Edge Opacity / Center Transparency

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Has anyone tried to use Ambient Occlusion in the opacity slot before? I am creating a handful of diagrammatic renderings. I want the shapes to have stylized look where they are more transparent at the center, and more opaque at the edges.

 

The attached image shows one of the series of diagrams I am working on. I want to take any of those shapes, and apply this look to it, where it is more opaque on the edges, and less opaque / transparent in the center area.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Actually, I don't think AO will work. Neither will Gradient Ramp.

[Chad Warner]

Which renderer are you using? With vray you can use the vray dirt map and invert the normal on the material, which should work to your liking.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Which renderer are you using? With vray you can use the vray dirt map and invert the normal on the material, which should work to your liking.

 

 

Oh ya, I guess that would be important. I am using Mental Ray, so no go on Vray Dirt Map. Perhaps I can find a MR Dirt Shader though.

[jucaro]

Why not use a falloff map? The effect you are trying to achieve is almost, if not the same as the method used in making X-Ray, and electron microscope imagery effect. Its a reversed falloff. Think of velvet?

[shaneis]

There is this X-Ray shader for Max on highend3d...

 

http://www.highend3d.com/3dsmax/downloads/shaders/XRay-shader-3947.html

 

The author's notes say it's tested to Max vers 9, it might be worth trying out.

 

Here's the direct link to the author's website...

 

http://dl3d.free.fr/download_shaders.php

Edited October 11, 2008 by shaneis

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

There is this X-Ray shader for Max on highend3d...

 

http://www.highend3d.com/3dsmax/downloads/shaders/XRay-shader-3947.html

 

The author's notes say it's tested to Max vers 9, it might be worth trying out.

 

Here's the direct link to the author's website...

 

http://dl3d.free.fr/download_shaders.php

 

This sounded promising, it gave me no errors when Max loaded, but when I placed it in the material editor, it didn't work properly. As you can see from my attached jpeg, the middle of the sphere previews solid, and transparent as shown on David Lanier's website.

 

Also, when it rendered it was a charcoal color, and not the purple shade that is set as the default.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Why not use a falloff map? The effect you are trying to achieve is almost, if not the same as the method used in making X-Ray, and electron microscope imagery effect. Its a reversed falloff. Think of velvet?

 

I tested the fall off method. It works great on non square objects, such as the sphere shown in the attached image, but it doesn't work well on the parallel and perpendicular surfaces. I assume this is because the fall off is the same across the entire surface.

 

When I chamfered the edges, it became more interesting, but not enough to pull off the look.

[MrCAD]

Lets see if this kinda effect helps..I made a small scene in max 9..

 

Meher

[jucaro]

perhaps this?

[Peter M. Gruhn]

> Has anyone tried to use Ambient Occlusion in the opacity slot before?

 

Not before, but I did just now. First test works ok. Attached image is backwards from yours, but no worries.

 

I used a finite distance and pumped the map through an Output to increase the contrast.

 

Also fun for self-illumination.

[MrCAD]

I think I tested exactly what you wanted...but it works with scanline and vray renderers..does'nt support MR..

There's this free plugin Gradient Ramp ..try it

http://www.vg2max.spb.ru/download.html

 

Meher