Ok, I know its feasible to do this with some textures, if I remember 
but.. Here is what I am trying to do:

1. Create glass for a display case.
2. Place runes on the case surface.
3. Alter the effective "visibility" of these runes, using a smoke like 
effect, which follows a clear pattern of changes, and then loops back.
4. Use this to produce roughly 64 frames of animation.

optional: 5. Apply actual ior, reflection, etc. effects to the glass, 
using a mockup of the virtual room I plan to use the result in.

This will have to later be copied, frame by frame, into a grid of 
frames, so.. in principle, the resulting image would be 512x64, so that 
it fits into a final image of 1024x1024 (i.e., 2 columns, by 32 rows).

Its the Step 3 that is driving me nuts. I tried something similar, but 
backwards, just using pure Photoshop. Applying smoke to the runes, as a 
mask, then applying another mask to this, which determined how much of 
the runes where actually visible. The result was bloody ugly...

So, I thought - maybe raytracing the smoke would work better? Not sure 
media would be the best thing here though, maybe.. a texture that mimic 
the same result, applied to just the runes?

Seriously. As fascinated as I have always been with this program, to be 
perfectly honest, I never made it much past the "how to build a chair" 
tutorials in the book way back when one was published. lol Nearly 
everything since has been mesh, imported to Second Life, or a few poorly 
done attempts to convince POVRay to do things its not meant to, like.. 
using a spherical camera to try to "fake" a displacement map from a 
complex object, and stuff...

I sort of have a vague idea what might work here, but.. :p

-- 
Commander Vimes: "You take a bunch of people who don't seem any 
different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get 
this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."

Post a reply to this message

Le 15-10-21 22:27, Patrick Elliott a écrit :
> Ok, I know its feasible to do this with some textures, if I remember
> but.. Here is what I am trying to do:
>
> 1. Create glass for a display case.
> 2. Place runes on the case surface.
> 3. Alter the effective "visibility" of these runes, using a smoke like
> effect, which follows a clear pattern of changes, and then loops back.
> 4. Use this to produce roughly 64 frames of animation.
>
> optional: 5. Apply actual ior, reflection, etc. effects to the glass,
> using a mockup of the virtual room I plan to use the result in.
>
> This will have to later be copied, frame by frame, into a grid of
> frames, so.. in principle, the resulting image would be 512x64, so that
> it fits into a final image of 1024x1024 (i.e., 2 columns, by 32 rows).
>
> Its the Step 3 that is driving me nuts. I tried something similar, but
> backwards, just using pure Photoshop. Applying smoke to the runes, as a
> mask, then applying another mask to this, which determined how much of
> the runes where actually visible. The result was bloody ugly...
>
> So, I thought - maybe raytracing the smoke would work better? Not sure
> media would be the best thing here though, maybe.. a texture that mimic
> the same result, applied to just the runes?
>
> Seriously. As fascinated as I have always been with this program, to be
> perfectly honest, I never made it much past the "how to build a chair"
> tutorials in the book way back when one was published. lol Nearly
> everything since has been mesh, imported to Second Life, or a few poorly
> done attempts to convince POVRay to do things its not meant to, like..
> using a spherical camera to try to "fake" a displacement map from a
> complex object, and stuff...
>
> I sort of have a vague idea what might work here, but.. :p
>

If you rotate any pattern, it will automaticaly repeat itself for every 
full rotation.
The apparent speed depends on the distance of the pattern from the 
reference axis: Far = fast, close = slow.
You need to play with the scalling of the whole scene or that of the 
pigment to adjust the action buziness.

If you want an upward motion, then, I'd suggest a rotation around the X 
or the Z axis with your container placed some distance in front of the 
X-Y or the Z-Y plane.

Both transparent runes filled with some media or opaque ones may work. 
Try both as the result should be very different.

For the media, you can use emissive edia against a dark background. No 
need to have any light source in this case.
You may use absorming media against a white background to give you an 
inverted contrast effect.
Finaly, a scattering media that may interact with some lighting can give 
yopu interesting effect.
All 3 types of media can be present at the same time.

Simple sample of the concept:
box{<5,5,1><-5, -5, 2> pigment{agate rotate x*clock*360} finish{emission 1}}
camera{location<0,0,-10> look_at 0}

To be run as an animation of whatever length you want.

With another pattern and turbulence:
box{<5,5,1><-5, -5, 2> pigment{bumps warp{turbulence 1} rotate 
x*clock*360} finish{emission 1}}



Alain

Post a reply to this message

On 10/21/2015 8:54 PM, Alain wrote:
> Le 15-10-21 22:27, Patrick Elliott a écrit :
>> Ok, I know its feasible to do this with some textures, if I remember
>> but.. Here is what I am trying to do:
>>
>> 1. Create glass for a display case.
>> 2. Place runes on the case surface.
>> 3. Alter the effective "visibility" of these runes, using a smoke like
>> effect, which follows a clear pattern of changes, and then loops back.
>> 4. Use this to produce roughly 64 frames of animation.
>>
>> optional: 5. Apply actual ior, reflection, etc. effects to the glass,
>> using a mockup of the virtual room I plan to use the result in.
>>
>> This will have to later be copied, frame by frame, into a grid of
>> frames, so.. in principle, the resulting image would be 512x64, so that
>> it fits into a final image of 1024x1024 (i.e., 2 columns, by 32 rows).
>>
>> Its the Step 3 that is driving me nuts. I tried something similar, but
>> backwards, just using pure Photoshop. Applying smoke to the runes, as a
>> mask, then applying another mask to this, which determined how much of
>> the runes where actually visible. The result was bloody ugly...
>>
>> So, I thought - maybe raytracing the smoke would work better? Not sure
>> media would be the best thing here though, maybe.. a texture that mimic
>> the same result, applied to just the runes?
>>
>> Seriously. As fascinated as I have always been with this program, to be
>> perfectly honest, I never made it much past the "how to build a chair"
>> tutorials in the book way back when one was published. lol Nearly
>> everything since has been mesh, imported to Second Life, or a few poorly
>> done attempts to convince POVRay to do things its not meant to, like..
>> using a spherical camera to try to "fake" a displacement map from a
>> complex object, and stuff...
>>
>> I sort of have a vague idea what might work here, but.. :p
>>
>
> If you rotate any pattern, it will automaticaly repeat itself for every
> full rotation.
> The apparent speed depends on the distance of the pattern from the
> reference axis: Far = fast, close = slow.
> You need to play with the scalling of the whole scene or that of the
> pigment to adjust the action buziness.
>
> If you want an upward motion, then, I'd suggest a rotation around the X
> or the Z axis with your container placed some distance in front of the
> X-Y or the Z-Y plane.
>
> Both transparent runes filled with some media or opaque ones may work.
> Try both as the result should be very different.
>
> For the media, you can use emissive edia against a dark background. No
> need to have any light source in this case.
> You may use absorming media against a white background to give you an
> inverted contrast effect.
> Finaly, a scattering media that may interact with some lighting can give
> yopu interesting effect.
> All 3 types of media can be present at the same time.
>
> Simple sample of the concept:
> box{<5,5,1><-5, -5, 2> pigment{agate rotate x*clock*360} finish{emission
> 1}}
> camera{location<0,0,-10> look_at 0}
>
> To be run as an animation of whatever length you want.
>
> With another pattern and turbulence:
> box{<5,5,1><-5, -5, 2> pigment{bumps warp{turbulence 1} rotate
> x*clock*360} finish{emission 1}}
>
>
>
> Alain
Huh.. Hadn't thought of just rotating.. When thinking on things I 
realized that a) it might not matter if it didn't loop, and b).. not 
sure how you would make it do so. lol But, yeah, a texture, just rotated 
though 360 degrees on the surface.. Yeah, that would work whether or not 
I needed to actually loop or not.

Have to play with the texture though. I need it to be "wispy", which 
those are not. lol But, it gives me a place to start. And, if nothing 
else I can always do what I did before, but.. with better results - use 
the mist one, or something like it, as a mask, or with "blend options, 
and something that adds glow, and brightness to a straight texture. 
Could almost do that with Photoshop itself, except that its "3D Render" 
thing for clouds doesn't let you a) rotate or otherwise change the 
result, b) is random, and c) doesn't let you alter the parameters of the 
resulting clouds. In other words, a pain in the ass. ;)

-- 
Commander Vimes: "You take a bunch of people who don't seem any 
different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get 
this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."

Post a reply to this message

Le 15-10-23 01:07, Patrick Elliott a écrit :

> Huh.. Hadn't thought of just rotating.. When thinking on things I
> realized that a) it might not matter if it didn't loop, and b).. not
> sure how you would make it do so. lol But, yeah, a texture, just rotated
> though 360 degrees on the surface.. Yeah, that would work whether or not
> I needed to actually loop or not.
>
> Have to play with the texture though. I need it to be "wispy", which
> those are not. lol But, it gives me a place to start. And, if nothing
> else I can always do what I did before, but.. with better results - use
> the mist one, or something like it, as a mask, or with "blend options,
> and something that adds glow, and brightness to a straight texture.
> Could almost do that with Photoshop itself, except that its "3D Render"
> thing for clouds doesn't let you a) rotate or otherwise change the
> result, b) is random, and c) doesn't let you alter the parameters of the
> resulting clouds. In other words, a pain in the ass. ;)
>

To have a "wispy" texture, I would be tempted to start with bumps or 
bozo, add some custon colour_map, then add some turbulence.
To keep the turbulence consistent, I highly recommend using a wrap{} 
block. That way, the turbulence can be applyed before the rotation and 
any other transformation. Without the warp, all transformations are 
applyed, then, the turbulence is applyed.
That way, it's possible to have multiple levels of turbulence at 
different scale factors.

Post a reply to this message

Perhaps you can use a texture like granite and define a color map that has the
colors change in transparency with the clock variable.   Have your functions be
circular / continuous and it will loop smoothly.
You could even simultaneously do that with the runes themselves.

You could also "cheat" and find an existing animation of smoke with an alpha
channel, splay it out into separate frames, and have PovRay render those
overlaying your runes.

So many ways to skin this cat.

Post a reply to this message