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e-graffiti fun with Displacement Mapping
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e-graffiti fun with Displacement Mapping // Image Gallery
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 7, 2007, 12:11pm
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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When I first got tS 7.5 one of the new features I played with the most was the Displacement Mapping tool. While exploring this feature I had been ignoring my job, wife, kids, getting little sleep, not washing, and not eating. Ok I exaggerated a little I had been eating. My first experience with modeling using Displacement maps is from Bryce 3d. I really consider Bryce a FUN program to use because of this feature. My earliest art experiences are based on drawing and painting so I find this type of "modeling" very intuitive. Simply draw out what you want as a grayscale image, apply it as a displacement map and "voila" there is your drawing as a 3d image and you did no Point Editing!
Prior to tS 7.5 I would import complex landscapes in, but now I
can make them right in tS.
6721
The real power of this tool is that I can apply displacement maps to ALL of my 3d modeling "base" objects. The possibilities are endless! From organic to inorganic, from recognizable objects to totally abstract.
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The image below can be used as some sort of Sci-Fi electrode. It was modeled with a simple sphere and Displacement map of
concentric circles. Simply adjusting the Displacement Mapper UV Reps and the final image was created!
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In the below image the ocean floor, sea shells, rocks, and plant
are all displacement mapped objects.
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I have always considered tS a powerful 3d application but now I
can add FUN to the list because of the Displacement Map tools. |
Post by rrf // Jun 7, 2007, 12:22pm
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rrf
Total Posts: 319
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Ahh..someone else who gets excited when trying out and finding new stuff :) TS is so cool! Haven't got 'round to in-depth playing with this tool yet - Thanks for the mini-tut :)
rf |
Post by jayr // Jun 7, 2007, 12:39pm
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jayr
Total Posts: 1074
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i love the brown, rock like ones on the 3rd picture, they look like asteroids or something, crazy design planetoids for rich space hoppers to go paint-balling on... should change your name to slartibartfast |
Post by Morgan // Jun 7, 2007, 12:45pm
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Morgan
Total Posts: 138
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Wow. That is some incredible versatility. I can see I've got yet another new toy to fiddle with... |
Post by Burnart // Jun 7, 2007, 12:46pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Nice one!:jumpy: |
Post by W!ZARD // Jun 7, 2007, 5:54pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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Very cool! I've used displacement maps for making terrains before but you've shown some very cool ways to apply this approach to other objects - I really like your 'seaweed' and shell objects. The softpaint tools are very cool also and would work very well with this type of modelling. Isn't tS just the BEST fun? |
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 8, 2007, 5:25am
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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rrf
Yeah I am a self proclaimed graphics junky who never gets enough of multimedia art. This weeks its 3d, before that it was learning After Effects, next week it will be game programming with ActionScript 3.0. One thing about playing with displacement mapping is that its easy to jump into and you kinda know what the outcome will be with the image maps you apply as the displacement.
Jayr
I share your vision on those rock like structures. I had to look up the word slartibartfast, I did not know if you were insulting me or what :)
Morgan
I would suggest that you lock yourself into a room and enjoy the ride. This tool will be as diverse as the image maps you use.
Burnart
thanks for the compliment
W!Z
I love the fact that Displacement mapping in tS is not tied to just terrain type objects. Making the seedweed would be a tedious process via point editing but all I had to do here was simply adjust the grayscale image in PhotoShop and apply it. If I did not like the results tweak the grayscale again and reload the image map, no return to previously saved image!
In general to get the most out of this type of modeling you need good grayscale images. Complex grayscale image making tools will allow you to really push this technology so you may want to load up on PS plugins or use a program like Bryce to generate complex grayscales. |
Post by MadMouse // Jun 8, 2007, 8:04am
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MadMouse
Total Posts: 1069
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I'm a fan of the new displacement tools to. I used them in conjunction with the soft paint tools to make the (Oh so popular:D ) base of my V6.6.6 image. great fun once you've got the hang of it but it does need dense meshes to get the best results. |
Post by W!ZARD // Jun 8, 2007, 7:35pm
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W!ZARD
Total Posts: 2603
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rrf
I had to look up the word slartibartfast, I did not know if you were insulting me or what :)
I would say that was actually a great compliment given that Slartibartfast is (or will be!) a planetary engineer who builds entire worlds from scratch (with particular attention to the fjiords and crinkly bits)! Not a bad metaphor for what we do with 3d software and trueSpace in particular. |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Jun 9, 2007, 4:29pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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Great stuff E-graffiti!
Excellent idea also about revisiting our PS Plugins for making these too, especially for me since I have at least 2000 of them I've been collecting over the years! :D
Wow... very inspiring stuff! Now I'm off to play with Redfield's "Craquelure 3D" Plugin for this!!!
(Between this and playing with Délé's Elevator Script I hope I can find the time to sleep!;) )
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 10, 2007, 2:32am
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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Great stuff E-graffiti!
Excellent idea also about revisiting our PS Plugins for making these too, especially for me since I have at least 2000 of them I've been collecting over the years! :D
Wow... very inspiring stuff! Now I'm off to play with Redfield's "Craquelure 3D" Plugin for this!!!
(Between this and playing with Délé's Elevator Script I hope I can find the time to sleep!;) )
- 3dvisuals dude
3dvisuals, WOW to the 2000+ plugins! That Craquelure 3D plugin should make for great terrains like a barren desert scenes. For the above sea scene while doing test renders I used VRAY with global illumination turned on which made the plant look more like a cactus and surrounding shells look like something that washed up onto the beach or perhaps onto a desert.
On thing that MadMouse reminded me to mention and that SteveBe brought to my attention in another post is that you will need to subdivide the the surface (either SDS, smooth quad divide, etc..) to get the details of the displacement map.
Enjoy the foggy effects of sleeplessness :) |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Jun 10, 2007, 4:42pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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3dvisuals, WOW to the 2000+ plugins! That Craquelure 3D plugin should make for great terrains like a barren desert scenes. For the above sea scene while doing test renders I used VRAY with global illumination turned on which made the plant look more like a cactus and surrounding shells look like something that washed up onto the beach or perhaps onto a desert.
On thing that MadMouse reminded me to mention and that SteveBe brought to my attention in another post is that you will need to subdivide the the surface (either SDS, smooth quad divide, etc..) to get the details of the displacement map.
Enjoy the foggy effects of sleeplessness :)
Thanks,
yeah, high poly does make for great results with this tool. I almost always use GI with Vray 1.5 too... just love it.;)
I'm also going to try my old Cybermesh plugin for this and can't wait to find the time to do so! That plugin and standalone are very hard to find since Pinnacle bought it out for use with Commotion Pro and seems to have buried it since then, it's on the usual Asian and Warez sites but I wouldn't go there let alone download from there! I'm glad to have it but those who don't are apparently out of luck on availability (I just checked - just in case ;) ).
Cybermesh would give you displaced DXF files based on Greyscale 2D image input, then it could be further played with now in TS7.5 with additional displacement options and tools... lots of potential there I think.:cool:
When I have the time to test that theory I'll drop some results in this thread if you like, could be fun.
EDIT: For those of you with M.O.I. (moi3d.com), Rhino, or another 3D Program which can accurately handle IGES or IGS files you can use ZSurf4 for an alternate to using Cybermesh. It outputs 3D IGES files from 2D Bitmaps. Not as robust as Cybermesh at all but does work. Here's the link from the MOI3D Forum for ZSurf4:
http://mwt.net/~sjedging/ZSURF4.zip
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by SteveBe // Jun 10, 2007, 5:54pm
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SteveBe
Total Posts: 282
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These look great e-graffiti! I have Bryce as well and have used the greyscale
brushes to create heightmaps, get some nice effects.
I agree, this program tends to change your sleep patterns.:) |
Post by SteveBe // Jun 10, 2007, 6:43pm
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SteveBe
Total Posts: 282
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For the large poly counts, you can use the (Simplify &) Normalmap tool.
I save the original displaced mesh and then run the tool with Tangent space
option checked. You can see the vertices count comparassion between the
the 2 meshes in the screen cap. attached. Be warned, it can take a long time
to run on complex meshes, so you have to just let it do it's thing.
The advantage is you can create complex meshes for say a render, and
simplify a copy for real -time shared space etc. |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Jun 10, 2007, 7:46pm
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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For the large poly counts, you can use the (Simplify &) Normalmap tool.
I save the original displaced mesh and then run the tool with Tangent space
option checked. You can see the vertices count comparassion between the
the 2 meshes in the screen cap. attached. Be warned, it can take a long time
to run on complex meshes, so you have to just let it do it's thing.
The advantage is you can create complex meshes for say a render, and
simplify a copy for real -time shared space etc.
Wow! Thanks for this info SteveBe,
The Simplified Mesh on the right has only about 1/5th the polycount and still retains a lot of the original detail just fine! Excellent, I didn't even know this was there!:o
Maybe I can start saving some of these puppies for practical use now!;)
- 3dvisuals dude |
Post by SteveBe // Jun 11, 2007, 7:47am
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SteveBe
Total Posts: 282
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You're welcome 3dvisuals dude!:)
One important point I left out is the simplified mesh is triangulated, so that is
why I said save a copy of your original displaced mesh if you want do make
changes later. |
Post by Burnart // Jun 11, 2007, 1:14pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Is it possible to create an animated displacement? Eg. a greyscale frame sequence of rolling waves or something similar. I suspect if it can be done its an LE solution and I'm just not very au fait with that at this stage so perhaps someone with a better understanding of these things could help out here. |
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 12, 2007, 10:13am
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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Is it possible to create an animated displacement? Eg. a greyscale frame sequence of rolling waves or something similar. I suspect if it can be done its an LE solution and I'm just not very au fait with that at this stage so perhaps someone with a better understanding of these things could help out here.
Burnart I have only read that it is possible to animate displacement map but I have not done so myself. |
Post by SteveBe // Jun 12, 2007, 1:25pm
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SteveBe
Total Posts: 282
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Yes it's possible to animate displacement by several methods. Yes it requires
some work in the LE. Sorry, no time to do a tut. right now but as an overview
you could use something like Délé's material animation script or by moving the U/V's.
Moving U/V is the method I used here:
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showpost.php?p=29003&postcount=6 |
Post by Délé // Jun 13, 2007, 10:51am
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Délé
Total Posts: 1374
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Nice work e-graffiti. :)
Is it possible to create an animated displacement? Eg. a greyscale frame sequence of rolling waves or something similar. I suspect if it can be done its an LE solution and I'm just not very au fait with that at this stage so perhaps someone with a better understanding of these things could help out here.Yep, you can animate the UV reps like Steve showed above or you can animate a series of still images. It does take some LE work, but once you have it down it only takes a few minutes to set up.
Here's a short video I made a while back showing animated displacement with a series of still images using the Texture Animator script:
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showpost.php?p=29469&postcount=12
Here's a link to the Texture Animator script if you want to give it a try:
http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?t=3267 |
Post by Burnart // Jun 13, 2007, 3:10pm
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Burnart
Total Posts: 839
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Thanks for the info SteveBe and Dele - I'll check into it when my computer finishes this particle thing its been rendering for days! (hope its worth the effort I've never had the patience for slow processes!) ;) |
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 14, 2007, 2:27am
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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I was hoping that the manual that came with tS 7.51 would better explain some of the displacement mapper options like "zero threshold" and "uv set". |
Post by kena // Jun 14, 2007, 8:34pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around this one. I think that IF I could get it fully understood, then I would have lots of options.
Here is an example.
using the exact same settings
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I created these spheres. used Geospehere and model sphere on the model side, and then the sphere on the workspace side
Different resolutions/vertices for each.
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Did the bottom row first, and then used displacement mapping on the same model sphere with a quad divide. the one at the top right was the original and the ones going left were my various divisions.
How do you get the neat effects shown in the first couple of posts? |
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 15, 2007, 6:13am
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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I'm still trying to get my head wrapped around this one. I think that IF I could get it fully understood, then I would have lots of options.
You are off to a good start. I would recommend that you start with an image that is a bit simpler with a more "predictable" outcome then the one you are using. I would also recommend that you set both the U/V reps to 1.00 and just get your head around the "gain" values then start playing with UV reps. Apply the image then do the subdivisions is another recommendation. |
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 15, 2007, 9:31am
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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Kena
One thing I should also mention is that with the default settings of the Displacement mapper, black creates indents while white creates height. I would suggest you "reverse" the colors of your above image to get the results you expect. Now the Displacement tool can reverse black/white behavior but until you get your head around the tool you should reverse the colors of your above image. |
Post by kena // Jun 15, 2007, 1:00pm
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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actually, I was trying to make the black parts indents. :D this is actually the image I used to create a fun little canyon I was playing with a while ago. reversing the image may indeed bring about some intresting changes. |
Post by kena // Jun 17, 2007, 7:26am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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ok - I think I'm getting the hang of this one... at least for simple shapes.
6919 |
Post by e-graffiti // Jun 17, 2007, 10:50am
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e-graffiti
Total Posts: 171
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ok - I think I'm getting the hang of this one... at least for simple shapes.
6919
yeah, looking good. |
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