create cd surface
 

hi gang
i'm trying to create a spinning cd animation, but i can't get the diffraction texture to radiate out from the centre - i just get parallel lines

i'm putting the texture on to a flattened poly cylinder - acan anyone tell me where i'm going wrong

cheers
tony

Can you post a screenshot? or image?

hi, adldesigner
here is a screenshot

tony

Do you have your shader settings like this image from A|W?

(notice that METHOD is set to CD)

....theres a CD shader..? Man, where have I been :rolleyes:

hi, rage

attached the shader settings - method is set to cd - could it be because i'm trying to put effect on the end of a cylinder that's causing problems

is there a better way to approach this?

seems like the basic problem is to get the shader to wrap in a circle rather than staight - i'm still learning basics so haven't quite got a handle on how it all works yet

cheers
t

hmmm.. yeah, it might be your cylinder geometry... not sure tho...

Have you mapped the cylinder cap with a projection before applying the shader?

...sorry, kinda out of my league here... anyone wanna chime in?

Well, I just downloaded the shader and built a quick CD using a pair of lofted concentric circles. Using the settings from A|W's site, I got it in the general ballpark (see attached image). I also created a pair of cylinders - one poly and one NURBS - and applied the shader. The results are what they should be and not that extreme rainbow effect that you're getting so my first guess is it has something to do with either your geometry, the camera angle, and the shader's brightness setting...or a combination perhaps.

Try this: create a NURBS circle, duplicate and scale it to create the inner hole. Then loft between the two. Now, apply your shader using the settings Rage posted, do an IPR render and start tweaking settings. If you look at the AW settings screenshot, they've connected additional nodes so don't be afraid to experiment a little bit.

Hope this helps some.

Crap, can someone delete this and the duplicate post above for me?

many thanks, nitro

it was lofting between the circles that did the trick

knocked this up in a few minutes after that

t

Great!

Thanks again Nitro!

ok, so far, so good

next thing is i want to attach a file to the transparency input of the diffraction shader (to get the clear bit on the outer and inner edges) - have been trying for ages, and all that happens is the image turns black

have tried the same things with objects with just a regular shader - and it works - anyone have any idea why ican't do it with the diffraction shader

cheers,
t

I havn't looked at the shader to see if there is an editable, or locked-out transparency node,
but try making a layered shader with:
-a basic Blinn on the bottom containing your ramp transparency,
-then add the diffraction shader on top of that at about 80% opacity with a blend mode of ADD.
(or try them all to see what might work best for a blend mode:)

Good luck!

hey tony.. looks like from that render you showed.... you may want to do a y axis planar map on that thing :). It could solve that line down one side. Looks good though

Transparency is editable (r,g,b). I haven't had the time to play with it, though.

hi guys

have put the transparency issue to one side for the moment, as i'm trying to get an image onto the cd surface using the layered shader node

the diffraction effect works fine with just the one shader (pic 1), but when i add the picture - it comes in distorted around the polar axis (pic 2)

when i use planar mapping on the y axis, the photo looks fine, but i lose the radial effect on the diffraction!!!

anyone got any answers to this one?

cheers,
tony
(pix to follow)

pic 2

pic 3

here is a version with the 3 shader layers - photo, diffraction and transparency mask - still can't get the diffraction to look right the same time as the picture, though

t

Well, I tried it, and I got it to work:)

Here is my Maya 4.5 scene file complete with my 512x512 test image:)

Enjoy!

Basicly, I did what I talked about above, by creating a layered shader with a blinn containg the transparency on the bottom, and plopped the refraction shader on top of it.

The blinn also has the image in the color slot as a PROJECTION.

I had to adjust the projection for it to fit:)
Here is my final render:
http://www.ragecgi.com/public/SM/RAGEsmCD.jpg

Just in case my hosting co does something to my sample image, here it is again on SM's server:

Not always Izzy. I have some CD's that have that on the top side of them too, as Im sure alot of people do. :)

EDIT: Nice job on the CD, BTW. Looks awsome!

Dam, you beat me to the post! hehe...

Yeah, after I posted that, I looked at my cd collection, and sure enough, I was wrong! hehe...

I edited my post:)

Thanks btw!

Can someone help me out here? Im trying to find the CD/Diffraction shader over at A|W, but I cant seem to find it. Can someone send it to me, or tell me how to get to it so I can download it?

Here ya go:)

http://www.aliaswavefront.com/en/Tmp...t/maya_nt.html

Ah, its a Plugin-In! I was looking under the shader area. Man, Im such a fool sometimes :D Thnx Izzy man!

No prob:)

A|W likes to plop stuff like that into a plug, rather than release he full code...

oh well:)

...not too hard to figure out tho:)

Now that I look at one of my CD's, I noticed something thats wrong with the one you made. :D The inner, clear part thats plastic, you have the rainbow effect on it. Take a real CD and hold it up to some kind of light. If you notice, that certian area dosent have that rainbow effect on it. Its just really shiny. Just thought Id let you know. :D

Yeah, sorry, I was just lazy, and I wanted to just get it posted for everyone to find and fix:)

Ya huh, sure ya did. ;)

um... ok...

Im just messing witch you man. :) Nice job.

no complaints from me, rage - looks beautiful

still getting tyo grips with the ways shaders n stuff work, so i'm doing stuff, but not quite understanding it

i'll try again, taking what you said into account

cheers,
t

one question though, rage - how do i get the blinn layer to be a projection, but not the refraction layer - i thought the projection was applied to the layered shader as a whole

t

ok -after a crash course in layered uvs linked to textures - i just about understand

here's the final result - not perfect, but fine for this exercise

big thanks to rage and nitro for help

{EDIT}
No problem, and good job for figuring it out!


For those who would like a small tut, here you go:

Check out my file attachment above, and you'll see that the way I've got it to work was to:

1. create 3 shaders.
(A Refraction, a Blinn, and a Layered shader)

2. In the Blinn:
-make the transparency to your liking,
-in the color slot, click the checkerbox to add a FILE texture WITH a projection. (see image)
http://www.ragecgi.com/public/SM/LIV...D/CDstep01.gif

3. When you do that, there will be a projection TAB at the top of the attribute editor for the COLOR slot you just made, go there. (see image)
http://www.ragecgi.com/public/SM/LIV...D/CDstep02.gif

4. Click on the big button labled: "Fit To BBox", and watch your viewports, there will be a projection manipulator that you need to move & rotate so it looks like the following image:
http://www.ragecgi.com/public/SM/LIV...D/CDstep03.gif

Hope that helped!

hi, rage

only just saw your reply

its starting to make sense now - getting kinda late here in the uk - so i'll try your tute tomorrow

have attached my previous effort with a better refraction

cheers,
t

p.s.
you the man!

WOW!

That's a SHINY cd man! Cool!

Nice Job, Rage!