There´s always the "wave" deformer on geometry (deform-plane) and mix it up with "flow along surface" (ICE for the emmiter), vector to -X and I can imagine this will have you closer to what you seek....
On Tue, May 5, 2015 at 2:13 PM, Will Sharkey <[email protected]> wrote: > Thanks for that write up, Im just got a really good result using that > method. It'll certainly be a mix of geo and fog. > > Really appreciate it, Cheers. > > On Mon, May 4, 2015 at 6:12 PM, Matt Lind <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Many ways to attempt this. >> >> If you prefer working with geometry, you can create some curves and >> extrude them vertically along an axis to create a wall of sorts, then >> animate the curves wriggling as they travel across the sky. The extruded >> surface can use a shader to control falloff. Render the geometry as >> separate passes using constant shading for faster render times as well as >> full control over the color. Finally, blur the passes in post before >> assembling. >> >> Another route to consider is using a light, 2 bitmap textures, and a cube >> with a volume shader. Essentially you'll shine a light onto the textures >> which act as a mask to create light rays inside the volume of the cube. >> The rays can be rendered, colored, varied and blurred. >> >> The cube is made large enough to fill the sky and uses a constant >> material with full transparency so the inside of the cube can be seen. The >> first bitmap texture is a matte containing the noise pattern you want to >> use for the shape of the borealis effect. The 2nd bitmap texture is a >> wash/gradient to drive the effect's color. Project the textures in the XZ >> plane from underneath onto the cube. Shine the light from underneath the >> cube to cast rays into the cube via the volume shader. The volume shader >> can have most of it's features deactivated to speed up rendering (should >> render really fast). All you need is the active light list, density, and >> color....and possibly raymarching step set small enough to not see >> aliasing. You should not need shadow casting provided by the volume >> shader. Shadow falloff of the light as well as density of the volume >> shader control the height of the borealis effect, which can also be varied >> by inserting a noise node into the rendertree, or by projecting another >> texture from the light or onto the side of the cube to act like a matte. >> render the scene, then blur the results a bit in a compositor. The >> advantage to this technique is it can be completely procedural, but still >> leave the door wide open for you to override that with manual control at >> any step of the way. >> >> Matt >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Date: Mon, 4 May 2015 11:47:45 -0400 >> From: Will Sharkey <[email protected]> >> Subject: aurora borealis effect >> To: "[email protected]" >> >> >> I've been doing some research on how to achieve this effect with >> particles. >> I was thinking sheets of particles with a bunch of turbulence and other >> forces: >> >> https://youtu.be/8NrhuBhgmjU?t=33 >> >> I'm still brainstorming, Any thoughts or approaches? Would you use >> particles or animated Geo and a bunch of layered animated sequences? >> >> Thanks in advance >> >> > -- Portfolio 2013 <http://be.net/3dcinetv> Cinema & TV production Video Reel <https://vimeo.com/3dcinetv/reel2012>
