Trying to get a CAV map blur...

Pete · Post by **Pete** » 09 Jul 2012, 15:11

Hi there!

I'm trying to get a nice CAV map blur from ICE and so far I haven't had much luck. I followed this little tutee i found (here http://xsisupport.wordpress.com/2010/12 ... ex-colors/) but I'm not getting very good results.

ICE tree

Before blur

After blur

Any ideas on how I could get a smoother blur mine just seems kinda rough... Also it crashes if i drop the cutoff distance too low in the get nearby points node.
Thanks
Pete

Tekano · Post by **Tekano** » 09 Jul 2012, 15:42

Hi Pete,

think your tree is wired up wrong, this worked for me and changing the Nearby points falloff appears to increase the blurriness

Mathaeus · Post by **Mathaeus** » 09 Jul 2012, 15:50

btw, before anything with vertex color, don't forget to change it to 'float' - default of 2 bytes usually shows the weirdness, with operations of this kind. If float isn't default, today....

Pete · Post by **Pete** » 10 Jul 2012, 08:11

Hey thanks guys,

I'm pretty sure my ICE tree is the same as Tekano's but it doesn't work that well.
How can I change it to float?

Thanks,
Pete

Tekano · Post by **Tekano** » 10 Jul 2012, 11:28

Hey Pete, it looks like you have an extra node location in the top part of the tree that I dont - nor did the original tree that Stephen did. maybe this is the issue? In fact I can't even connect the tree up in the way you have without it going red.

Mathaeus · Post by **Mathaeus** » 10 Jul 2012, 18:33

Pete wrote:Hey thanks guys,
How can I change it to float?
Thanks,
Pete

Under vertex color property (explorer an so on..), change data type. Problem happens when color is over 1, or maybe even just 1 or zero. Most likely, not a problem here. But, when you already walking through this field.... good to know, I think.

Pete · Post by **Pete** » 11 Jul 2012, 02:19

Hi guys,
Thanks for the help but I haven't managed to figure it out yet. I tried the float setting and it changed the look slightly but it was still messed up.
Now I'm using an old blur (the company) script that works okay but it would be nice to get this happening in ICE.
Here's my compound in case you guys get the chance to check it out.

(i think you can drag this link directly into an ICE tree)
http://www.naffupdate.com/forumfiles/Ve ... sicompound

Is there any other way to get vertex colour blur happening in ICE?

Thanks
Pete

Mathaeus · Post by **Mathaeus** » 11 Jul 2012, 02:54

Pete wrote:Hi guys,

Is there any other way to get vertex colour blur happening in ICE?

Thanks
Pete

of course, you can just use 'repeat' node to repeat the 'array average' from point neighbors. Without 'get nearby points'. This would be blur 'along surface'. Something along line of this one - not exactly the same, but I think you can figure out the 'blur' version.

Tekano · Post by **Tekano** » 11 Jul 2012, 13:16

Pete, the one you just linked from works ok here! Of course there are loads of different ways to do this, I think Mathaeus has done a color blur - as well as vertex color sub surface scattering

Eric Mootz has done a more comprehensive one called blur vertex data in his latest emtools pack. here is a new one Ive just made for you that does not use a repeat node, yet has a distance and strength and can be quite effective

Vertex blur PLUS compound here

example scene here

Pete · Post by **Pete** » 13 Jul 2012, 06:40

Hey Thanks heaps Tekano!,
Just had a chance to look at it. I modified the compound a little so it sets the blur to the one CAV map (Sorry, I realised after that you had probably done that to keep things clean).

I tried to package it a little more so that you would just plug the CAV map into the compound but I ran into trouble and I can't figure out how to get this to work nicely.
I wanted to make it so you just plug the CAV map in -

It isn't getting the right "in Name" but I can't think of a way to chop the object name off the front. Any ideas?

Here's the updated compound - http://www.naffupdate.com/forumfiles/Ve ... sicompound

Thanks,
Pete.

Tekano · Post by **Tekano** » 13 Jul 2012, 21:52

hey Pete

is there any reason you need it to be on the one CAV map? there are a few layers of context you have to jump into and out of in order to get this to work with them so get that there are a lot of red nodes when using CAVs in ICE without understanding the context correctly. I could appreciate there may be issues with a live CAV map that has been painted by hand then blurring it in ICE, what happens when you paint again are you painting on the blurred one or the original then its blurred again..?

So yes for simplicity and sanity I keep it separate, a live paint version and a post blurred one. In ICE there is a difference in what a vertex color sample is and a per point attribute data like 'color' so its not so easy to grasp, but anyways I somehow re-wired this to work with only one vertex map and if you paint on same map the ICE tree blurs it afterwards , you just have to be careful with the stack inside the vertex map - as long as the ice tree is last after the the painting then it should work ok, but there is no guarantees of safety when painting

AND you still have to go inside the compound to direct the 'closest sample' location to point to the same vertex color map as you plug in. this is the bit I cannot get to work either, Im guessing because its part of a location so 'in name' does not work

Pete · Post by **Pete** » 15 Jul 2012, 01:25

Hey thanks Tekano,

Okay, I get it now 2 cav maps would definitely be better.

I guess I was trying to simplify things but I can see how that would actually complicate things!
I'll have to figure out how to make the name plug in work though, I've run into this a bit with ice. Another thread maybe

Thanks for the help
Pete