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Fernanda Pires
Fpires
Posts: 35
Filters: 17
Volumetric Cloud by Elentor
http://filterforge.com/filters/13772.html

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Fernanda Pires
Fpires
Posts: 35
Filters: 17
The Volumetric Cloud renders depth and alpha maps that might be useful to use with particle systems and shaders. Here's an example of something I did in Unity Engine, using the Volumetric Cloud filter:



The Cloud contains four layers. It's possible to do a better and faster version of it in FF5, but this one should be compatible with FF4.

This is what the options do:

No Checkbox: Standard mode. Generates a depth map.

No Opacity Variance: The particles no longer have any opacity variance, so the depth map looks more blunt.

Get Alpha: Gets the opacity map of the Cloud. Don't use it with Get Shape.

Get Shape: Gets the depth of the overall shape of the cloud, without the fine details. This is useful for generating a normal map.
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Skybase
2D/3D Generalist

Posts: 4025
Filters: 76
Absolutely excellent work!

Starting to feel like FilterForge library can use some more game-engine / 3D asset stuff.
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Fernanda Pires
Fpires
Posts: 35
Filters: 17
Thanks Skybase. I intend to upload some more 3D asset related filters, glad you enjoyed.
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Fernanda Pires
Fpires
Posts: 35
Filters: 17
Together with my Star Field and Panorama to Cubemap projections, I've been using this filter to produce and retouch some nice looking nebula cubemaps.

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CaliCoastReplay
Shiny Thing Maker

Posts: 228
Filters: 43
Elentor, would you talk more about the process of creating a shader to use these maps?

This is fantastic stuff, but I would benefit from more of the theory of the lighting models you use once the maps are created.
"A house in Beverly Hills
Your daddy paying the bills
A life of power and wealth
Beautiful...but it helps"

Pet Shop Boys, "Love, Etc.", Gui Buratto Remix
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Fernanda Pires
Fpires
Posts: 35
Filters: 17
CaliCoastReplay, thanks for the interest.

The above examples were made with completely different methods. I'll think of a decent write-up for my next usage of the filter and once I do so, I'll post a more in-depth explanation.
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CaliCoastReplay
Shiny Thing Maker

Posts: 228
Filters: 43
Thank you! I'm intensely interested, particularly with respect to the edge lighting on the clouds with respect to the sun direction. That effect adds so much to a scene.
"A house in Beverly Hills
Your daddy paying the bills
A life of power and wealth
Beautiful...but it helps"

Pet Shop Boys, "Love, Etc.", Gui Buratto Remix
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Fernanda Pires
Fpires
Posts: 35
Filters: 17
From memory, I can give you some general directions in regards to the first cloud images I posted.

The shader was a bit more complex than this, but the general gist is that I converted the depth map to a Normal, used the Alpha map for the cloud with the normal on a billboard.

I then used the depth map itself on the shader along with a very exaggerated normal map created from the low-frequency information. This can be extrapolated from the "Get Shape" toggle, as well as a big blur applied to the final normal. The low-frequency normal is used to create a soft transifion in the cloud shape. You can use it to increase the transference of light to the cloud based on depth to simulate a faux subsurface scattering.

At the end there were only two textures - High-Frequency Normal (Generated from Depth, which is just the filter with GetAlpha and GetShape disabled) + Alpha (GetAlpha toggle), Low-frequency Normal (Generated from Filter with GetShape) + Depth.
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CaliCoastReplay
Shiny Thing Maker

Posts: 228
Filters: 43
Thank you! That's great! Makes perfect sense. I appreciate the help!
"A house in Beverly Hills
Your daddy paying the bills
A life of power and wealth
Beautiful...but it helps"

Pet Shop Boys, "Love, Etc.", Gui Buratto Remix
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