The Anisotropic Shader?

[Taron333]

Anisotropic OUTPUTS:

HL Color = Highlight Color (it's the output of pure highlight color and usually gets ADDed (+) into RADIANCE)

HL Value = Highlight Value (that would be the grayscale value as unmodified highlight brightness) (usually you just want Color, though!)

THRU_Color (The anisotropic shader can modify textures that you feed into the inputs of it and spits them back out through the THRU outputs. It squeezes textures according to the type of anisotropic effect and of course the directions!)

THRU_Value...same thing, just with values.

There's a special feature in the shader itself that creates a bumpmap in case you want fine bumps without going into the actual bump channel of your material! For a few reasons that is currently a good choice, but you may as well use the material's bump channel and leave it at 0 in the Aniso.Shader .

Hope that helped a little. A great reminder to us to be - even on such sudden additions to the feature library like with this shader update - more observant in terms of documenting! Thank you and forgive us or in this case me...it's all my fault... ;)

Taron

[rush123]

Taron,

Thanks for the additional information, perhaps you could provide a couple os simple examples?

R

[AAAron]

Thanks Taron! Looking forward to play around with it tonight :bounce:

[Taron333]

Hehehe, please do, it's totally fun! There's an input called "tilt" which translates a grayscale image into degrees to rotate the axis for the anisotropic microbumping. Oh, let me do this a bit more global:

JUST in case this hasn't been clear to everyone, you should know what the idea behind anisotropic highlights (reflections) are. They simulate microbumps by giving us the most obvious indication or effect that comes from them. Highlights appear stretched because of tiny ripples on the surface that cover angles which normally would reflect any light anymore. Anyway, that means they simulate microbumps and in this case stripes. This striping is oriented by multiple choices in form of axis along (or against) which the striping goes and the method that defines whether it goes along or against. Anyway, the "tilt" input allows the texturing of the striping direction! So you can do wildly brushed metal for example or other complex effects. Even hair like shading on objects that simulate hair for example (comic NPR type of renderings).
The only downside as of now is, that it rotates only on axis, it banks! To keep the texturing reasonably understandable it translates grayscale values for 0 to 1 into degrees of banking from 0 to 360. With this information you are in theory able to do some destinct shaping of the brush directions! It's fun, too! But one other useful side is, that you can use a single instance of it to brush a whole set of differently oriented objects which all have the same surface.

There's a lot more to explain, but it's also something to explore, so please, have a go with it and try to explore...it basically all makes sense, so by the time you know what it means, you can handle it...isn't that nice. So in other words, it's not like by the time you figured out what kind of astronomical phenomenon was approached when they developed the forumla that gives you the number you want for a specific effect, you still won't have the numbers because you don't have the formula. It's not like that, it's rather simple...I'll continue to give explanations once I get awake...need to make my first coffee right now! :argh: :wip: :scream:

[Julez4001]

Hey Taron copy all this and put it in the messiah docs so you haven't to do it all over again.

[Taron333]

Hey Julez, was good to meet you again at Siggraph! :)

You're totally right, but I think I will have to leave out the coffee section! :D

[AAAron]

Made a simple brass doorknop tonight, really fun to move around the lights and se how the surface behaved. Next is to try the thingie on a screw I just modeled :thumbsup:

[ThomasHelzle]

A great reminder to us to be - even on such sudden additions to the feature library like with this shader update - more observant in terms of documenting!
I don't think anyone could ask for more or better documentation than there is provided. All those fantastic and up to date sample scenes, tutorials that make your eyes pop out and a team that is so fast with answering questions so thoroughly that you wonder when they do the actual coding...
The sheer amount of available tutorial DVDs is breathtaking.
The detailed roadmap really gives you something to drool and relly on with your studios budget planning and ...
Ooops - wrong forum ;)

Sorry couldn't ressist :p

[Parsec3d]

some one pls give Thomas a hug ... ;)

[FB_Turbine]

some one pls give Thomas a hug ... ;)

I second that

[Taron333]

Uh, I so want to answer to this. But I much rather continue to create! :lightbulb
Unfortunately I do this a lot more successfully than to document it and honestly wish that at some point we will have a small extra team that can take over writing the documentations, because we come up and put it so many new and/or improved features these days. We'll have a lot to pick up.

I know, I'm being not overly diplomatic when I say that, but in some ways I feel that we're about to reach a new and noticably higher level in terms of our rendering and shading implementation and their accessability. There had been a powerful innovation brewing up in our brains for some time now and it will cause a few changes and new approaches towards controlling and designing the shading. This is partially what made me hesitant on explaining the existing elements in too much depth, because well....it's almost just training for everybody. It's kind of a bad excuse and totally can not make up for the lack of training material, but the results sure will, you'll see! The principles will stay the same, so keep working with it, create, explore and in the meantime I'll try to be there as much as I can to help out with explaining some steps. I'm highly wrapped up into projects I need to pay attention to, but will keep one eye on the threads to jump!

Hey Thomas, havn't heard from you in a while, I'm sorry I have been invisible for such a long time, but I couldn't handle the chatting while I'm so busy and my machine is acting up...think I might have a virus in there, too?! Not sure... anyway... any new messiah things from you that are fun and amazing? I'm already shaking in my boots for that reply, though...looks like your sarcasm is peaking again...or still? I wrote a new derivative of my turbulence derivative by using some classic and some curious mathematical observations. One of them is based on Fibonnaci and the other one on a strange formula that somehow came to me. It's in the update of "noisette"-shader. Be good, my friend!


Taron

[Julez4001]

Outside of the core team (Dan, Fori, Lyle) there is Fred, Ron and Taron who work for them on what looks to be outside tools for messiah (shaders, rigs, scripts, and doc). Are they worknig on element by element or full time ..who knows?
But I think they that are working on the next level (messiah:Animate 6 and Studio 3) which in itself will most likely be a "paid upgrade". As they probably need a new influx of cash for development. Those new tools has to be badass enough for ppl to pay for them so they probably trying to hit a deadline.

Alas they do need an additional team to help with docs/tuts: "hey I'm freelancing".

I think the biggest frustration in the last 3 years with messiah is that is fallen so far behind in a area that they pretty much help create: large content/tutorials with the application.

[ThomasHelzle]

hahahah - yes, that was sarcasm. I may have forgotten the correct html tags for the dripping blood.

Seriously, I don't touch messiah until those wonderful things actually happen.
Hearing about them doesn't work for me anymore.
You and the other pmG members are on the interesting side, nice to hear that it is fascinating for you.
We users are locked at the other side, which is not exactly fascinating.

I also wrote some cool new functions, but for AoN:XSI, not messiah.

A documentation and user communication team would be great. I finally could retire.

Now back to your fun.

[AAAron]

A little test drive of the new shader:

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/465/skruv0009ui.th.png (http://img232.imageshack.us/my.php?image=skruv0009ui.png)

Tarons Anisotropic shader and Thomas AoN Nosie shader, hand in hand, or should I say node in node ;)

Pulled some in the contrast in photoshop otherwise clean messiah render.

[Leebre]

I think the biggest frustration in the last 3 years with messiah is that is fallen so far behind in a area that they pretty much help create: large content/tutorials with the application.

Maybe it's because they are furiously documenting and creating content for an amazing new v.3!

[ThomasHelzle]

hehehe - looks great.

"node in node they walked together into the blood red sundown" >LOL<

AAAron: if you want to be included into my users gallery with this image, please let me know.

[AAAron]

hehehe - looks great.

"node in node they walked together into the blood red sundown" >LOL<

AAAron: if you want to be included into my users gallery with this image, please let me know.

Yes include it, that would be very nice :thumbsup:

/Aron Hagerman

[ThomasHelzle]

OK, do you want to have a link to your homepage included or a special tag/copyright/name on it? If yes, send it to me offline.


Edit: OK, done:
http://www.screendream.de/AoN_Gallery.htm
Thank you :thumbsup:

[AAAron]

Just my name is fine :)

Nice! :thumbsup:

[Taron333]

That's kick-S, Aaaron! Great start!!! And it's great to see a new image so quickly! I mean, I just saw it now, but still! Thanx, man! :bounce:

:thumbsup:

Taron

[AAAron]

That's kick-S, Aaaron! Great start!!! And it's great to see a new image so quickly! I mean, I just saw it now, but still! Thanx, man! :bounce:

:thumbsup:

Taron

Thanks, happy that you liked it. Next for me is to play around and test that tilt input :thumbsup:

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