Could you post the expressions for us, and maybe a description of what they do, and why you chose to use them?
Thanks!!!
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19-12-2002
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Could you post the expressions for us, and maybe a description of what they do, and why you chose to use them?
Thanks!!!
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Brian
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Thanks,
Brian
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(dam macs!!! Just do what I ask!! Is that so wrong??? hehe....)
anyway..
Sure, if I can grab your file. I'll post a copy of any changes for ya
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Brian
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Brian
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Fading out
In the original (The Matrix), the bullet trails fade away, and seems to dissipate (is that the right word??) into thin air... Just vanishing, wich of course is natural (???), because the shockwave would loose it's energy.
Still I can imagine just one way to acheive this (in just one render pass) and that would be setting the refraction and reflection index on a PerParticle basic.
The only way I can see that happen, is having... like 73 different materials, and make a script that changes the material on just a single particle, like you have "Matrix-Shader001" to "MatrixShade073" set up with decreasing/increasing refraction and reflection index and make a script or something that uses the agePP to change the particle material/shader.
-Code-sample that would work in VisualBawsic:
[Particle(index).material=MatrixShader & particle(index).age]
If the .age attribute is 16, this would make the particle(X) receive the shader/material "MatrixShader016", wich have a lower refraction and reflection index than "MatrixShader015".
I don't know too much about MEL and such but it would work in Visual Basic
Another method would be rendering just the bullet-trails, in one pass, then make a copy of the particles, and aply a gradient map (rgbPP), and hardware-render them, as the second pass, and then, rendering the scene, and composite them toghrether using the hardware-rendered gradient (rgbPP) as the alpha-channel for mixing the bullet-trail and the "beauty-pass" togheter.
This would make the bullet-trail fade away, but not as nice as adjusting the refraction index individually (based on agePP) on each particle.
Any coments on the previously mentioned methodes, or MEL scripts that could work in the same fashion as my VB-thingy would be aprechiated
-DX-
Last edited by DukerX; 20-12-2002 at 02:09 PM.
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You're right. It has to be more than one pass, but there's no need for a pass for each bullet.
Duplicationg the particles, and switching to hardware-rendered particles, and then add a grayscale ramp to the rgbPP would make a perfect 2.nd transparency mask for compositting it. This mask should be used in adittion to the Alpha-channel in the bullet-trail pass (all the other geometry is switched off, only enabled in refraction and reflection, so you get a black scene render with only the bullet-trail visible, but the refraction and reflection of the scene should still be visible in the bullet-trail.
-DX-
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Re: Fading out
MAN, this was a long time ago, and I'm sorry I didn't see this untill now....Originally posted by DukerX
Anyone got a solution for the bullet-trail not fading away?
In the original (The Matrix), the bullet trails fade away, and seems to dissipate (is that the right word??) into thin air... because the shockwave would loose it's energy.
.....Any coments on the previously mentioned methodes, or MEL scripts that could work in the same fashion as my VB-thingy would be aprechiated
-DX-
A few ways to make the particles fade/dissipate would be:
1. You could "bake" your trail(s) particle animation,
render out your "beauty/color pass",
then go back and apply a rgbPP attribute to them by:
clicking the bigger "color" tab in the particle objects' attribute editor and choosing "per particle".
In the newly created rgbPP slot, right-click and create a ramp for the particle color.
By default, the ramp cycles through the colors depending on particle age.
So if you make your ramp go from white to grey to black, what will happen, is that you will see your particles start white when they are born, then go to black as they die.
So the reason this is cool, is that this sequence can act as your ALPHA for your beauty/color pass!
So now you can just tweak the ramp so the particles fade QUICKLY to black at the end of it's lifespan,
thus creating an ALPHA that when combined with your color sequence,
will make them look as if they "dissipate and/or fade" out at the last minute
2. Another, less dynamicly controllable way would be to create an animated alpha map for your TRAIL shader, keyed to fade at the appropriate time
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NOTE: you MUST add a radiusPP attribute to your particleShape, and apply this expression to that for this to work as you intend
The BOLD one is the one to use first, as it is what you asked for.
The rest are variants to try for fun
particleShape1.radiusPP = rand(.5,1)
OR
particleShape1.radiusPP = sin(time)
OR
particleShape1.radiusPP = sin(age)
Check out the "EXPRESSIONS" sticky thread in this area as well for more expressions to have fun with, and learn from
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