Confine fog to volume

[ricoholmes]

Hello,
I need to make "proper" milky plastic (it needs volume at the thicker parts, and simply having blurred refractions isn't enough.) I thought to fill the volume with a fog effect and "skin" that with a glass material.

So, to environment fog shader:

The atmospheric effect can also be confined with geometry objects.

Theory all great in my head, but now here's the embarrassing part: I can't work out how to confine the volume !
I've read the docs again and again, I'm sure I must be missing something. Any advice would be much appreciated

[MoonDoggie]

Have you tried this effect with the SSS2 shader?

[bazuka]

something like this?

http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/200R...ronmentfog.htm

[MoonDoggie]

Oh, I re-read your thread name. I use 3dsmax, so I'm not exactly sure how to do it in Maya. But in max, create a teapot, create the VRayEnvironmentFog, and then we add the Teapot mesh to the "Gizmos" of the Environment fog, and it works.

[MoonDoggie]

Show me a picture of what you're trying to create. Usually helps .

[ricoholmes]

Thank you for the input so far, but yes as you mention there's plenty of Max documentation and support, but no explanation of how to do the same in Maya. I'm sure it's possible (most things are, I just can't find any relevant documentation).

Without breaking NDA, this is the nearest I could find to the sort of thing I need to replicate. SSS2 is a fabulous shader, but I need a high level of transparency.

[ricoholmes]

(environment fog)
Oh, and there are no "gizmo nodes" in the Maya attributes (again, thanks for the advice, much appreciated) I'd already tried that route.. I imagine it needs to be connected through the connection editor and sets, but I'm drawing a blank.

[ricoholmes]

And oh dear.. yes you were right, SSS2 was the answer I was looking for all along I just needed to hang in there a bit longer..

[MoonDoggie]

Play with that and the FogColor and multipliers on the VRayMtl, it's not super easy, but it's doable with either of those. Good luck.

[ricoholmes]

I spoke too early I think. After a lot of messing around with the SSS2 shader I got close (though far, far from perfect) as soon as I turned on GI though; it became a neon tube. Rats, I'll relegate that to the "experiment again in a few days" drawer for now.

(secretly hoping that a "milky plastic" might turn up in the presets drop-down of a nightly

[MoonDoggie]

In Max, there's a milk preset with the SSS2 shader , but it's not what you want. I would try this with just a VRayMtl and fog probably.

[ricoholmes]

Agreed on both points there (and again, thank you for the input).

Back to the original point of not knowing how to confine fog volumes in Maya (with lack of apparent "Gizmo's", aka 3ds max documentation). Can anyone point me in the right direction here ?

[ricoholmes]

And (distracting from the volume fog question) the sort of result I was coming up with from SSS2 tests:



It very very obviously needs more transparency in the thin areas, as well as fresnel-like opacity at more glancing angles (which I would have hoped would be catered for in SSS2, - an unrealistic expectation for a deliberately fast shader not designed for this).

I've attached a sample scene as well, just in case anyone wants a play. and no.. I'm not fishing for someone else to do my work for me.. just as an illustration of the problem
http://www.ricoholmes.com/OtherStuff...lkyRingTest.ma

It'd be an otherwise fun challenge if it weren't for deadlines

[griml0ck]

Sometimes you get too much reflection or GI from objects with the SSS material. You can create a vray object properties node to control the GI from the object (I usually lower to around 25%). And for the reflection you can create a material override on the shadinggroup, and connect a normal vrayshader to the reflection slot (similar shader to the SSS shader but with a "vray mtl".

With the blend material node you should be able to mix the SSS shader and a refractive shader. Good luck!

[bazuka]

i made some variations im not sure even from the ref image what exactly r u looking fore, would be nice if u could post more ref...