MoGraph with Matrials

#1

Basically MoGraph does not have functions to change material channels except “Color”.

Then “MoGraph Color shader” is used to change material channels other than “Color”. However things is not so esay.

  1. Changing transparency color is easy.

http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_Transparency_color.mp4
http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_Transparency_color.zip

  1. But if your need “Grey scale”, you need to use “Colorizer” shader to convert color to grey scale.

http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_Transparency_grey.mp4
http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_Transparency_grey.zip

  1. Also materials with the MoGraph color shader may have some limitations. For example, if you apply the shader into “Luminance” channel, “Color” channel also becomes affected by this. So I tried to apply another color material with “additive” mode to the object, but it also does not work properly.

Basically, relationship between the Color channel and Luminance channel is “Add”, if total value exceeds 100%. But in case of this shader, things may different. Really strange.

In such cases, solution is only “layer object itself”.

http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_Illumination.mp4
http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_illuminance.zip

#2

Next, this is an example to move (flow) patterns generated by bitmap textures or shaders on clones.

Also the MoGraph does not have functions to move patterns on clones, because there is no “texture axis”.

So I had to make materials first, and apply them to shader effectors, then read the texture tag into the shader effecter. With the complex structure, you can freely move the patterns on clones, with texture axis.

http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_Illuminance_flow2.mp4
http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111101/MoGraph_illuminance_flow4.zip

#3

It’s important to understand that the “color” used by the mograph color shader is the internal clone color (NOT the material channel color).
Every clone may have it’s position, rotation, scale, etc. effected by an effector. So too may the internal clone color be effected by an effector and that internal color may be used by the color shader directly OR by using the color modes of the mograph multishader you may add any number/combination of textures or channel shaders for the multishader to select and place into the material channel for each clone!
To view the internal color of a clone;
Go to the Clone generator/cloner Transform Tab and from the Display menu select Color!
From the Transform Tab you can set the default internal clone color.
It’s a bit tricky to type out in a simple paragraph but basically the Mograph Color Shader can be thought of as a way to access an effect on a clone for use with the material system.

#4

How can I change “Refractive Index” by the color shader?

#5

Thanks for posting this stuff.
I personally find the way Mograph handles this stuff so ridiculous. There is no way to “see” what is going on…These are all complex invisible relationships.

#6

I also struggled a lot with the color stuff regarding MoGraph, but a couple of days ago I had my heureka moment, and it’s actually really simple :slight_smile:

The color shader while set to color mode, it is nothing more than
an internal way of sampling/taking the color from the display color
parameter on every object/clone and applying this color to the
channel which the Color Shader sits in. Effectors
vary this display color depending on their parameters.
The MultiShader samples the Brightness/Luminance of these
display colors while in Brightness Mode.
Both have also an index mode, I think this is self explanatory :slight_smile:

To have your own heureka moment, just do this. Take three
cubes, put them all in a Null. Activate the Display Color option
by setting Use Color to On. Choose different colors for each
cube. Now create a Material. Deactivate everything but the Luminance
Channel. Put the ColorShader into the Luminance Channel and then
apply this Material to the Null. Render and watch the magic happen :slight_smile:

#7

I think it’s important to add to yader’s explanation,
that Xpresso allows you to read out the internal Mograph Color system’s Color Vector values with the Color Output Port of the Motion Graphics Data Node, which allows you to do a number of manipulations before you feed it back into a Material channel.

This would also allow you to build a set up that can alter the Refraction Index Values based on these Color values.

I remember doing some very basic experiments with this, setting up a simple Mograph Color Sorter to execute dynamic events based on clones´ colors. ( http://vimeo.com/23616823 )

d

#8

Wow Douwe, that is exactly what I was looking for.

Yader, I really appreciate your example, and it took me long time to “see” this clearly in my mind. But think of situations where you have multiple cloners with multiple effectors, some just transferring weight, others transferring PSR or other data, it becomes really hard to see how this initial color data the clones have has been modified…Sometimes getting it right requires jumping between multiple windows, activating and de-activating settings that have no visual feedback etc…
I just feel like it is a super powerful system with an extremely poor implementation, because it relies purely on the user’s memory.

Alex

#9

Thanks Yader. I got what the “color” is. This was not new for MoGraph, but one of basic functions from R8.

#10

I think it is impossible, because the material is updated once per frame by XPresso, and the material (withe same refractive index) is applied to all clones.

#11

One example to change the Refractive Index by MoGraph. Very complex and not smooth (only 16 steps).

http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111102/MoGraph_refractive_index.mp4
http://www2.11moon.com/sample_files/20111102/MoGraph_refractive_index.zip

By the way, some materials like KTN can be changed their Refractive Index by Electric Field. This is a Physical Fact.

#12

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.