How to get this effect?

[Rez007]

Hello,

I am trying to get an effect like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF5ukSHDFU4

However, I can't seem to understand the volume cloud particle render that well. I try messing with the density like the creator said he did, but I always end up with small spotty cloud like results.

Basically, this is the closest looking effect to a "spark" look that I can find. Has anyone done this before or can direct me to a tutorial so I can learn how to do this or something very similar?

Thanks.

[Mathaeus]

actually this look like EM Render Point Cloud in "additive" mode. Maybe you can get it somehow in Render tree, but EMRPC could be much faster. Instead of mixing with background, some constant color is added, according the alpha value.

[Rez007]

Thanks for the help and reply. I don't have EM Render Point Cloud - I guess I will have to keep trying to get something kind of close via the render tree. Thanks again.

[Mathaeus]

afaik the points is, you don't need a special volume shader. Something close could be done with 3delight too. Some huge count of particles, "point" type (in this mode, size is in pixel). Constant shader with color higher than 1, let's say 3-10, high transparency, about 0.99. Not the same, but close to movie.
In Mental, maybe "grid" type, aligned to camera - not so good performance, but anyway.

[Rez007]

Great, thanks! I will give that a try.

[sant0s]

Hey Rez,

did you get a good result?

[Rez007]

Hi Sant0s,

I tried it using the constant shader and it worked ok, but the particles I am using are very small and are inside a glass sphere. I ended up using the same premise, but instead of the constant shader, I used a particle shader that kind of looked like a small glowy sphere...I had some things come up, so I couldnt finish it off yet - I want to render the sequence out and then get a chance to try a post glow effect on it...most likely duplicating the particles, add a Gaussian blur and then compositing that on top, to hopefully get a nice glow. I hope to have that done soon here...I will try to post it when I get it working fully to show what I have... it will be for an intro segment to an iPad game I am working on with a friend.

[sant0s]

okay,

tried it the way mathaeus said. 3Delight, Shading Samples to 0.01 and got realy good results. Also MR and rasterizer with Shading and Pixel Samples increased gave some good results - just if u wanna try it again

Realy small Particles = sphere, size 0.001?

[Rez007]

Hi sant0s,

I might go ahead again and give it another try. I have another area where I can give it a shot on. I had my MR set to raytrace instead of rasterizer, maybe that will help me out. Is there a chance you can post a quick screen shot of how it came out with MR? If not, no worries I will try my best anyway with it.

My sphere is size is around .1 - .05 (I think, I am not in Soft right now to verify what I have it set too), but my camera is a little farther away from the particles...I do take a preformance hit when I up the rate high, so I am trying to find a happy medium.

Thanks.

[sant0s]

sure

its a sphere with standard values, 20k particles emitted as volume, material is a constant with v=5.

http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=rasterizeykis.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=scanline68yf.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=raytrace48bu.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=3de_20k_sr1yk2p.jpg
http://www.abload.de/image.php?img=3de_20k_sr01wk4n.jpg

need with more particles?

[Rez007]

Thanks for posting those reference images...I am getting pretty much the same results. I think when I pass it through the post-comp phase, I can hopefully get a nice glow off of those particles as well.

Thanks Again.

[rray]

For the additive (glow) effect, might be worth trying the sprite shader with rectangle billboards (about 1 pixel size), no texture, low alpha. I remember I got close to that nebula like look from the video.

[Rez007]

That looks pretty good. Thanks for the info, I will have to try that as well.