3D gradient map?

[White Wizard]

Something I assumed would be a simple task is turning out to be a head scratcher.

The task:

Create a radial gradient map (simple white to black to use as a mask) that can be applied to any complex geometry in 3 dimensions (rather than the typical planar).

The idea is to apply this material to any complex object and animate sort of a 3D shockwave going through the object. However, everything I've tried is either limited to planar only or falls victim to uvw complications.

The closest I've come is using bercon gradients but the uvw (even in object xyz mode) scrambled the effect up.

I've tried looking into finding a shader that creates texture info from intersection with an animated sphere but couldn't find anything useful there either.

Anybody got any ideas?

[Raven]

VrayDistance texture with your animated sphere should work

[White Wizard]

I'll have to try it again. It wasn't working properly when I tried it earlier.

EDIT: I didn't realize it was a render-only material. I tested it in active shade and it does exactly what I needed. Thanks for the suggestion!

[Mokiki]

You can also use a gradient ramp and set the gradient type to Mapped and place the vraydistance tex inside the source map. The gradient will be applied to the black to white values the distance map produces during render time and gives you in the end more control over the look.

[White Wizard]

EDIT: Sorry. Ignore this post.