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'Tis for the Glory #14 - "Splats"

MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
edited June 2015 in Carrara Discussion

Wonga is the Champion from the last challenge and has issued an excellent, no-holds-barred challenge subject.

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So... The challenge subject this week is .... SPLAT!

do with what you please :-)

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For those that don't know, a Splat (also known as a Billboard or Sprite) is a single 4 sided polygon to which you apply a texture map with an alpha channel. How are these used? Adding clouds to sky, people to crowds, trees and grass to landscapes, explosions to space scenes, swarming insects to hapless victims, etc.

- - Post any questions you have because this is a great learning subject. - -

**Also, to accommodate all of our stupidly busy lives, the deadline for this challenge is Saturday, July 4, 12 midnight Hawaii time.

Post your entries over at Renderosity in the Carrara Forum.

Post edited by MarkBremmer on

Comments

  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited December 1969

    Splats are pretty cool. They always point at the render camera.

    In this scene that I quickly slapped together, I have 4 splats textured with 4 different alpha channel trees. I used a surface replicator on that default terrain you get when you Insert > Terrain. The replicants have been distributed with a custom terrain shader built with the terrain function for snow.

    It rendered in 90 seconds and the file size is 400k. Neat-o, eh?

    Splat1a.jpg
    1280 x 720 - 599K
  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,986
    edited December 1969

    wow Mark, you are a one man wiki! Great image.
    Haven't played with splats for ages. Last time I ended up with weird shadow artefacts from memory.
    Do you have to use a point at camera modifier?

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,050
    edited December 1969

    Find the SPLATS!

    Victoria 7 is in amongst all the splats... or are they splats?

    I know, it's not Victoria 7....

    it's her stand in ( Sticky 7 ) as V7 still crashes out Carrara :coolsmirk:

    splats.jpg
    800 x 600 - 521K
  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited December 1969

    @headwax, no point at behavior required. The splats auto-point.

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,986
    edited December 1969

    MarkBremmer said:
    @headwax, no point at behavior required. The splats auto-point.

    thanks Mark :)

  • HeadwaxHeadwax Posts: 9,986
    edited December 1969

    Stezza said:
    Find the SPLATS!

    Victoria 7 is in amongst all the splats... or are they splats?

    I know, it's not Victoria 7....

    it's her stand in ( Sticky 7 ) as V7 still crashes out Carrara :coolsmirk:

    I think that the chick in the yellow dress is a splat! Do I get a prize ? :)

  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,050
    edited December 1969

    she may look like a splat but she aint lol

    Splats in Space..... which ones are splats.. hmmmm

    splats_in_space.jpg
    800 x 600 - 280K
  • MarkIsSleepyMarkIsSleepy Posts: 1,496
    edited December 1969

    "Strange Weather"

    Some tracer and gun flash sprites applied to splats in replicators. There's a sentence that will only make sense to someone who works in 3D. :)

    StrangeWeather.jpg
    640 x 900 - 34K
  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited December 1969

    Great. This thread has provided me with a about 1,000 images I want to create now.

  • de3ande3an Posts: 915
    edited December 1969

    I don't think the "Splat" object in Carrara works properly.
    Or, if it does, I can't think of any use for it where a plane used as a billboard wouldn't work better.

    The splat is a curved surface, so any image mapped to it will show distortion.
    The splat always faces the camera horizontally, but not vertically. If the camera looks down on one it will become increasingly distorted.
    Shadows cast by a splat are varying degrees of "wrong", depending on the direction of the lighting.

    Images mapped to planes as billboards work much better in my opinion.

    splat_text.jpg
    640 x 480 - 41K
    billboard.jpg
    640 x 480 - 45K
    splat.jpg
    640 x 480 - 45K
  • DiomedeDiomede Posts: 15,165
    edited December 1969

    de3an said:
    I don't think the "Splat" object in Carrara works properly.
    Or, if it does, I can't think of any use for it where a plane used as a billboard wouldn't work better.

    The splat is a curved surface, so any image mapped to it will show distortion.
    The splat always faces the camera horizontally, but not vertically. If the camera looks down on one it will become increasingly distorted.
    Shadows cast by a splat are varying degrees of "wrong", depending on the direction of the lighting.

    Images mapped to planes as billboards work much better in my opinion.

    LOL - thank you, this really made my day.

  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited December 1969

    @de3an, The splat is everything you say it is.

    However, it's primary purpose is to be used on the same level as the camera. Using a splat is a short-cut for this need because you don't have to add any behaviors/modifiers as you do with a billboard. The curved surface does a little better job on the distortion that occurs near the edge of the lens area.

    So, understanding the purpose clearly determines when it's best used.

    But yes, you could do everything with a modified billboard - it just takes more steps.

  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited December 1969

    Splats for the glowing things (they center in the splat nicely) and billboards for the plants with a point at behavior.

    OrbField.jpg
    1240 x 780 - 110K
  • SockrateaseSockratease Posts: 813
    edited December 1969

    Cows are afraid of going splat, so since when I am not rendering Cows I am rendering Fractals - here is a bit of a colorful fractal rendered with alpha in JWildfire, followed by what happened when it was placed on a splat then put in a replicator and balled up into some abstract bullpoop which is too hideous to not post (if only as a cautionary tale to remind me to just stick to Cows and not pretend anything else has any artistic merit whatsoever!).

    masky.jpg
    1600 x 1200 - 2M
    masky.png
    1920 x 1080 - 2M
  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited December 1969

    Nice Sockratease!

  • JoeMamma2000JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615
    edited June 2015

    I suspect that most here would be absolutely shocked if they knew how common and popular and useful splats (aka cards/billboards) are in the professional VFX world. Although the "always point at the camera" part isn't quite as common, the concept of matted images on a plane is used for everything from characters to flames to environments and on and on.

    You'd be amazed... :) :)

    Post edited by JoeMamma2000 on
  • StezzaStezza Posts: 8,050
    edited December 1969

    Sockratease said:
    Cows are afraid of going splat, so since when I am not rendering Cows I am rendering Fractals - here is a bit of a colorful fractal rendered with alpha in JWildfire, followed by what happened when it was placed on a splat then put in a replicator and balled up into some abstract bullpoop which is too hideous to not post (if only as a cautionary tale to remind me to just stick to Cows and not pretend anything else has any artistic merit whatsoever!).

    Love your fractal splats Sock..

    and when I look into it continuously for 3 minutes I can see fractal cows!! wow!

    Here's a mere burning splat in a bush with a smokey splat... think I read about it somewhere when I was in primary school

    Burning_bush_with_a_Monk.jpg
    800 x 600 - 431K
  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited December 1969

    Fun stuff Stezza.

  • MarkBremmerMarkBremmer Posts: 190
    edited July 2015

    So, I finally got around to doing a video tour of the wine glass scene in Carrara. Hope you find this useful:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXoRUOBNQ08

    Edit: Ok, I'm a bit of a dolt and posted this in the wrong Glory thread. But, hey, check it out anyhow.

    Post edited by MarkBremmer on
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