New Grass

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Zybrand
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New Grass

Post by Zybrand » 12 Sep 2011, 21:14

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.
Zybrand_Grass_2.3.0.rar
(30.23 KiB) Downloaded 999 times
Strand_Hair compare.jpg
Strand_Hair compare.jpg (250.59 KiB) Viewed 11193 times
Strand_grass.jpg
Strand_grass.jpg (164.14 KiB) Viewed 11193 times
Last edited by Zybrand on 15 Sep 2011, 08:40, edited 1 time in total.

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Maximus
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Re: New Grass

Post by Maximus » 13 Sep 2011, 01:07

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!

Voltaje
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Joined: 14 Jul 2011, 06:59

Re: New Grass

Post by Voltaje » 13 Sep 2011, 01:46

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.

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Maximus
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Re: New Grass

Post by Maximus » 13 Sep 2011, 02:01

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.
i think you are doing my same mistake as before, you need to actually paint the weights.
here is a screen, hope it helps:

Image

and here is a quick test, i already love it!

Image

Thanks again for the compound!!

Max

Voltaje
Posts: 13
Joined: 14 Jul 2011, 06:59

Re: New Grass

Post by Voltaje » 13 Sep 2011, 02:41

Yeah, now is working, thanks a lot Maximus.
Although sofitmage crashes when I reduce o change the features.

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Zybrand
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Re: New Grass

Post by Zybrand » 13 Sep 2011, 10:09

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 :)
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
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.
Although sofitmage crashes when I reduce o change the features.
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.

I am glad your enjoying the compound Maximus. Loving the render you got there :-bd
I hope to see some more.
Zybrand_Grass_sample_scene.rar
(251.62 KiB) Downloaded 462 times
Last edited by Zybrand on 15 Sep 2011, 09:15, edited 1 time in total.

Voltaje
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Joined: 14 Jul 2011, 06:59

Re: New Grass

Post by Voltaje » 13 Sep 2011, 23:14

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.

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pdesopo
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Joined: 08 Jul 2011, 23:49

Re: New Grass

Post by pdesopo » 14 Sep 2011, 11:29

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 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:
Image

I'm not sure if I'm doing the right way, SI is still new to me.
Hope this may helps somehow.

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Zybrand
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Re: New Grass

Post by Zybrand » 15 Sep 2011, 09:10

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've got some question, what does Weight_map does?
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.
What's overral color wheight, strand color gradient and strand color weight?
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 kind of things can be connected in On creation
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.

I hope this answers all your questions, Let me know if I missed anything.
Weights.jpg
Weights.jpg (184.83 KiB) Viewed 11006 times
0 to 1.jpg
0 to 1.jpg (218.25 KiB) Viewed 11006 times

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Zybrand
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Re: New Grass

Post by Zybrand » 15 Sep 2011, 09:16

Almost forgot but I updated the sample scene as well.

Enjoy

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Werner
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Re: New Grass

Post by Werner » 27 Sep 2011, 11:04

Dankie Lourens!

Ramon
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Re: New Grass

Post by Ramon » 28 Sep 2011, 00:02

Nice! Thanks! will be good open in main compound strand size profile graph.

Ramon
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Re: New Grass

Post by Ramon » 29 Sep 2011, 12:49

+ Will be nice create port for get color from texture map

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Zybrand
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Re: New Grass

Post by Zybrand » 04 Oct 2011, 21:32

ag dit is n plesier Werner :D

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! :)

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Zybrand
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Re: New Grass

Post by Zybrand » 13 Oct 2011, 00:38

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.
Zybrand Grass 2_5_1.rar
(42.16 KiB) Downloaded 429 times
Zy Grass 2_5 sample scene 01.rar
(225.4 KiB) Downloaded 487 times
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?

Ramon
Posts: 111
Joined: 19 Aug 2010, 22:47

Re: New Grass

Post by Ramon » 13 Oct 2011, 08:55

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.

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