Hi guys,
so that is I have for now :
Link to Softimage model:
http://www.matkovic.com/anto/knit-the-s ... 0oct09.rar
Compounds for creating point clouds are working in the same way, you need just the one NURBS surface and point cloud.
For creating MT_strand_ extrusions, that's the procedure:
- Addons from mt_ice tutorials should be installed, both of them.
- Compound called "Knit Strand Prepare MT_Extrusion" need to go after main compound in ICE tree. It's adjusted version of original "Prepare Strands For Extrusion", that pass all attributes from point cloud automatically. It's able to work only with "Knit the Strand" compounds, from this download. If you need it to work with the old compound, let me know.
- Select Point Cloud, go to Model> Primitive> Create ICE Strand Extrusion. Extruded meshes should appear. In PPG of mt_ice_StrandExtrude Operator on extruded mesh, adjust subdivision.
At this point, you can do with point cloud whatever you want, all changes will be automatically applied to extruded mesh.
Now, transfering Point Cloud's colors to extruded mesh:
- Apply Vertex Color Property to extruded mesh
- Create unsimulated ICE tree on extruded mesh, connect "Knit Strand Take Color From PointCloud" compound to main ICE tree. Connect Point Cloud and Vertex Color property. You can drag and drop them from Explorer. For Vertex colors, it's a black-white gradient icon to drag and drop.
From now, it's good idea to don't tweak parameters that can change vertex count of extruded mesh. On point cloud, these are parameters on top of PPG, such as strand count, segments multiplier, duplicating strands. In mt_ice_StrandExtrude operator PPG, that's a subdivision. Even everything looks OK in wievport, it's possible that you'll see black areas when rendering, if vertex count is bigger than the one at moment of applying ICE tree. So, if
you need to change something after (which affect topology of mesh), remove vertex color property, also whole ICE tree from extruded mesh, then apply them again.
Parameters such as colors, thickness, profiles, these you can change all the time.
Also, there is a great free plugin by Andrea Padovan, at:
http://www.borderliner.it/ for all you need with Vertex Colors in XSI. It works nicely with 7.01.
For rendering with final gathering, I've noticed better perfomance with these high density meshes, by using default BSP2 acceleration. Of course, you need to hide point clouds for rendering
Good Luck!