dynamic footprints

[WhiteRabbitObj]

You should be able to make accurate footprints by making the surface the character is walking on a softbody, likely with springs for better results. Then, make either the character's foot, or, more likely, a standin object parented to the foot that has less geometry, make that a collision object with the particles of the softbody and voila... when your character's foot comes into contact with the surface, it will leave a dent. You will need to play with the settings on the softbody to get the results you desire... you need more resolution for sharper footprints such as snow, and less resolution for soft prints such as a bed or something. Also, you need to adjust the particle's conserve and/or goal weight in order to decide how fast, or if, the surface returns to it's original state of not having a footprint. Hopefully this helps you on the right track, tho it assumes you know something of softbodies already.

[BigSky]

You could also do it with textures, and it's fun!!

Here we go, an old Tom Klyskens trick ;) :

Create a node in the command Line:
createNode distanceBetween

you won't see anything, so open the hypergraph and hit the 'graph selection' button. If nothing happens, you've lost your selection, and you'll need to type in the selection tab "distanceBetween1". Now you've got it!

Open the hypershade with that node selected and drag it from the h'graph to the h'shade.

Now, make a nurbsSphere and drag it's shape node into the hypergraph as well. Create a samplerInfo node from the utilities tab. Make a 2d ramp(normal) (disconnect any u&v placement co-ords) and a clamp node as well.

Here's the list you should see in the h'shade

1. DistanceBetween node
2. Ramp
3. Clamp
4. nurbsSphereShape
5. SamplerInfoNode


Here are the connections:

Connect the nurbsSphere.worldInverseMatrix to the distance between in Matrix1
Connect the samplerInfoNode pointWorld to the distanceBetween.point1

connect the output of the distanceBetween.distance to the inputR of the clamp node.
SET THE MAX CLAMP R TO 1 !!

Connect the outR of the clamp to the rampU & rampV co-ords.

Then hook the outcolor of the ramp up to a lambert's colour.

SET THE HARDWARE SHADING TO "COMBINED TEXTURES" in the lamberts attribute tab.

Now, get your sphere and choose it's shape node in the attribute editor and set it to `opposite = on` and `doubleSided = off`, or just type
setAttr "nurbsSphereShape1.opposite" 1;
setAttr "nurbsSphereShape1.doubleSided" 0;
in the script editor.

Now... assign the lambert to the surface you want to displace, and then move the sphere close to it OH MY! the texture responds to the proximity of the sphere.

So, now, you've got the gist of it...you'll have to make that ramp a displacement (&bump) map, and away you go.

With a bit of application, this is a mighty handy technique for all sorts of things...soft shadows, blurred refelections, lighting effects, etc, etc.

Hope this helps

:)

[Jozvex]

Hey that's cool!

Though how would you go about increasing the size of the spot it makes? Or increasing the distance the sphere has to be from the floor before the spot appears? Because currently the very center of the sphere has to be very close.

I'm sure it's just a matter of tweaking values or adding in a Multiply/Divide node or something.

I've attached a screenshot of the effect working, in case people are wondering.

:thumbsup:

[BigSky]

Scaling the sphere should do it. You can do a non-proportional scale as well :). In fact, I'm puzzled as to why your red is so small...if it's getting the worldInverseMatrix from the sphere, it should be hunky dory:


http://staff.ci.qut.edu.au/~barkerc/DCIPublish/Site01%20folder/Site01/Images/proximity.gif

Methinks perhaps you didn't delete the place2d for the ramp?

[Jozvex]

Originally posted by BigSky
Methinks perhaps you didn't delete the place2d for the ramp?

Methinks what you thinks is right! I deleted the initial one, but when I connected the ramp to the correct shader it created a new one.

:scream:

[StylizedReality]

thanks so much for your replies, I'll be sure to post my results, thanks again

[king21]

can somebody please explain me what is worldinverseMatrix

please

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