YE old jellyfish thread again

[JIII]

Hmm, that is very complex, a modified glass shader with different colors in the specular channel might work for the outer layer. Very interest, I will keep my eyes on this thread.

-JIII

[Rantin Al]

Here's a quickie using Arndt's Skin Shader. I know you asked for no plug-ins but I gave up with SSS. ;-)

This highly realistic model of the Scottish Greater Spotted Wobblefish was modelled from a flattened sphere with a couple of Matrix Extrudes applied to loop selections on the flat base.

I did a quick animation using a keyframed Bulge deformer for that added touch of realism.

Cheers, Al.

[Damsel]

Thanks for the replies. :-) I made a start. Here are the specs so far with the image below. Any suggestions are welcomed.

The object is in different parts:
Outside: Revolved spline
Inside: Revolved spline
Tentacles: SweepNURBS
Feeder Tentacles: Polygon objects, subdivided with points arranged to simulate wavy feel and then duplicated.

Shader 1: (main body)
1) Color : Fresnel (shades of blue)
2) Luminance: Fresnel (shades of blue)
3) Bump: Electric at 297%
4) Specularity

Shader 2: (Tentacles)
1) Color: Fresnel (shades of blue)
2) Luminance: Fresnel (shades of blue)
3) Diffusion: Noise (Sema-452%)
4) Bump: Layer --- two noise layers -- Sema @ 452% and Electric @ 297%

http://www.berry-designs.com/pictures/jellyfish.jpg

[soccerrprp]

VERY NICE! Now to animate that thing....:)

[Damsel]

Thank you! But no way can I animate it. I have taken Slouchcorp's tutorial and no matter how closely I follow the steps after tons of work and time.........it all flies apart. :-) I have tried in various programs over and over and have come to the conclusion that I wasn't born to be an animator. ;-) I wish I had...it would be fun I know!

[Rantin Al]

Looking good, Damsel.

Try including the Transparency channel and put in the Fresnel option. You need to experiment with the shades of grey and the position of the sliders to refine the look.
It will help to add a bit of translucency.

For an animating effect, add a Bulge or Twist deformer and animate the parameters of these instead of trying to rig with bones.
You could also try animating the position of the deformer so that it passes through the jellyfish.
Simple things like this can make it pulse quite realistically.

HTH, AL.

[Furan]

that was my try for a little fantasy movie ...

the shader used is a little variaton of the Shader-Test from Björn Döring (http://www.bjodo.de)

http://www.furan.de/incoming/quallchen.jpg

[Damsel]

That is wonderful!! Thanks for all of the tips also. Here he is with a shear deformer on the tentacles. :-)

http://www.berry-designs.com/pictures/jellyfish2.jpg

[bobzilla]

Very nice job, Damsel. Looks pretty convincing. Personally, I would make it more clear, or colorless than blue, and maybe a reddish center at the base of the main bulbous area where it meets the tentacles. Just my opinion. don't know your intention.

As far as animating, you want to use the Dino Tail example that comes with MOCCA and adapt that to the tentancles. Either make a couple of chains, or for simplicity, maybe have them all follow one bone chain.

I've attached a VERY simple version of the idea.

[bobtronic]

Looks very nice. The Hair module is another option to animate the tentacles. There is the "Instance" mode on the "Generate" tab of the Hair object.

EDIT: just saw that you don't have the Hair module

Bob

[Furan]

my example animates in the way, that the mid and outer tentacles are cloth objects belt to the hat who deforms over ik.

[Damsel]

Thank you very much to all for the input and ideas. I will try them out. Also thanks for the file example! I appreciate the great help. :)

[govinda]

That's great, damsel. I don't know how I feel about using recognizeable noise patterns, but personally I try to disguise the noises. To that end, I can see that 'sema' on the top bulb. But if it works, it works, and I'm not dogmatic on the point.

[Damsel]

:) I kind of wanted it to look a bit "veiny" so that's the reason I did that. It may be a bit much however like you say. I'm still playing with it. Thanks for the input!

[JIII]

Very nice looking, if you play with around with fresnal more, and also try multiple specular colors + some backlighting you will find some absolutely stunning effects.

[Erik Heyninck]

Like Govinda said: a more mysterious pattern is better than an easily recogniseable noise pattern.

A suggestion of a method: take a fusion shader and enter in one of both channels a noise, for example sparse convolution. Set it (always an example: depends on your scale of work) to some 150% and some 90% contrast.
Copy the shader, and paste it in the other channel. Now invert the colours (black to white, white to black) and set the scale to some 10% smaller (ie 140% in this example).

This is only a general technique. I don't enter into too much detail not to spoil your fun.

[Damsel]

Thanks to you both! Lots of fun ideas. I will play with all of your ideas and see how it goes. I'll post him again when I'm done. :)

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