#Impossible Material!
16 messages in this thread
How do you make a transparent material with only a little opacity on the outer
edge? I've tried the obvious thing by setting 100% trans. INside but still that
gives me to much opacity in the middle. What i must have is mostly full
transparent all over with gradual opacity near the edges only and as it stands
i cannot do it with 3DS. Any ideas?
-Reza
Hi Reza, if it were me I would create an opacity map in Photoshop by starting
with a black image and airbrushing a soft white border. This enables you to
control where the opacity is and how much.
>>How do you make a transparent material with only a little opacity on the
outer edge? . . . . What i must have is mostly full transparent all over with
gradual opacity near the edges only and as it stands i cannot do it with 3DS.
Any ideas?<<
Hi Reza,
If I understand you correctly, you want the falloff to occur from around the
edges of a (rounded) object, no matter which way your looking at it(?) – A
change in the surface's opacity according to how parallel or perpendicular that
surface is to the view. . . . Just like Trans.Falloff _does_, right? Except
that 3DS doesn't make it to completely transparent.
Yes, that is the case, unfortunately.
I've been wanting exactly the reverse. Completely transparent _edges_
resulting from using falloff. And a Bias control for where the center point (of
the fade) occurs. This could produce a great glow effect for many situations.
And your "edging" effect.
If your not moving around the object, than you could fake it with some tricky
mapping (or use MeshPaint 3D . . . paint the edges in white on black, then
switch that map to opacity). If it really has to be a 3D effect, I think we're
both out of luck, for now. I was never able to come up with a solution. (If
anyone has one, I too would love to hear it.)
See ya,
– Ron
P.S. I just copied a portion of the above to Jonas, on the wishlist forum, to
make sure.<g>
Ron: Thanks for your reply. Yes, I do need to move around the 3D object and I
cannot not fake it. This is for a feathered glow effect simulating the Earth's
atmosphere and I'm having a very hard time doing it. It's good that you relayed
this to Jonas and perhaps it should also go to Gary Yost as well. I wish they
would concentrate on adding these essential features rather than trying to get
on the uncertain NT bandwagon. If you think you have a solution for my glow
effect please let me know and I will gladly pay for your time.
-Reza
Reza,
>> This is for a feathered glow effect simulating the Earth's atmosphere and
I'm having a very hard time doing it. <<
aurora mapping by Video International and sold by Digimation could do the trick
for you. Or you might try a sphere with transparency falloff. You may have to
render twice: once with the atmosphere and then the earth composited on top.
Martin
Aurora Mapping isn't available yet, but you are right, this would do the trick.
Lee,
>> Aurora Mapping isn't available yet <<
any word on availibility? TIA.
>> This is for a feathered glow effect simulating the Earth's atmosphere and
I'm having a very hard time doing it. <<
I've been successful using transparency fall-off on a sphere for this effect.
Try setting New-Subtractive-Transparency=OFF in the 3DS.SET file for the
fullest transparency.
>> uncertain NT bandwagon. <<
I think you may be mistaken here. NT seems to be a solid operating system,
complete with multi-tasking, multi-threading, long filenames, networking, etc.
– Dave
Dave: Trancparency falloff for a sphere certainly is the most realistic
atmospheric effect except for two big problems. 1) Hard outer edge which
requires 2-pass rendering and bluring. This has its own problem since bluring
should increase as you get closer to your planet.
2) Too much opacity midway between the outer edge to where it fallsoff to
totally tranparent.
But still this technique is more realistic that the 2D gradiant disk. If you
know of any tricks to deal with the above 2 issues i'll appreciate a hint.
Sincerely,
-Reza
Reza,
I have used something else for planets actually. A flat ring around the
planet (that has to be animated to always face the camera) can be mapped with a
very nice falloff of your choice. Even a nice color transition in the
atmosphere. It does take some tweeking though. Also, multiple spheres can help,
and increase render time.
– Ron
Thank you Ron, I'll give it a try.
>I wish they would concentrate on adding these essential features…<
Who determines what is essential? There is a wishlist section.
>…rather than trying to get on the uncertain NT bandwagon.<
There is nothing uncertain about the NT bandwagon. Many DOS, Novell, Mac, and
unix guys are going to NT. If I used any OS besides NT or unix I would be
feeling some uncertainty at this point. Give NT a try.
Reza,
Try creating an opacity map. This lets you specify where (and how much)
transparent.
Kevin Krell – Computer Support Associates
Kevin: I need to map this tranparent material onto a sphere and move around the
object so it cannot be faked. Basically, I need to make a feathered glow effect
around a ball that rapidly fades to transparent towrds inside. Any ideas?
-Reza