OK,
Try this out, I think it will work and will give you some options...
in the select window go to the fourth tab from the right and click it,
this is for user defined custom channels
right mouse click in this window and add a new float channel
name this new channel.. MY-FADE
Now go to the material window and create a new vsl material
In this material in a surface properties shader add a copy operator and
set it to copy the input 'MY-FADE" to the output SCOPE, then set a
constant, for example colour to red etc, you can also add whatever other
attributes you need to this material and simply add this scope operator
to each shader to comfine the effects to the areas you are about to define.
now comes some options...
You can make for example an SDS wall how ever you want... now in areas
where you want the material you just made to appear as full select some
of the points and goto to Spec tab of the objects propery window and in
the selected points section of the spec tab you see a drop down list of
attributes... select the attibute that appears there now "MY-FADE" and
you can set this attribute to a value from 0 to 1, now your material
will appear at these points accordingly from not at all to full... and
this will dissolve from one point to the next points in your object evenly.
You could also do as I think you are asking in this letter and simply
set this attibute for a whole object by setting the attribute directly
in the objects color tab and setting it for the whole object there from 0-1
This method has an advantage that you can now apply what ever other
materials you want to the wall, bricks for example, then use this
pointwise scope method to define areas of dirt and use a dirt material
applied wherever you want. You can also have as many of these custom
channels as you like and use them to define all kinds of attributes not
only just scope that you desire... experiment and have fun...
Hope this is enough to get you stared,
rgds,
Andrew
Matthew Hagerty wrote:
Thanks for the info. Unfortunately my exp. level is not high enough
to put to use what you described without an example or two.
I did come up with another idea about how to do this, I just need one
piece of information: It is possible to have an object report a piece
of information to a material? For example, if I had 28 objects and
used a tag to hold an "id" 1 to 28, is there anyway to pass that
number to a material? That way I could use a simple calculation in
the material to derive the color or illumination of that object and I
would have much better control over the fad I'm looking for. Also,
this works out because the corners of the wall will happen in
non-consistent places, so having 28 pieces to the wall would actually
be easier to work with.
Matthew
Andrew Berge wrote:
Hi,
As usual there are a few ways to achieve this result, I think you
will need to use a mesh object to do it easiest, you could say use an
SDS object with either set to polygonal interpolation or with extra
curves near the edges to achieve the sharpness u need, then use point
based scope by adding a custom channel and applying it to the points
you want then it will automatically blend for you between points.
Otherwise you could use UV mapping and use a vsl shader with a scope
or color etc UV based fade.
I am not sure of you experience level, so if y need some more help,
I will give you some more details.
rgds,
Andrew
Matthew Hagerty wrote:
Greetings,
I need a material that will fade a color (or modify illumination)
over the length of an object. Think of a wall, on the left I'd like
white, on the right some color, with a nice even fade across the
surface. That much I figured out. What I'm having a problem with
is when I need one or more corners in the wall, I can't figure out
how to start at one end and follow the wall's "path" to the other
end while fading the color.
Currently my wall is an analytic polyhedron, but it could be a mesh
too, as long as it has sharp corners. My current material works
fine as long as the wall is straight, but I really need the linear
fading to continue around the wall's corners.
I'm hoping someone can give me some ideas on how to do this, I'm at
a total loss.
Thanks,
Matthew
