New Grass
New Grass
Hey everyone, I know there are already a few grass creation compounds out there but I decided to add the one I am working on anyway to get some outside input. I am using this project to expand my ICE knowledge and the grass compound is just a simple grass painting tool for now.
how to use:
1. First create the mesh which will emit the grass and apply two weight maps to it one called "weight map" and one called "Height map"
2. Create empty point cloud and apply ICE tree
3. Connect the Zybrand_Grass compound to the ICE tree and connect the emitter object to Geometry port
4. If the grass compound is still red open the PPG and at the top pick the weight map .weights and then the height maps .weights
5. Additionally to control the color through ICE connect the color attribute to the diffuse of the shader and set it to ColorAlongStrands (in the ICE tree the color along strands gets blended with the color variation of the particles, and that can all be controlled from the grass PPG)
Let me know what you think of the compound, I would welcome some feedback and advise on how to improve it or what to add.
how to use:
1. First create the mesh which will emit the grass and apply two weight maps to it one called "weight map" and one called "Height map"
2. Create empty point cloud and apply ICE tree
3. Connect the Zybrand_Grass compound to the ICE tree and connect the emitter object to Geometry port
4. If the grass compound is still red open the PPG and at the top pick the weight map .weights and then the height maps .weights
5. Additionally to control the color through ICE connect the color attribute to the diffuse of the shader and set it to ColorAlongStrands (in the ICE tree the color along strands gets blended with the color variation of the particles, and that can all be controlled from the grass PPG)
Let me know what you think of the compound, I would welcome some feedback and advise on how to improve it or what to add.
Last edited by Zybrand on 15 Sep 2011, 08:40, edited 1 time in total.
Re: New Grass
thank you for the compound, it seems nice but i have some problem, after i followed step by step your guide as soon as i launch the render softimage crashes.
I cant see strands being created. Maybe i'm doing something wrong.
Max
edit: nevermind, solved, i just applied the weight maps, but i didnt actually paint on them
works good!
I cant see strands being created. Maybe i'm doing something wrong.
Max
edit: nevermind, solved, i just applied the weight maps, but i didnt actually paint on them
works good!
Re: New Grass
I've got some problems:
The compound doesn't create any strand, and it seems correct, when I pick the wight maps, it creates some point, but the compound turns red and when I try to render softimage gives me an error.
In Get particle EmitLocation, the Get self.EmitPosition is red, both, the one connected to Height_map an the other to the Weight_map, I don't know if that it's normal.
If posible, Can you make a little video showing how to properly use it? I Know little about Ice and Softimage, so a video would help a lot.
Thanks in advance.
The compound doesn't create any strand, and it seems correct, when I pick the wight maps, it creates some point, but the compound turns red and when I try to render softimage gives me an error.
In Get particle EmitLocation, the Get self.EmitPosition is red, both, the one connected to Height_map an the other to the Weight_map, I don't know if that it's normal.
If posible, Can you make a little video showing how to properly use it? I Know little about Ice and Softimage, so a video would help a lot.
Thanks in advance.
Re: New Grass
i think you are doing my same mistake as before, you need to actually paint the weights.Voltaje wrote:I've got some problems:
The compound doesn't create any strand, and it seems correct, when I pick the wight maps, it creates some point, but the compound turns red and when I try to render softimage gives me an error.
In Get particle EmitLocation, the Get self.EmitPosition is red, both, the one connected to Height_map an the other to the Weight_map, I don't know if that it's normal.
If posible, Can you make a little video showing how to properly use it? I Know little about Ice and Softimage, so a video would help a lot.
Thanks in advance.
here is a screen, hope it helps:
and here is a quick test, i already love it!
Thanks again for the compound!!
Max
Re: New Grass
Yeah, now is working, thanks a lot Maximus.
Although sofitmage crashes when I reduce o change the features.
Although sofitmage crashes when I reduce o change the features.
Re: New Grass
Hey guy, thanks for trying the compound. This is the first time other people are working with one of my compounds so I am glad to see its working for the most part
I am glad your enjoying the compound Maximus. Loving the render you got there
I hope to see some more.
Voltaje I dont have time right now but I will try and maak a little how to video by next week. In the meanwhile I attached a sample scene as well. So far the main issue people are having is the weight map connections and they do seem to be easy break, and once they break they can be tricky to fix. I work on they and see if there is a better way of hooking them up.If posible, Can you make a little video showing how to properly use it? I Know little about Ice and Softimage, so a video would help a lot.
Thanks in advance
I don't have a explanation for your crashing issue yet but I will look into it. Try the sample scene and see if you still have crashing issues then.Although sofitmage crashes when I reduce o change the features.
I am glad your enjoying the compound Maximus. Loving the render you got there
I hope to see some more.
Last edited by Zybrand on 15 Sep 2011, 09:15, edited 1 time in total.
Re: New Grass
I've got some question, what does Weight_map does? beacuse Height_map let you paint the grass, but when I draw having wight_map selected, nothing happen.
What's overral color wheight, strand color gradient and strand color weight?, beacuse doing some testing, I can change the color of the strands with Overral color, but not with strand color gradient.
What kind of things can be connected in On creation, thanks in advance and sorry if some answers are obvious, I'm not so god at Ice or Softiamge.
What's overral color wheight, strand color gradient and strand color weight?, beacuse doing some testing, I can change the color of the strands with Overral color, but not with strand color gradient.
What kind of things can be connected in On creation, thanks in advance and sorry if some answers are obvious, I'm not so god at Ice or Softiamge.
Re: New Grass
I can answer to the color issue: to control the color using the strand color gradient you need to add a Color_Attribute to the pointcloud material:Voltaje wrote:I've got some question, what does Weight_map does? beacuse Height_map let you paint the grass, but when I draw having wight_map selected, nothing happen.
What's overral color wheight, strand color gradient and strand color weight?, beacuse doing some testing, I can change the color of the strands with Overral color, but not with strand color gradient.
What kind of things can be connected in On creation, thanks in advance and sorry if some answers are obvious, I'm not so god at Ice or Softiamge.
I'm not sure if I'm doing the right way, SI is still new to me.
Hope this may helps somehow.
Piero Desopo
http://phoenixart.com
http://phoenixart.com
Re: New Grass
Hi Voltaje, first of all thanks for all the feedback. I updated the compound to 2.3 so download the new one and replace your old one before you do anymore tests.
I hope this answers all your questions, Let me know if I missed anything.
The weight map should actually be the density map because that is its function. It is applied to the points that the strands are created from and it is a standard filter by weight map compound. See the attached image below about the weight map to height map relationship that should explain everything. If yours in not working like that the the weight map is not applied correctly. If you cant get it to work and you feel you don't need it you can go into the compound and just unplug it, the compound should work fine without it.I've got some question, what does Weight_map does?
Thanks for pointing this one out my colors setup was not working correctly and I didn't notice it was broken because I was working with shades of green all the time, but I fixed up the nodes and it should work fine in the new compound. See the attached image which should explain the way the color setup works.What's overral color wheight, strand color gradient and strand color weight?
I left that one in there because I used it to plug in things like filter by volume to delete grass when there is objects in the grass field like a big rock or something like that.What kind of things can be connected in On creation
I hope this answers all your questions, Let me know if I missed anything.
Re: New Grass
Almost forgot but I updated the sample scene as well.
Enjoy
Enjoy
Re: New Grass
Dankie Lourens!
Re: New Grass
Nice! Thanks! will be good open in main compound strand size profile graph.
Re: New Grass
+ Will be nice create port for get color from texture map
Re: New Grass
ag dit is n plesier Werner
I am making some time this week to work on the compound so I will have a look at exposing the size profile, and about adding color from texture map functionality.
Has anyone tried to read the alpha value of the grass strands from the ICE tree? I can't get that to work and I am not sure if I am missing something in ICE or if my render tree setup is wrong, I think its my shader setup in the render tree that's wrong can anyone help with that one?
thanks for the feedback!
I am making some time this week to work on the compound so I will have a look at exposing the size profile, and about adding color from texture map functionality.
Has anyone tried to read the alpha value of the grass strands from the ICE tree? I can't get that to work and I am not sure if I am missing something in ICE or if my render tree setup is wrong, I think its my shader setup in the render tree that's wrong can anyone help with that one?
thanks for the feedback!
Re: New Grass
Hey Everyone, here is the latest update to Zybrand Grass. Some of the functionality has changes and a few things have been added mostly based on user requests.
Key Updates:
1. Switches to turn weight maps on and off.
2. Strand size profile now exposed.
3. More bend parameters exposed.
4. Colour controls (including color by texture map) now in separate compound.
How Zybrand grass works:
step 1: Create a primitive from which to emit the grass from or use any other polygon mesh of your choice. Create a weight map on the mesh and keep the default name, the will control the filter by weight map attribute so grass will only be painted where needed. Now create a second weight map and rename it to Height map, this will the height of the strands on different areas of the mesh according to the map values. Remember to paint some weights and freeze the weight maps.
step 2: Create an empty pointcloud and apply a non simulated ICE tree to it. Now connect the Zybrand_Grass_2 compound to the first port. Drag the emitter mesh into the ICE tree and connect it to the emit port of the grass compound. If step 1 was done correctly the grass strands should appear and the compound will turn purple. If the compound is still red one or both of the map need to be connected correctly, the maps can be manually picked for inside the compound PPG. Use the explore button and find the appropriate maps weights attribute.
step 3: The colour controls is now a different compound which should simply be plugged in the next port in the ICE tree. There are two to choose from Zy strand color and Zy strand color advanced. The only difference between the two is the advanced colour can switch between using colour values and a texture map. So if you are not planning on using a texture map just stick with Zy strand color.
rray I see you added my compound to you Softimage resources site, thanks for that. Can you maybe change the name of the title on there form New Grass to Zybrand Grass?
Key Updates:
1. Switches to turn weight maps on and off.
2. Strand size profile now exposed.
3. More bend parameters exposed.
4. Colour controls (including color by texture map) now in separate compound.
How Zybrand grass works:
step 1: Create a primitive from which to emit the grass from or use any other polygon mesh of your choice. Create a weight map on the mesh and keep the default name, the will control the filter by weight map attribute so grass will only be painted where needed. Now create a second weight map and rename it to Height map, this will the height of the strands on different areas of the mesh according to the map values. Remember to paint some weights and freeze the weight maps.
step 2: Create an empty pointcloud and apply a non simulated ICE tree to it. Now connect the Zybrand_Grass_2 compound to the first port. Drag the emitter mesh into the ICE tree and connect it to the emit port of the grass compound. If step 1 was done correctly the grass strands should appear and the compound will turn purple. If the compound is still red one or both of the map need to be connected correctly, the maps can be manually picked for inside the compound PPG. Use the explore button and find the appropriate maps weights attribute.
step 3: The colour controls is now a different compound which should simply be plugged in the next port in the ICE tree. There are two to choose from Zy strand color and Zy strand color advanced. The only difference between the two is the advanced colour can switch between using colour values and a texture map. So if you are not planning on using a texture map just stick with Zy strand color.
rray I see you added my compound to you Softimage resources site, thanks for that. Can you maybe change the name of the title on there form New Grass to Zybrand Grass?
Re: New Grass
Nice! Thanks. one question: when use texture map, I have`t see color on strands in viewport (render OK). Strand must take color from texture map.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 37 guests