SpiralFace
06-09-2009, 05:56 AM
Hey guys,
So I'm just trying to brain storm some solutions for creating a "short fur" shader that matches up well with the "long fur" of the Hair FX in max to save on attempting to render out ridiculous amounts of full body fur. Also, to add to the challenge, Its going for a bit of the "Cartoony" look, so I'm trying to get it where the color's basically blend in with eachother when viewed from the front, but look more like textured fur on the sides.
Straight bump maps and heavily color vaired diffuse maps seem to "cheapen" the effect by having a universal bump applied everywere, and having the diffuse being a bit too "noisy" for the cartoon look, while not having either one of those things seems to simply make the shader look flat and lifeless.
So I'm just brainstorming ideas for a "Cheap" way to get the best effect. I've been thinking of putting a fresnel effect on the bump to "flatten it out" in the front to have the colors blend a bit more, but I'm a bit iffy on what this would do to things that I want to be consistant throughout like the spec. I'm also thinking of putting falloffs between some "flat" color maps, and some "color varried" maps to keep it looking cartoony but textured like fur.
In the end, I'm kinda going for that Pixar / Dreamworks look where it isn't full on toon shaded, but at the same time, its heavily styalized as well.
Just wondered if anyone hear has done something similar, and just wanted to bounce around Ideas.
Thanks guys
So I'm just trying to brain storm some solutions for creating a "short fur" shader that matches up well with the "long fur" of the Hair FX in max to save on attempting to render out ridiculous amounts of full body fur. Also, to add to the challenge, Its going for a bit of the "Cartoony" look, so I'm trying to get it where the color's basically blend in with eachother when viewed from the front, but look more like textured fur on the sides.
Straight bump maps and heavily color vaired diffuse maps seem to "cheapen" the effect by having a universal bump applied everywere, and having the diffuse being a bit too "noisy" for the cartoon look, while not having either one of those things seems to simply make the shader look flat and lifeless.
So I'm just brainstorming ideas for a "Cheap" way to get the best effect. I've been thinking of putting a fresnel effect on the bump to "flatten it out" in the front to have the colors blend a bit more, but I'm a bit iffy on what this would do to things that I want to be consistant throughout like the spec. I'm also thinking of putting falloffs between some "flat" color maps, and some "color varried" maps to keep it looking cartoony but textured like fur.
In the end, I'm kinda going for that Pixar / Dreamworks look where it isn't full on toon shaded, but at the same time, its heavily styalized as well.
Just wondered if anyone hear has done something similar, and just wanted to bounce around Ideas.
Thanks guys