|
Shield Tutorial:
For the longest time, I've wanted to find a way to build a better shield bubble for my animations. Unfortunately, all of those who have the experience and who have built impressive visuals for animated shield bubbles, have proven reluctant to share their technique and less than helpful in advising amateurs as to how to build a halfway decent shield bubble of their own. As such, it became clear that I would have to figure out how this little trick is done, myself and, upon figuring it out, share that information with all of you. Well, after years of unsuccessfully searching for tutorials on shield bubbles and after months of tinkering, starting, stopping, and restarting my work, I have finally established a decent method for creating a decent looking shield bubble!
First, we must open up Lightwave Modeler and make ourselves a nice sphere. For our purposes we are going to use the "globe" setting option, and we are going to make it 70 meters along all axis and position it 70 meters forward along the Z-Axis. Why? So that we can position all of our alpha channels to the center, later in the tutorial. With our sphere created, we can now save our work (name it shieldbubble.lwo), close down Modeler and head on into the Lightwave Animator and start to have some fun! NOTE: You can, later, make a MORPH object of your shield bubble, which is any shape you want/need to fit the ship you are going to use in your image/animation, but the visual object will remain the same sphere above.
STEP TWO: 1.) Left Click on the "Surface Editor" button, on the left-hand command bar, in Layout. This will open the Surface Editor windows, as shown below.
2.) Left Click on the color swatch and set the RGB to 128;128;192 - this will give you a nice blue violet color, which will make for the base color of our shield bubble. Next, we are going to add in some texture. 3.) Click on the "T" button to the LEFT of the COLOR field.
4.)
First we need to create a texture that looks like energy, to give our shield that electromagnetic appearance. I've found that the PROCEDURAL TEXTURE "Crumple" works best for this, with:
5.)
Now we need to create that cloud like appearance, of energy being diffused across the length of the shield grid. We can accomplish this using the PROCEDURAL TEXTURE "Fractal Noise", twice. The first should be set at:
6.)
How about some lightning? Its always a good idea to give one's shields that "Highlander" look, as it makes it look like the shields are actually struggling to withstand the devastating energy attacks of evil aliens. For this effect we will, once again, be using a PROCEDURAL TEXTURE, this time "Marble", with the following settings:
7.)
Now its onto that cool, water like ripple which has become so popular in modern sci-fi, which you can produce using three layers of the "Ripples" or "Ripples2" PROCEDURAL TEXTURE, with the following settings: 8.) Now, on ALL the texture maps listed above, you will need to go back into ROTATION and randomly set angles for HEADING;PITCH;BANK in order for the effect to move when the shield is struck. Tinker with the HPB settings until you get something you like. When you are done, however, you should have something that looks like this.
Click on the button USE TEXTURE and save your work. Then, you can use a test render (F9) to see how it came out!
Now, this isn't exactly what we want. not yet, anyway. So, let's move onto the next stage in our shield development and further refine our texture maps. Now, one thing about shields is that they are luminescent. As such, our shield must also be luminescent. So, while in the SURFACE EDITOR main window, go to LUMINOSITY and set it to 35%. Upon doing this, then click on the "T" button and add in the SAME settings as your "Crumple" PROCEDURAL TEXTURE from the COLOR map. NOTE: You can actually highlight a given texture from the COLOR texture window, and paste that individual layer into another texture window, as shown below.
A helpful little trick for speeding up one's work. We now need to add some SPECULARITY. As before, we will use the COPY/PASTE option to add "Marble" PROCEDURAL TEXTURE to the SPECULARITY texture window. Leave the OPACITY at 40%, and keep the SPECULARITY at 0.0% After doing this, we must again use the COPY/PASTE option to move ALL of the "Ripple" textures into the BUMP texture window, with the BUMP set to 100.0%. Smoothing should also be on, and the object should also be set to "Double Sided." To give the bubble a glowing effect, without actually having to use the GLOW option, simply left click on the SHADERS folder tab, and add the "Edge_Transparency" to the model, with the "Transparent" option chosen and "Edge Threshold" set to 0.5, as seen in the image below.
Put all the above together and we now have a shield bubble that looks like. THIS!
Of course, we never really see shields as giant, blowing balls in space. Rather, only small portions where the shields are struck, are usually luminescent, and the rest of the shield invisible. We need to make, all but a small portion of our shield invisible, and we need to make this small, luminescent area (while we'll call the "Strike Zone") modular so we can animate a ship being struck from multiple angles in the same scene. For this, we will need to work with Procedural Texture, Transparency Maps, Morphs, and Null Objects. STEP THREE: Now, this will have no effect until we add in our TRANSPARENCY TEXTURE MAPS. We have two options in making the effect. First, we can use ADOBE PHOTOSHOP to make maps which are 640*480 in size, with an alpha channel and saved as *.PSD files. I have found that this is the best way to make these maps and provide for speed and flexibility while rendering. Another option is to have flat, gray scale maps that fade from black to whit, and use two layers - one as the map, the other as an alpha channel above that B&W map. Both methods work, though I'm of the opinion that *.PSD files work best. Regardless, here are examples of the THREE alpha channel maps, which you can to make your own shield. Now, first we must add in these files to our TRANSPARENCY WINDOW. We do so via the following: 1.) Below the FIRST "Fractal Noise" texture, add in the SHIELD_ALPHA_SML.BMP file as a "Cylindrical" Image Map, along the Z-Axis. You must UN-CHECK the options for "Pixel Blending", "Texture Antialiasing", and most importantly, un-check "World Coordinates." Set the XYZ SCALE to 145m;145m;145m. 2.) Copy this texture map and paste it back in and then, using your mouse, drag it down so that you have the copy ABOVE the bottom SHIELD_ALPHA_SML.BMP file and then make the new file into an ALPHA CHANNEL. 3.) Copy this process so that the SHIELD_ALPHA_MED.BMP is BETWEEN the two "Fractal Noise" map. The size and settings should remain the same, with the only difference being which image you are using. 4.) Copy this process AGAIN so that the SHIELD_ALPHA_LRG.BMP is ABOVE the top "Fractal Noise" texture, again, with all the same settings as the first option. See the image below to see an example of HOW your final product should look.
Click on the button USE TEXTURE and save your work. Then, do a TEST rendering by clicking the F9 button. When you render this out, you should get a result that looks something similar to the image below.
Now, the problem with the model as it stands right now, is if you stretch it, in order to have the shield surround a starship, this is what will happen.
Not exactly what we looking for, is it? In order to get around this problem, we need to use the MORPH option in Lightwave. By using a morph, we can change the shape of the object, without changing the physical properties of the original object. STEP FOUR: a.) Open Modeler. b.) Open your shield object. c.) Left Click on the DETAIL tab. d.) Left Click on the SURFACE button in the left-hand command bar. e.) Apply the DEFAULT surface to the object. f.) Left Click on the MODIFY tab. g.) Left Click on SIZE and adjust the physical size of the morph object to whatever shape you'll need for your ship. h.) Save your shield object under a different name. i.) Exit Modeler and open Layout. Now that we are back in layout, open all the objects you are going to need, i.e. the shield object and the morph object. In addition to these two items, we are also going to need a NULL OBJECT. You can create a NULL OBJECT by clicking on the ADD button on the left-hand command bar, left click on OBJECT and then left click on ADD NULL. A pop-up window will appear, giving you an option to name this object; name the object "Strike Zone Null." Now, left click the button "Motion Options" and PARENT "Strike Zone Null" object to your Shield Bubble object. Obviously we do not want that pesky morph object sitting in the way of our visible field, so what we're going to do is make this object invisible. We do this via the following: a.) Left Click the "Objects" button in the bottom command bar, so that this option is highlighted. b.) Choose the Morph Object by clicking on the button marked "Current Item" in the bottom command bar. c.) Left Click the "Item Properties" button on the bottom command bar, which will make the "Object Property" window appear, for the Morph Object. d.) Left Click on the tab marked "Rendering." e.) In the option titled "Object Dissolve" set the rate to 100.0% There, now that turned the morph object invisible. Now, we need to change the shape of our object using that same morph object. Don't worry, even though the morph invisible, we can still use it to change the shape of our Shield Bubble object. You can do this by following the instructions bellow: a.) Left Click the "Objects" button in the bottom command bar, so that this option is highlighted. b.) Choose the Shield Bubble Object by clicking on the button marked "Current Item" in the bottom command bar. c.) Left Click the "Item Properties" button on the bottom command bar, which will make the "Object Property" window appear, for the Shield Bubble Object. d.) Left Click on the "Deformations" tab. e.) Find the drop-down box titled "Morph Target", left click on it and find the Morph object from the list and click on it. f.) You will not see that you can now adjust the settings in the box titled "Morph Amount." Simply set it to 100.0%. You will now find the shield bubble has changed to the same shape as the Morph object. Now, try doing a test render and you'll get something that looks like this:
See! Now, we have no rings, only the glowing shield strike zone. STEP FIVE: a.) With the Shield Bubble object selected, Left Click on the "Surface Editor" button from the left-hand side command bar. b.) Left Click on the TRANSPARENCY "T" button. c.) Choose any one of the B&W Transparency maps. d.) Go to the option titled REFERENCE OBJECT and use the drop-down box to select "Strike Zone Null" object. e.) Repeat the steps listed above on ALL the B&W Transparency maps. f.) Click the button "Use Texture" and save your work. Now, every time you move the "Strike Zone Null" object, the placement of the shield bubble will follow the direction of the "Strike Zone Null" object. So, now you will get a result that looks like THIS!
Or, for a better look, check out this animation!
Not bad, eh? The only thing I've not figured out yet, is how to set it up, so that the shield does not loose its proper alpha channel settings while rendering, and the object must move WITH the ship. Still, I'm betting I'll figure that out eventually and I am sure that - if I do not - one of you will and will please relay that information to me, to add onto this tutorial. Have fun with shields, guys! At least now we know how they work. |
STEP ONE:
