Foxxee's Gem Maker by Foxxee

Foxxee's Gem Maker by Foxxee
http://www.filterforge.com/filters/3773.html

very, very cool, dear. very cool!

Small tip:

One of the two refraction components inside this filter has no effect other than increasing rendertime.

Hey Foxxee Nice work!!! I love the "sparklies"!!!

One itsy bitsy small thing.....you have an unnecessary refraction in there.....would speed it up if removed

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StevieJ wrote: One itsy bitsy small thing.....you have an unnecessary refraction in there.....would speed it up if removed

Thank you, Steve. I appreciate both your compliment and your insight into the workings of this filter. Crapadilla also mentioned there was a tiny problem that was slowing my filter down. I'll see which one it is... hopefully I won't break it

I'm fairly pleased with this filter, without everyone's help in the other forum this wouldn't have been possible for me... so Thank You all

And a special THANK YOU to Voldemort for creating the Shape Bonanza Snippet I used to make them take shape

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Persidio wrote: Alittle slow... but worth it!!!! Don't worry about that Foxxee... this filter is worth the wait... (((((((((((Stunning Presets))))))))))))))

Going to try and work on that little problem, Persidio. Hopefully it will start to run faster because I was a little frustrated with the slowness too. But thank you for your appreciation. You helped me quite a bit with this too, you know

It definitely looks pretty nice, pretty slow, but sometimes that's what it takes to make something fancy. Is it not possible to add some controls for the kaleidescope module(s) to alter the looks of the gemstones further ? If so, that seems like a good update feature.

jffe

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StevieJ wrote: Sorry, I didn't catch that.....didn't mean to "rub it in"

Ohhh, so that's what you were doing, huh?
Hehe, still appreciate it anyway... so there

foxxee, go to 'filter > render maps' and turn on the normal map. notice what it says at the top of your main preview window. that's the first clue, 'affected by surface height'. so, if you want your cuts to show in the normal map, i would guess you have to pass them through to the height node on the results. but, bear in mind, i almost always ignore those maps, so dilla or someone working in 3d would be a better consultant on this. plus, i have to get to bed. gotta get up early tomorrow. but, i'll look at it again if you dont have an answer later tomorrow.

((((((Foxxee)))))) When you get the HUs you will have the pro version. You have a lot of beautiful filters and this is another one to add to that list.

ok, foxxee, i re-worked this. you now have normal and bump mapping on. this increased the delay, however, so i went through things and eliminated a couple superflous components, like the refraction and an offset. they werent doing anything and if you study your original you'll see why. i also replace the bricks and pyramids with perlin noise. you may have to adjust those as this changed your pattern a little bit. or, you may want to just put your originals back, though that will add time back.

by removing the superflous and adding perlin, it still bumped the time up due to what i did to get the normal and bump maps displaying. so, i also cut off the anti-aliasing on the default. you might want to re-do all the presets like that for time's sake and just put something in the description letting folks know.

i also added in a non-working image component so that the main display background is now transparet like the presets.

all in all, i got the time down from 4 or 5 minutes rendering time to about 1 1/2.

you might also consider adding in some controls on the perlins to let the user change the pattern design.

and, you've got a number of other 'slow' components, like a blur, high pass, refraction and the stones component. most of those looked pretty key to me, so you may not be able to replace them with faster components, but take a look.

the perlins may have also dropped the brights down a bit, but bumping up the contrast on those shld put it back. i did this all rather quickly and a bit more tweaking might be good.

and i was right about the height node. all you really have to do to get the normal and bumps working like i did is to plug the main effect into the height node. that then renders the full effect through the height routine. oh, and i added a levels component just before the height node to give a bit more contrast/height.

so, just take the attached here, do whatever other tweaks you wish and change the name so that my name no longer shows as the author and re-submit

(oh, that stupid apostrophe again. i hope you can download this from here.)

Foxxeegcs Gem Maker rev 1b.ffxml

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Kraellin wrote: here, just in case that thing cant be downloaded from here because of the apostrophe, i did a quick name change on the filter. so, try this one if the other doesnt download for you.

Thank you Craig, I appreciate you taking the time to do this for me

I've already resent an update this morning, will have to see if I prefer the Perline noice instead of the more geometric structure of blocks and pyramids though.

Sounds like I have a lot to learn on making a filter more time efficiant, but 4-5 minutes seem like nothing to me when generating any sort of renderable image. Bryce takes hours sometimes to get all the effects one can accomplish in a landscape scene

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Kraellin wrote: so folks can alter the patterns a bit. or, add a couple to the kaleidoscope.

Oh, I did that when I submitted today... but how can my standard copy ( ) of FF send your tweaked one if mine can't handle bump maps I can't generate myself?

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Kraellin wrote: yeah, i've never struggled through the 3d scene, so a 5 minute render seems like ages to me

When they invented the Microwave I just knew this was going to happen to people... things just don't happen fast enough for them any more. SO impassient

Ok, thank you, sir... I'll go check it out and put it all together one more time for the FF Library updates

Wonder why that noice component is faster than the other 2 I was using
Please don't be disappointed if I feel more comfortable with pyramids and blocks though... but how (WHO... sheeze) knows, maybe Perline will look nice too

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Kraellin wrote: and no, you can throw the whole thing away if you wish. i just posted it as an example of what could be done, not necessarily what shld be done.

Of course not! I'll definately use it if it's going to help me make it better for others. I noticed a slight change in the deeper parts of the gem's faceting, I think I'll play a bit with the Perlin (spelling?) and see what else I can get from it.

Really, thank you for your help, Craig

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Kraellin wrote: yer, perlin. i think there's a basic difference in perlin and the others. i think the others are 'worley (sp?)' based (whatever that is) and that's what makes the difference in speed.

That's interesting... wonder what makes the difference, and never heard of 'worley', whatever that means

I just got back from really studying the Perlin Noice and it's effects and must admit I do think it can be better for what I need. I only have to tweak the colors and some of the light settings to bring back some of the sparkle and varying color changes. I'll get this ready for my final (I hope) update tomorrow! This is supper of you, thanks again

you will lose the bump and normal maps in your version. they are still there just fine, but your version just cant render them, so you wnt see them. but as long as you leave plugged in what i plugged into the height node, they will be there for those with the full version to see. so, they are there, it's just your cut version cant display them.

and you're welcome

and yes, always keep the integrity of the effect. alter it for speed only if it's just god-awful long (FF will reject them if too long) and if it doesnt break the effect you're after.

did you try bumping up the contrast sliders in the perlins like i suggested? that might give you back the shiney parts again. i only did a quick swap and not much tweaking to approximate what you had in the other components. so, you might still get what you want from the perlins with some adjustments. but, either way, that's fine

Oh wait, I just looked again. You had my frame unplugged and put a level into the Result's Height... right? I just went in and checked and that's what pulled the light and the 3 dimensional look right out of it. I saw it happen just now.

When I had the Frame plugged into the Height I got a nice lift and shimmer to the gem. It may be this is jus the way I will have to go, I don't want to loose that affect.

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Kraellin wrote: but, whatever you end up doing, it's a great filter. love the colors and patterns and sparkle

Thanks Craig

I just got back from trying several different ways of 'sharing' the same plug, but even though with a Blend, it seemed almost close to what I had, it still dropped a lot of depth and sparkle. There was some, but this is the only way I know of to give it that pop-out-at-you look that got me excited when it finally happened for me.

At least you still like it, and it does seem to have a nice little following growing... hopefully more so when they get extra controls to manipulate the pattern shape and styles and a little more speed on the rendering time

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Foxxee wrote: There was some, but this is the only way I know of to give it that pop-out-at-you look that got me excited when it finally happened for me.

then, that's what you go with

((The update came thru today)) Just letting you know~

Going to be playing with these sparklies tomorrow~

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ahimsa wrote: The pink one is so pretty

I can't make up my mind which one I like best because every time I play with it I think 'ok, that IT!' and then another one I like better then that shows up, hehe.
I'm glad it can turn out so many different kinds, and as long as it's on Maximum size/pixels it almost always creates a nice looking gem... oh, sorry for bragging

Anyway, thank you. So happy you all like it. Now I only have to outdo myself and I'm afraid I might not be able to (scary)

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I hope you all still like it, especially with the extra facet pattern controls I added for you

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Ah,,, facet pattern controls... Persidio likey...

Me likey too