Fusion 6.1 adds a new mode for Displace3D, a worldspace displacement where the input RGB is converted to XYZ positions.
This makes it do to meshes what my previous setups did in particles.
3 maps used to make geometry of a colon
It’s halfway to Geometry Images, though we need to add shaders for normal mapping and a way to weld the resulting mesh. It’s an easy way to get animated geometry data into Fusion, and it has automatic LOD/Proxy functionality. Combine it with ColorMatrixTransform, and you have a means to deform a mesh pretty intuitively. The new CoordTransformPosition modifier will let you use gizmos, too.
Here’s some example comps…
- Worldspace intersection
(note: 94MB) - Affect Region
- Gridwarping
- Geometry Images (coming soon)
- Bilinear / Bicubics (new)
- Colon Redux (note: 67MB)
August 3rd, 2010 at 3:31 pm
Affect Region has been added. A bug in Fusion prevented it from working as designed, but is fixed in 656+.
August 6th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
Colon sample added.
August 17th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I can’t download the first file. I am asked to log in.
August 17th, 2011 at 3:50 pm
We had to make that one password protected because we had a weekend a while back where a botnet decided to download that file 1500+ times. Akamai FTW!
August 18th, 2011 at 11:35 am
Hello Chad,
I’m very interested in your bilinear/bicubic implementation with the Displace node. Have you made any progress on it so far ?
I’m investigating my options for an upcoming project which will involve a lot of Warping and was looking for some custom code/commercial plugin to implement such feature in Fusion’s 3D environment.
Thanks !
Morgan
August 18th, 2011 at 11:39 am
Yeah, I just dug up the comp yesterday and cleaned it up some. Do you want warping in 3D, meaning that the objects are supposed to change shape, or do you want 2D warping on 3D geometry, like modifying the texture mapping?
August 18th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
I’m looking for a way to deform the shape/vertexes an ImagePlane3D like Nuke/Flame have on their Extended Bicubic.
So far I was looking into Locators3D driving a Gradient pluged into a Displace3D through a XYZ->RGB conversion, but if you have something more elegant/robust (free or not by the way) that would be wonderful
August 18th, 2011 at 4:12 pm
A gradient will only get you 4 control points. If that’s enough, then it will work fine, and I have a comp that has that setup. If you want more points, say 9 or 16, and you want them independently controlled, then you probably need something like ColorMatrixTransform to match the positions to the the map. You could do it with a CT though. Is that more of what you want? A grid of independent points?
August 18th, 2011 at 5:43 pm
Yes It’s exactly what i’m looking for. Basically, I need a 3D version of your (great) Gridwarping Comp.
Here is a screen i made of the tool inside of Nuke ( http://uppix.com/f-Nuke_BilinearBic4e4d8628000cbbbe.jpg )
I know we can’t get spline handles in the viewport like you have in your 2DGridwarp or in my screenshot but at least it’s possible to control the point itself through Locators (and maybe cheat the interpolation between point but that’s another thing)
The second thing which leads to the 3rd would be to specify the subdivision/number of point of the grid; and ultimately be able to keyframe points individually (some kind of matrix).
It seems doable in a “DIY” kind of way but my lack of technical knowledge on Fusion painfully get my to the 4-points gradient.
Morgan
August 18th, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Ok, I uploaded my comp. It could pretty easily be turned into a macro, and if the UI is passable, we could make an actual 3D plugin out of it.
August 18th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Great ! I’m downloading it right now so I can give you a proper feedback
And again thank you very much,
Morgan
August 18th, 2011 at 6:55 pm
First of all : WOW ! Its highly effective and responsive. I like the way the tree is thought, reminds me of when i discovered STMaps and positions pass in 3D
The speed of use of locators has nothing to envy to it’s Flame/Nuke counterpart, 20% less snapier i’d say but UI wise it does a killer job.
The bending/warping also work like a charm, smooth stretching, artefact occurs when the locators make the underlying vertexes interpenetrate but that’s a common problem so no trouble here also.
The filter mode of the resize node would be usefull to map in a macro/plugin version of it. This can somehow make a substitute for the handles. Nearest/Linear/Quad/Cubic seems to be a good fit for various purposes.
So UI-wise it’s totally manageable and you could release it as it is if you made an abstraction layer for all the controls by packaging it in a plugin.
The only real thing that would make this push it one step further would be the subdivision I was talking about. That way, you can accomodate for the lack of spline handles by adding inbetween points to control the bending of the shape more precisely. That would be a major feature
Voilà ! I hope my feedbacks are helpful and can be worked upon
Morgan
August 19th, 2011 at 12:47 pm
It was faster before I converted it to use SimpleExpressions. We could easily make this at least 3x faster, maybe a lot more.
Regarding making a plugin, though, we just weren’t sure what would actually be useful. I think something like radial basis functions or some other more freeform deformation would be better.
August 19th, 2011 at 2:29 pm
Yes freeform would be nice but it almost requires to start from the ground up. 3x faster would be good but not a selling point. The only thing to keep optimized will be when you have more than 4 control points and start messing around in 3D. Ideally you’ll want to have the same level of responsiveness no matter how much locators you throw in (4/16/64)
On the practical side, do you think you can work something out before september or is that unrealistic ? That is to say either more grid division/control or another approach.
The project i’m shooting is scheduled for 3rd september and post will continue throughout the month until mid october. If you want more information I’d be glad to discuss particulars and give you more details by mail.
Best regards,
Morgan