Essential LightWave 3D- P17 docx

Chapter 18 ······················· 468 4. Back under the Geometry tab, set the Blending Mode for both nulls to Additive. Then, under Blending Group, you’ll need to create a new group. Name this group Mix, and set it as the Blending Group for both nulls. An <F9> shows that the two spheres now “blob” into one another! (Wherever the dashed lines representing the influences of the HyperVoxel surfaces, seen in Figure 18-16, come in contact with another whose Blending Mode is also set to Additive and which is also a part of the same blending group, the “surfaces” begin to “reach toward” one another — behaving like a viscous liquid.) Figure 18-18: An <F9> shows two different colored spheres that slightly intersect. Figure 18-19 Figure 18-20 PC-Specific Info Since we’re using Dented, PC results will vary from the results shown here, which are rendered on a Mac. 6. Clear your scene and load the Voxel- Ground object from the companion CD (Objects\Chapter18\Voxel- Ground.lwo). Move your camera in so that it matches Figure 18-23 and then press <F9> to do a test ren - der. Your results will look a lot like Figure 18-24. Not very interesting, huh? ·········· Simulations 1: HyperVoxels and Particles 469 Figure 18-21 Figure 18-22: The HyperTexture actually affects the silhouette of the HyperVoxel surface. You can see it smoothly blending into the left voxel, which doesn’t have a HyperTexture assigned. Figure 18-23: An application of all this can be explored by loading Scenes\Chapter_18\HV_Landscape_Setup.lws. 5. How does the HyperTexture work with HyperVoxel surfaces? For the Right null, click to the HyperTexture tab, and set its Texture to Dented, its Scale to 2.45, its Frequency to 0.605, and its Texture Amplitude to –7%. (Power and Octaves should already be at 3 and 6, respectively.) Set the Scale for all three axes to 100 mm. (See F igure 18-21.) 7. Bring up the HyperVoxels interface, and activate HyperVo xels for VoxelGround. Then open the Presets window and select the Rock library. Double-click on Rocky to load its set - tings onto your HyperVoxel object. When LW asks if you’d like to keep your current particle size when loading the settings for Rocky, click No since after we load the settings, we need to change Particle Size to 3manyway. Set Size Variation to 5% (this will make each particle deviate by a fixed-random number of between +/– 5%). (See Figure 18-25.) 8. Press <F9> to do another test render. While the render takes quite a bit longer, the results are well worth it. Take a look at the change shown in Figure 18-26. PC-Specific Info The Rocky preset uses Dented as its HyperTexture, so once again, this will look different on a PC than what you’re seeing here. Chapter 18 ······················· 470 Figure 18-24: Doing an <F9> reveals pretty much what one would expect, given the scene in Figure 18-23. Figure 18-25 Figure 18-26: When you render this time, what you see is a “whole other story.” Every point in the object is handled as a HyperVoxel particle! Because all these particles are in the same object, they all blend smoothly into one another. (Scenes\Chapter_18\HV_Land - scape_ F.lws is the scene used to create Figure 18-26.) HyperVoxel “Sprites” Something you can do that greatly reduces the time LightWave needs to render Hyper - Voxels is to not render the whole volume but to render only a “slice” of it. LightWave doesn’t need to calculate the whole volume, only a tiny fraction of it — a plane that runs directly through its center, always aiming at the viewer (camera or viewport angle). This is similar in its result to “mapping” our explosion sequence onto the plane in the last chapter, except LightWave takes care of all the details for us. All we need to do is use the reduced HyperVoxel controls to set how our sprite looks, and LightWave does the rest! 1. Start with a new scene running at 24 FPS. Set the End Frame to 120 (for both the scene itself and within the Rendering Options). Add a null, naming it HV_Sprite. Set its Y position to 800 mm. Then, under the camera’s Motion Options, set the camera’s Tar- get Item to HV_Sprite. To give us something a bit more exciting in the “background department,” under Effects | Backdrop, activate Gradi - ent Backdrop and set the Zenith Color to 20, 0, 47, the Sky and Ground Colors to 98, 92, 169, and the Nadir Color to 176, 182, 200. (See Figure 18-27.) 2. Next, activate HyperVoxels for HV_Sprite. Bring up the presets for HyperVoxels, and open the Generic library. Double-click on Sand_Explo - sion to load in its settings, changing its Particle Size to 2mand its Object Type to Sprite. When you check Show Par - ticles, you get much more than a linear representation of the voxel — you get a real-time image of the sprite, complete with OpenGL transparency. (See Figure 18-28.) (To increase the detail of the sprite, choose a higher resolution from the Sprite Texture Resolution pop-up menu; this will impact your graphics accelerator, however.) ·········· Simulations 1: HyperVoxels and Particles 471 Figure 18-27 Chapter 18 ······················· 472 Figure 18-28 Figure 18-29: A render of what we’ve done shows us a “slice” of our voxel. Figure 18-30 3. You can increase the quality of your rendered voxel by increasing the num - ber of slices (found on the Shading | Basic tab). Comparing Figure 18-30 with Figure 18-29, there is a marked increase in detail, and the render time is still light-years away from the lengthy render we would have were we to set our Object Type to Volume. 4. Now, let’s do something really cool. Under the Geometry tab, set the Parti - cle Size to 20 m, the Stretch Direction to Y, and the Stretch Amount to 4% (this will “squish” our voxel down to 4% of its natural spherical shape along the Y axis). You may as well deactivate Show Particles, since the effect we’re creating isn’t “captured” by the Show Particles engine. Under the Shading | Basic tab, set Color to 200, 200, 200, Luminosity to 100%, Opacity to 0%, Density to 80%, and Number of Slices to 1. Then, under the HyperTexture tab, set Texture to Dented (double- check that Scale is 4, Power is 3,Fre- quency is 0.8, and Octaves is 6). Set Noise Type to Gradient Noise (just a different kind of “fractal engine” pow - ering our Dented procedural texture). Set Texture Amplitude to 150%,Tex - ture Effect to Turbulence, and Effect Speed to 50%. (Double-check your settings against the above text and Figure 18-31. If your set - tings don’t match mine, your render won’t either.) A render shows something that looks like high-altitude clouds. What we’ve done is quickly fake volumetric ground fog (the misty, wispy stuff that hovers in quiet hollows on nights when the moon is full). You can move through this ground fog, and you can set the fog’s exact position above the ground by positioning the null. It won’t “catch” shadows very well, but if you ever try “real” volu - metric ground fog, you’ll appreciate the time-in-render-land this hack provides. ·········· Simulations 1: HyperVoxels and Particles 473 Figure 18-31 Figure 18-32 But wait! There’s more! If you act now and render this scene to a movie, you’ll see that you’ve not only created some nifty fake ground fog, but you’ll see that this hack can also be used to recreate the way clouds roil in time-lapse photography! (Effect Speed is the setting that controls the speed of the roiling.) Scenes\Chapter_18\HV_Sprite_ 01_F.lws is the scene that created Figure 18-32 and the following movie: Renders\ Chapter18\RoilingClouds.mov. 1. Now, there’s something else Hyper - Voxel sprites can do that is most excellent. Load in Scenes\Chapter_18\ HV_Sprite_02_Setup.lws to get us ready to go with a null object “flying” into frame from behind the camera. Chapter 18 ······················· 474 Figure 18-33 Figure 18-34 2. Activate HyperVoxels for the null. Set its Object Type to Sprite and its Parti - cle Size to 400 mm, and check Show Particles. On the Shading | Basic tab, set Color to 134, 201, 234, Luminosity to 200%, Opacity to 100%, Density to 100%, and Number of Slices to 1. Under the HyperTexture tab, set the Texture to (none). (See Figure 18-34.) 3. I’ve created a sequence of frames that looks something like a science-fiction “torpedo.” In the Image Editor, load Images\TorpedoFrames\Torpedo_ 000.jpg. Then, set its Image Type to Sequence (LightWave’s default han - dling of the image sequence is shown here). Then, on the Shading | Clips tab of the HyperVoxel interface for your null, select Torpedo_(sequence) from the Add Clip pop-up menu. Make sure Alpha is set to Luminosity and that Use Color, AntiAliasing, and Solid are all checked. Select Fixed Random for the Frame Offset. (See Figure 18-36.) ·········· Simulations 1: HyperVoxels and Particles 475 Figure 18-35: The obligatory <F9>. (Oooh, a blue dot. How nice.) Figure 18-36 4. When rendering a movie of this scene, I recommend using Enhanced Low Antialiasing (without Adaptive Sam - pling), Dithered Motion Blur, and a Blur Length of 100%.(Scenes\ Chapter_18\HV_ Sprite_02_F.lws is the finished scene of this example, and the movie of the final render is Ren - ders\Chapter18\ Torpedo.mov.) Chapter 18 ······················· 476 Figure 18-37: (Yet another <F9>.) Our “blue dot” is now a glowing “bolt” of plasma that renders extremely quickly. Figure 18-38 Note A really cool thing about HyperVoxel sprite clips is that you can load in more than one clip onto an HV object. Each clip will be assigned, in turn, to the next point of the HV object’s point order. So, assuming you have a few nice clips of some flame and smoke sequences, you could (using particles, which we touch on next) cre - ate the same fire effect as seen on the Balrog in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. And (just to plant ideas in your head) using Particle Age as the clip’s Frame Offset and LightWave’s ability to have collisions “spawn” new particles, you could have non-looping clips of explosions “do their thing” when a pro - jectile impacts its target! (For something even more complex, if you have clips of splashing water and create a particle simulation of water flowing where “splash” particles are spawned when the “water” particles collide with objects, you will have recreated the “two-and-a-half- D” used to create the breathtaking water effects seen in feature films from Tarzan to The Road to El Dorado.) To find out how to have particles react with one another and with objects in your scene, dive into the LW manuals. It’s all there for you, just waiting to be unearthed! Particles Note As you may have guessed from the previous parenthetical, I’m not going to show you everything there is to know about LightWave particles here. (That would be a complete book unto itself.) As with the rest of this book, I’m going to show you the essentials. You’ll have enough to start exploring and learning on your own — where you go from there is up to you! 1. Start with a fresh, new scene. With Objects selected, choose Items | A dd | Dynamic Obj | Particle. Accept the name Emitter and the Emitter Type of HV Emitter. (A little box will appear when you click OK that represents the place where the particles will be emitted. A little Properties window will also open when you add an emitter this way.) Under the Generator tab of the emitter’s Properties window, assign a Birth Rate of 300. This means that 300 particles will be created each second,as set in the Generated By pop-up menu immediately below it. Set the X, Y, and Z of the Generator Size to 100 mm, and set the Particle Limit (the maxi - mum number of particles on screen at any one time from this particular parti - cle producer) to 300. When you’re done with all that, set the End Frame to 120, and then move the camera to –3 m in the Z axis. ·········· Simulations 1: HyperVoxels and Particles 477 [...]... the essential information you need to get started using them An Introduction to Dynamics dy·nam·ic Noun 1 An interactive system or process, especially one involving competing or conflicting forces —Dictionary.com When we talk about dynamics, we are referring to the simulation of real-world physical properties within an artificial 3D environment As strange as it may seem, to a 3D application such as LightWave, ... Cloth Don’t let the name fool you: ClothFX isn’t just for clothing This is LightWave s full-featured soft body dynamics engine, capable of simulating everything from the billowing of a superhero’s cape to the violent splash of water on the surface of a pool ClothFX is the evolution of Motion Designer, the soft body simulator found in LightWave 7.5 Simulations 2: Dynamics the ability to generate particles... 18-44 5 480 Activate HyperVoxels for the Emitter Then click on Load and choose Surfaces\HV_Surface_ch18.hv The Select Settings window will appear Leave everything checked, click OK, then choose No when LightWave asks if you’d like to keep your current particle size Doing this replaces the entirety of the HyperVoxel settings (See Figure 18-44.) · · · · · · · · · · S i m u l a t i o n s 1 : H y p e r Voxe... just points and polygons in the eyes of the program Therefore, if we want to simulate real-world phenomena, we have to tell our software about the unique characteristics of each object We have to tell LightWave that a leaf is light, a car is heavy, water is permeable, and concrete is not We do this by adding a dynamic 482 property to the object This can be done by opening the Object Properties panel... hopefully touched upon one of the greatest truths: Knowing the answer is not important Knowing how to solve the question is 481 Chapter 19 Simulations 2: Dynamics One of the most highly touted features of LightWave 8 is the new Dynamics system, consisting of hard and soft body simulators, particle emitters, natural force generators, collision objects, and effect linkers, each with the ability to interact... the other dynamic objects around it For example, you could add Wind to the model of a fan, causing any hard, soft, or particle objects to be pushed away when they pass in front of it Collision New to LightWave 8, SoftFX is a soft body simulator well suited to producing “secondary animation” for your objects For example, you could animate a character running, then apply SoftFX to get the stomach to... onto a ground plane, it would simply pass through the ground and continue falling However, adding the Collision dynamic to the ground would cause the ball to bounce off its surface Hard Gravity HardFX is LightWave s new rigid body dynamics engine It allows you to simulate hard objects such as metal and stone You can use HardFX to create the explosion of a spaceship or the breaking of a window as a baseball... important can be temperamental, so can Dynamics You see, when you assign a dynamic propThere have been numerous occasions erty to an object, you are really asking where making a single adjustment has sent LightWave to perform a simulation of physmy entire simulation into chaotic fits And ics on the object Physics is the study of since every simulation is different, it can be matter (hard objects, soft objects,... impact on the calculation time The default setting is often a good starting point, but will need to be adjusted if you see obvious errors in the calculation To help speed up the calculation, we can tell LightWave not to waste time calculating collisions until the Collision object is close to the HardFX object Just how close is determined by the Break Distance setting in the Collision tab of the HardFX . you can do that greatly reduces the time LightWave needs to render Hyper - Voxels is to not render the whole volume but to render only a “slice” of it. LightWave doesn’t need to calculate the. in the last chapter, except LightWave takes care of all the details for us. All we need to do is use the reduced HyperVoxel controls to set how our sprite looks, and LightWave does the rest! 1 you everything there is to know about LightWave particles here. (That would be a complete book unto itself.) As with the rest of this book, I’m going to show you the essentials. You’ll have enough to