Tim Borgmann effect - knocking ice - beginner

[Tekano]

now the elegance part and getting better control, like where tim does a slider to adjust the position of strand, phew I will get there in 20 years time hahaha

that parts more complicated, but think he just freezes the strand cloud at its end state and uses strand position and array manipulations as a reveal or similar for the all the strandpositions.

since my scene is open here is a very large hint to similar what was inside the 'strand clip' node, Ive added a comment

Capture_simple_strand_clip.JPG

[cnever]

here is a very large hint to similar what was inside the 'strand clip' node

Is this a large hint or just the whole thing, hope you didn't give it away I will try this first thing tomorrow. I thought the hint was something like in the direction of this
http://www.andynicholas.com/?p=362&page=3 but will have to try both then

Many thanks Tekano, and please if you can keep an eye on this if you can thanks!!

[Tekano]

yes its most definitely a spoiler if you are following Tim's video closely and want to work it out that node yourself.. but to be honest I did not get that strand growth trick from the Ubertage video, I believe it was from this post from these clever chaps here http://monophyl.com/?p=1149

[cnever]

Hi Tekano

I am having no luck to get that nice, thick stream intertwining with each other like in Tim's. Also my particle starts all random, going through the sphere, where Tim's goes straight and branches of with more subtlety, if that make sense?

[Tekano]

well, again, pics or it didnt happen. without looking at the video I would suggest that he gives more favour or bias to a certain direction than to others. this can be keyframed or by age or by an fcurve.. whatever. I thought you wanted a slider?? am sure he had a slider or a scalar port for 'chaos amount' or similar.

just linearly interpolate 2 vectors, the noisy one and your direction you want them to go and keyframe the blend amount.

et viola

[cnever]

I thought you wanted a slider?? am sure he had a slider or a scalar port for 'chaos amount' or similar.

yip the slider is just one piece, last piece I would say. so I did and thanks for the slider. But also want more control like he seems to have. hope image makes it clearer.


Thanks

network_example.jpg

[Tekano]

'chaos amount' is the clue. it looks like his particles start off with less of it and more by the end of thier journey. also his cloning or path splitting is delayed as well. keyframe the probability of this happening and it should be the same.

[Helli]

To get a special look you need to use ice attributes in your render tree.
Like velocity, age, speed and so on and feed this in gradients or other values.

Theres a looooot of research on what will look good and what doesnt. But for sure you need to just try around a lot.

[cnever]

Thanks a lot for feedback so far. I am actually getting somewhere and hopefully will be able to post the final things in a few months time. So might get back to the network thing later, sorry for jumping around.

I have a question regarding the rendering/shading he shows in his video, dam screen recording is bad quality and the german doesn't help a lot with that either

shader.jpg

Can anyone explain what the master did here. From what I gather he is outputting all these custom things so he can use them later. Like the multi colored mask he shows later - is this rayswithc perhaps?

shader.2.jpg

multi.jpg

thanks in advance

[Tekano]

this is just shader / render tree setup for a material

he is using framebuffer renders - so you can make channels or framebuffers that contain mattes or colors or particles / strands elements - whatever you want - and he is using these framebuffer renders to make the RGB mattes for further compositing.... it looks like anyways.

to get the data frrom ICE into the render tree you use 'attributes'

[cnever]

this is just shader / render tree setup for a material

he is using framebuffer renders - so you can make channels or framebuffers that contain mattes or colors or particles / strands elements - whatever you want - and he is using these framebuffer renders to make the RGB mattes for further compositing.... it looks like anyways.

to get the data frrom ICE into the render tree you use 'attributes'

Getting color attributes from ice into render tree I actually know about and have done before.

But the first image, it seems there is a node at the end writing a lot of info for output or am I just reading it wrong? He has text there stating framebuffer?

[Tekano]

ok what is the timecode of the video where this appears. like I already said, and hate repeating myself, it looks like its just plugging either framebuffer renders or attributes and isolating elements out with mattes - day to day stuff and not anything 'super special' - but yes, am not sure what that last node is exactly but it appears to be a RGB in and you can see that paricles are green some strands are blue strands and others are red... or am I missing something here..?

I dont see what the end effect or material shader you are trying to attain in this case, you just want to know what a random rendertree compound node does?

[cnever]

Hi Tekano

It sounds like you are getting angry/irritated with me? Sorry but I am no specialist as you have noticed, and that said appreciate the patience and probably irritation you and others have to go through

I don't think the last image, well actually I know the last image is not connected with the render tree to be honest. But from what I can see (not much) he does some very clever framebuffer/color Id's to maak rendering optimized?

Actually it would just be so cool to see that render tree in proper resolution then I could go and make more sense of it by breaking it. The time code is 24:19 and 31:16 for the last image I posted.

Like I said sorry for the frustration I am just trying to learn as much possible, and blurry images and German is not helping. But you have helped a lot with some of these things and much appreciated!

[Tekano]

well if you hover over the icons it demonstrates I was/am neither angry nor irritated but was sighing - for this turning into a 'never ending story' and was also frustrated at you submitted a blurry pic asking what a specific user made render compound was when there was no background info on what you wanted it to do or what it did in the first place. - and dont mind me, Im a grumpy old git

and yes, to save any escalation of irritation from my behalf I will only suggest what I think it is once, having to repeat myself is what annoys me.

looked at 24:19 it seems like it could be some rendertree compound made up from store in channel / color 4 passthrough type render nodes - again for storing different datas into seperate framebuffers. I do hear him say 'incidence' at this point of describing the inputs to this node and one of them is clearly labelled 'masks framebuffer' but this is all for the cube shape that goes lumpy sequence.

think about that sequence, the cube shape morphs between various shapes, he could render lots of different materials out into separate framebuffers and use incidence and mattes to control which framebuffer or material appears where.

for the 2nd picture you submitted of particles / strands is a rgb matte framebuffer from 31:16 - which describes all the framebuffers and render layers used in Nuke on a completely different sequence of particles / strands.

what is it exactly you want to know about this because obviously the 2 pics you submitted are for two seperate sequences? attributes can be used to make clever mattes in the framebuffer distinguishing between particles and types of strands etc as well as something like this is pretty clever too

https://www.si-community.com/forum/v ... f=28&t=340

[cnever]

hahaha - sorry for my complete misinterpretation, it usually happens with only having text. But I frustrate myself so I don't blame you at all!

Really all I want to do is understand the render tree, why? Because it creates a really nice effect and will give me a bit more of a comprehensive understanding with more advanced nodes - I would love to have a crystal/meta material like he created but the sole purpose is to duplicate exactly then break it - just to understand the render tree.

But you see just by saying "store color in channel" you made me aware of a pretty interesting node!
But his last node does not have a export node at the end, is this a custom node? The masks framebuffer part all the way to the end, I have no clue what is going on there... Same with the bottom part also connected to that node... super sigh - endless battle right?

Due to me scrambling around getting more and more knowledge of things - best would be to get the whole picture in front of me -obviously can't so thought clever chaps here would be able to spot what he used due to familiarity.