SPLAT

[rickei]

I've been playing around with the splat primitive in C6 today, but so far I am very disappointed in it's usability. I was planing on using it to dice up some 2d matte paintings I have done and add some slight camera movement, but I guess I should just stick with billboards.

I understand what splat is(or what it is supposed to be), but since it is not visible in the scene setup, I am unable to get any good results without doing 500 test renders. Has anyone actually used splat yet?

[Joppe]

Hi Rickei,
Can you explain to me what Splat is or does?
In the manual there is nothing about it, even on the pictures used it is not present.
I am very curious about is.

Joppe

[markbremmer]

Hi Rickei and Joppe,

Splats really have one intended function - to be used with a particle emitter. Billboards are best for doing trees, grass, etc. Since splats always face the camera, you can use a texture map with an alpha channel to map fire or smoke effects. The particles then look very real upon render. In Lightwave, this technique is part of their Voxels particle system for creating believable smoke and explosions.

To get good results with splats, you'll need to fully use the shader tools for specifically created for particle systems - namely, the Particle Shader. This allows you to link particle texture behaviors to the life of the particles. So, for things like opacity, size and more, you can have the particle shader directly work with parameters controlled by by the particle emitter itself.

Mark

[rickei]

Mark,

any tips on how to actually place them where you want them. I was trying to use splat for smoke FX but, since there is no visual reference in the assembly room, I'm having to do a million test renders, to see where it is in the scene. I have used a basic shape for placement, and then place the splat there, but I wasn't sure if there was a better way to place them...it just seems like something is missing in this feature

[markbremmer]

Well, when used in conjunction with a particle emitter, you do have reference from the particles themselves. If you're not using an emitter, I'd just use a billboard instead.

[rickei]

thanks!

it would be nice if some really smart person, wrote a quick little tutorial on how this all works
wink wink nudge nudge

[markbremmer]

I got the thumbs up from VTC to start C6 so I'll see what I can work in.

[polydude]

Great I will also be looking forward to the new C6 tutorial on VTC. If you don't mind do you have a really rough estimate on when this will be ready?

[markbremmer]

I'll be working pretty quick on it and then it will go through their production work flow. So, I can't really ballpark a date but probably within the next couple of months.

[Wesgraphics]

Originally Posted by markbremmer

I'll be working pretty quick on it and then it will go through their production work flow. So, I can't really ballpark a date but probably within the next couple of months.

Fantastic! I'm so there dude!

[polydude]

Great looking forward to it.

[LoneGunman]

Originally Posted by rickei

thanks!

it would be nice if some really smart person, wrote a quick little tutorial on how this all works
wink wink nudge nudge

How about Carrara6 file (?) till tutorial is up an running.

Open the file and check it out...



Here is Carrara6 file: DOWNLOAD HERE

You can see lil' animation of it rendered HERE (xvid compression).

Something about splats, they do not like use of the glow channel.

Good thinking by DAZ, they just left it unfinished IMO (good old Eovia style ). They would look much, much better if they made them have the same properties like HyperVoxels do in LW. Wishful thinking, I guess...

Hope it helped. Cheers

[bwtr]

ThankS LG.

[rickei]

Sweet!

thanks LG. that will probably help me more than a tut.
I'm glad you mentioned problems with the glow channel, cos thats one of the things i am having issues with.

thanks again!

[Joppe]

Thanks LG,

This is better than a thousend words.

Joppe