fog shader

[DaliFan]

it makes perfect sense and I wish I had the answer because I want to know as well

anyone?

[Per-Anders]

it depends on how deep the fog is set and what type fo fog you use.

ordinary fog in a shader can be effective provided you switch off the other channels (i.e. color etc) however it will always fill up the shape of hte object to a certain degree.

volumetric fog (as in placing the fog shader on an object) will create groundfog in the shape of the object in question.

if you just want fog in a scene then you should use the environment object, that has inbuilt fog settings if you choose to switch them on.

the fog channel in a material is in fact a volumetric effect, you will get the shape of the object simply because it's like having that object filled with fog. if you want to break up a patch of fog for instance to create puffs of cloud or something then you ave ot break up the shape of hte object to which you are applying fog.

ther are alternative fog shaders out there though

try bhodinut Praline, this gives a far greater degree of control over teh fog settings, amongst other things

pyrocluster can give you the cloudy effeects, tyr to use it in post mode to get speedier results.

then there's the free pelham design shaders. do a google search for them.

it all depends on exactly what effect you're after. for instance it may be that using planes with alpha textures may get you the result you need.

explain a scenario and maybe i'll be able to give you something a bit more suited to what you want.

[mason]

Thanks for the explanation, very helpful.
Im modelling a street scene with the view looking down the street and your typical scary film graveyard to the side. I had the idea that if I placed different sized shapes in various places it would be easier to move and handle the fog. Varying densities of fog is ideally what I want to give the scene more depth.

I don't know if that helps at all but thanks for the tips.

[Per-Anders]

well unless you really need to be able to totally control the fog, then a better bet would be to use an environmental object, then put on the 3d fog shader on it that comes with cinema and up the turbulence a bit, also make sure its' set to volumetric, this should give you what you want, curling mist that's not linear.

if you need more control then i suggest rotating your shapes around so that the edge doesn't have a large area perpendicular to the camera, as this will cause the edge of the fog to be more visible, if at all possible smooth out the edge by using spherical or rounded shapes.

hope that this helps.

[AdamT]

Another option is to use a large area or spot light below the ground with volumetric light. Turn shadow-casting off and use the falloff to control the fog height. I think Adam Watkins did a tutorial on this in 3D World a few months back.

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