andy moorer » shader

Mental Mill and Softimage

andy — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 13:29:01 +0000

If you are already an experienced shader writer, Mental Mill doesn’t have much to offer, auto-generated code won’t appeal. But for TDs who haven’t the experience or time needed to get a shader going, it’s a huge boon. It’s also a way to get a feel for shader code, letting you experiment and see how the code changes as a concept is changed.

Here’s the mental mill blog, with some info for softimage users.

What’s important for everyone to know about Mental Mill is that the same “tree” can be used to generate code for multiple rendering types – with a few caveats, you can create a shader for Mental Ray, a matching realtime shader, and a renderman compliant shader all in one go (ummm, Arnold? Oh well). For softimage users, this can give you custom solutions you can see in both the viewport and at render time. Here’s a video which covers creation of a realtime shader, for instance…

Click here to view the embedded video.

MS Pro 2.0 – Free?

andy — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 18:36:43 +0000

StudioGPU’s realtime renderer Mach Studio Version 2 is now available as a free download, with exporters for Max, Maya and Softimage. Hopefully this reflects a change in marketing strategy and not a discontinuation of development, as the product was beginning to mature nicely… but either way it’s a powerful tool at a great price, well worth the download. My little tests on this blog have barely scratched the surface of this renderer. It’s not a replacement for all rendering, but if you need blazingly fast render times measured in seconds and minutes instead of hours and days, while maintaining a certain basic quality (which with skill can rival mental ray and arnold), it’s the only game in town.

Render time per frame at 2k resolution, 0.1 seconds.

Screen capture

Fractal Explorer

andy — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:22:24 +0000

What an amazing web application. Exploring 3d fractal solids in realtime, it’s nuts. Fractal Explorer

Diffuse convolution map test render

andy — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 06:48:35 +0000

A test image using a single diffuse convolved environment map and hacky cobbled together shader for lighting, for near realtime speed. Lighting is coming from the map at the moment, with the only outside contribution being some cast shadows. Needs more work, I just slapped it together one afternoon.

zap’s mental ray tips: Fire and Ice – rendering Diamonds and Gems in mental ray

andy — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 16:46:02 +0000

zap’s mental ray tips: Fire and Ice – rendering Diamonds and Gems in mental ray – an excellent read!

XSI toon shader

andy — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:55:25 +0000

Did some more work on a basic realtime toon shader for XSI (and maya, it’s CGFX.) Here’s a sample…

It's Agent Smith(s), toon style.

Functionality is pretty basic at the moment: Ink threshold, 2 levels of paint and a hard spec hilight, overall color control, a single point light source. I still need to introduce diffusion and spec mapping, possibly some reflections and bump/normal. Remember, if you see an agent, run.

CGFX shaders

andy — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:29:49 +0000

I’ve been playing around with CGFX realtime shaders and mental mill. Here are some basic first shaders. Mental mill makes creating this kind of stuff pretty fast, and you can edit the generated code by hand once you’re in the ballpark.

A simple realtime toon shader for XSI and Maya viewports.

CGFX realtime shader

Basic Blinn CGFX with bump and reflection mapping.

'Wet-look' shader with bump, spec and reflection maps

Spherical harmonic plus dual-spec illumination.

Mach Studio Pro

andy — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 17:44:02 +0000

I have been testing Mach Studio Pro for PLF for a while now, and while it’s a very new tool I am pretty pleased with it’s capabilities and potential. MSpro is an application which accepts scenes from most 3d packages (including Max, Maya, XSI, sketchup etc) and enables the artist to shade/light/render in realtime. Quality is high, with renders being competitive (and sometimes mistaken for) mental ray/vray etc in many cases. Being a realtime application there are caveats and limitations of course, for instance raytracing is not (yet) supported, nor are true radiosity/GI effects. Fair enough. And you’ll still need to render out vFX passes like particles and volumetrics in another app.

But most CG isn’t about all that – it’s about the basics and that’s where MSpro shines: on the 90% of the work you render which you can now do so in seconds rather than hours. It’s very liberating being able to light shots with immediate visual feedback, and MSpro was written with a fair eye towards being a production-friendly application with python scripting, linear lighting and HDRI workflow, output to open EXR as pass breakdowns etc.

This is clearly the direction the industry is moving and Mach Studio is not without competitors, but as a just-out-of-the-gate package they are off to a great start. And don’t get me wrong, MSpro isn’t just about the bare minimums… realtime microtesselated displacement maps aren’t basic, and realtime AO and SSS go a long way towards giving you the tools you need to create great imagery. In real time. No more waiting on farms. No more unpleasant surprises a day lat