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VEGGI,
VENTI, SFXI! ;)
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Ventilators are devices in Vue, that "blow" onto vegetation,
making it sway as they would for wind, explosions, helicopter
props etc. Now, since Vue "Solid Growth Plants ®"
can actually be more than just plants, as Wabe discovered with
using plants to make fire!
How? Ok, Vue "Plants" consists of the trunk/stems and
leaves, you can make the trunk/stem material invisible, and have
the leaves be a special material.This material can be fire, snow,
rain, fog or whatever you'd like! It doesn't have to be just "leaves",
the point is the material can be used to create other effects.
Since Vue plants are all slightly different, this helps make
randomness, very nice for snow or whatever you wish to make.
Another point about Vue, is that some versions have a "ventilator"
object, this acts as a directional wind object, sort of like,
oh, a hair dryer, or large fan, blowing Vue plants just like the
real wind, but, like a fan, it's a movable, small area of effect.
Normally you could use that for say, a helicopter's blades pushing
down on grass, but it can also be used to create special effects
(SFX) when combined with the fact thate Vue plant materials don't
have to be just leaves ;)
Important point: Plants get pushed in the direction the ventilator
is firing it's wind! It is directional, which can be used
to our advantage!
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The picture below, shows how a ventilator will push the vegetation
under neath it's area of effect, just as the wind from a fan
will.
#1 The ventilator is off
#2 Ventilator is on, firing straight down
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| Below, a picture of a few of Wabe's "Firebugs",
plants that use materials for their leaves with invisible trunk
material, giving a fire effect! I turned off "cast shadow"
to speed render time for these tutorials to save me time. He sells
them on Cornucopia3D :) |
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Ventilators come in two forms:
Omni - it blows out equally in all directions from the ventilator
Directional - it blows in a cone, just like a hair dryer, or how
a spotlight works for light (including spread and fall off as
spotlights do)
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Below, a render of an ecosystem of trees, painted
with the Eco Painter.
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Below, I add a directional ventilator. But nothing
happens! Well, the ventilator's "Influence Ecosystem"
button is not turned on, that's why ;)
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Below, ha HA! The "Influence Ecosystem"
button turned on, and the strong wind blows the trees flat: Hurricane
time!
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Below, are the settings.
- Intensity is how strong the effect is. Note, if this is a
negative number, it will attract things, like a magnet!
- Cutoff, how far away the effect will end.
- Profile, the hsape of how it dies away tot he Cutoff point.
This one is a steady fall off. You can make it fall of very
sharply or not at all if wish.
- Spread, for directional ventilator, how wide the cone of effect
is
- Falloff, is how much the effect varies in strength from a
central core, exactly like a spotlight, larger this is, the
more the effect is raised the more it weakens the the power
form centre to edge of the cone of effect.
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Now, to show that "Solid Growth Plants'"
leaves don't have to be leaves, here's a couple of pics ;)
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A four pointed star .png image as the "leaf"
material: alpha channel or transprency of original, cuts out the
transparency in Vue
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Here, a single png image with multiple small coloured
stars, used as leaves: I turned shadows of for the star-leaf material
to cut render time, lol
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You may well ask, well, what USE is that? Well,
that's up to you to work out, isn't it? :p I'm not gonna hold
your hand and show you everything mes amis! But, here's
some ideas...
For animations, a ventilator could make SFX for magic, smoke,
fire etc move!
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| A wizard casting a spell form a scroll,
a "Kentia" plant, with branches given a glowing coloured
material, and stars for leaves with glow, provides the SFX of the
spell! |
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I hope you find this of use! :)
All original art, writing on this site, copyright of
Steven James, "Silverblade the Enchanter" ©2010
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