using weight maps to control subdivision

[gaboraa]

Hi all,

Recently I focus on learning ICE and try to do some things as a challenge to learn more. I tried controlling subdivision with a weight map. At first I thought It would be easy to do but it's easier said than done. In a hard way I learned that weight maps cannot be used easily in this context because weight maps are per-point. After some trials and errors I came across Stephen Blair's solution http://xsisupport.com/2011/10/12/contex ... /#comments

But when I tried that way I couldn't get it to work. It seems there is no proper values after the weight map node. I checked it and found that all the vertices have zero value right after the weight map.





Are there anyone who tried to do such a thing? I am really lost and any help would be appreciated.

[Daniel Brassard]

What is your weigthmap look like?

Is it still all black or did you paint anything to it?

[Bullit]

Your ice tree is bugged. Delete it do another.

[gaboraa]

Thanks, as you say it was bugged and good to know that. Simple building another saves a lot of time instead of figuring out what causes the problem.

Now I try something different, creating a terrain painter using CAV, not weight maps. In this way one can use any color to subdivide and paint the terrain at the same time. I achieved to do it by simply adding color to brightness compound right after the weight map. With that I can decide which of the red green and blue channels to subdivide the intended geometry. But now there is another problem. The final topology does not allow me for further CAV painting session. Lets say I want to subdivide using red channel and after subdividing, I want to paint green color to paint more details on the subdivided geometry. I don't understand why final topology is not available to paint CAV data to its vertices.





for the terrain file with ICE tree on it

https://app.box.com/s/eveaqx98smdv2mzadu0p

Anyways all I did was just learning ICE more and I am happy to take a one step to learn it more because as I learn more, I feel more creative. It is really a shame that it is a dead product...

[gaboraa]

Ok finally I solved all the problems and finished my first compound, hope it would be useful for someone.

[Bullit]

Neat, Thanks. So what you learned from the process?

[gaboraa]

A lot of things actually, I am not so familiar to work within ICE and context mismatch issues drove me crazy at times and again I found valuable information regarding forcing your way in ICE in Stephen Blair's exquisite blog. But the biggest thing I learned is that, as Paul Smith here says, ICE is something like valuable helper for everyone not just for technical guys. you can be creative with it and I will continue to learn it even Softimage won't be around in following years to come.

[Bullit]

I still can't handle well context mismatchs. I take some notes and always have to research to fix them. Mister Blair blog is excellent.

Do worry about Softimage being dead what you learn here can be usefull in many softwares. And probably it is the best place to learn it.

If you go 3dsmax Particleflow and go into DataFlow which is a sort of ICE you'll get a big advantage, true also about Thinking Particles plugin, same for Cinema 4D Expresso and Houdini.

[gaboraa]

yep as an ex Cinema 4D user, I am familiar with Expresso but it is not as robust as ice and you can do some particle stuff etc. I want to learn Houdini more than others. I think it is the best alternative out there in respect of nodal systems but adapting its workflow would take some considerable amount of time for sure.