So I haven’t spent a lot of time looking around to see if people have really tried this technique or not, but I do know that a lot of people are a little miffed that Cycles doesn’t really do volumetric material types yet, esp for flame.
Recently I was experimenting with this doodle of a material that involves using 2 different emission shaders (toned down with transparent shaders) and mixed via a fresnel value!
To get the plasma to look best, you need a really crumpled shape. I started with a circle that I extruded inward a few times then turned on proportional editing with random falloff to give it a nice rough, knotted surface, then subsurfed it 3 levels (2 worked fine, but needed more for render). I haven’t had any time to experiment with other material options and the ordering/mixing of the shaders, but I would love anybody else’s take on it! Hope some of you find this useful. I’m sure that with the right shape to your mesh, you could get it to look like a flame. I haven’t tried experimenting with animation yet, so I’m not completely sure how the fresnel would affect the look, but there’s something for you to try out too.
Thank you, guys.
Well, I’m not really sure hair is the right use for this material. I’m just goofy when doing tests and am likely to drop a material on almost anything, randomly. As it is, it’s mostly on the hair because that sphere had hair in earlier tests, and I just swapped it out, hoping to test the effect of the emission on the nearby objects and how it would do with my new Skorupa denoiser at 20 samples. It didn’t do badly.
Anyway, this material would be VERY good for starship engines, energy shields, holographic screens, and almost anything like that in a sci-fi film. Therefore, I’ll probably be using it extensively in my upcoming short film…
So, thanks again for sharing.
@adb Hey! Sorry, I really should have mentioned that I also spent some time in the compositor. Here’s a link to a dropbox of the .blend. I packed in an image and the particle system uses slightly high-res sphere particles so the files a little large (~10MB). Hope this helps you register some of the differences between mine and yours. https://www.dropbox.com/s/eyimjf63yezoln2/rainplasma.blend
@AdamEtheredge I was thinking you could hide the emitter object or give it a different material and use the strands for bio-luminescent aquatic creatures, much like thin tendrils on sea anemones or jelly fish! That’s what I got out of yours at least! But the main image I got from yours was a planetary nebula remnant! Glad I could help regardless!
Yes, I think that’s exactly right. This material would be excellent for a great many applications. It would be super for any sort of effects work, laser blasts, nice plasma cannons, energy shields, by connecting it to an image sequence it would make a really nifty hologram, engines, nebulae, atmospheric conditions, and it really would be a great start for Cycles explosions, smoke, some volumetric-type things. It really is an endless list, really only limited to the imagination of the user.
It’s a great addition to anyone’s good node library, and I really do appreciate you showing it to us. I’m not very good with making my own Cycles materials, but I did learn a lot just from copying it from you. Thank you.
Shucks! I am flattered by your words! I’m still finding my way, but to hear such high words from you is an honor, and I am happy that I was able to serve the community so well!
That’s really nice, FloridaJo. I remember seeing a Director’s Interview on “The Clone Wars” animated series (which used to be REALLY good, before it became simply a continuation of the old horrid '80’s cartoon “Droids”…) and they were talking about a scene in which there is a fire. The director decided that, instead of doing the usual smoke sim thing, he wanted to see if it could be done well using a cloth sim, with a material very much like this. It turned out REALLY well.
Your render reminds me of that.
@TechTyro: Aw, shucks.
It’s nice to see someone new contributing so well. You keep up the great work.
