of a default surface layer.

Hopefully, we'll see them put to good use in the future! I await your results, good luck! :)
Well, here is a screen shot of the preview window illustrating my WIP and attempt that worked using the Painted shader. More to come with stones/rocks and some veggies. Some shore foam would be nice ...we'll see.

Bob

dandelO

Woohoo! Glad you got it working, Bob. :)

Henry Blewer

I want to give this a try also. I am actually excited. ;)
http://flickr.com/photos/njeneb/
Forget Tuesday; It's just Monday spelled with a T

max_thehitman



WOW !  :o AMAZING!  8) Great tutorial and post!
THANK YOU!