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LightWave FiberFX

1. Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 22 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Color Tab Color Mode Textured When this mode is selected you can use either the color picker to select a simple base color Unlike Mixed color mode all your fibers will be the same color However you can now also use the standard LightWave 3D texture editor to color your fibers this offers many options for texturing your fibers Plain Color Texture Map Fiber U Gradient Fiber U Gradient Fiber U allows you to control a particular settings value as it travels along the fiber length from root to tip In the example below we are controlling the fiber colour of some hair from blue at the root to red at the tip The results of which can seen in the above right example Texture Editor FFObject0 HairColor Fiber U 0 5 Fiber U 0 0 Fiber U 1 0 a Fiber U Gradient Highlight Textured Color Mode The Highlight setting is common to both color modes and works the same in Textured color mode as it does with Mixed color mode r l i 1 j i a Highlight 0 Highlight 50 Highlight 150 Highlight 200 Highlight 400 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 23 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Color Tab Color Evaluation There are two methods f
2. Edges The FiberFX Pixel Filter draws fibers as a series of two point polygon edges they are not perfectly smooth splines You can set the number of edges of your fibers max 127 using the Edges setting The higher the number the smoother your fibers will look Edges 1 Edges 3 Edges 6 Gravity Simulate the effect of gravity on your fibers pulling them down the more you increase it Gravity 20 Gravity 60 Gravity 120 Gravity 200 Gravity 400 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 15 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Geometry Tab Gravity Use Dot Affects how gravity is calculated With Use Dot inactive fibers on the lowers slope of an object will hang down like gravity is affecting them With Use Dot active the fibers will hug the surface and look more like fur Gravity w UD 25 Gravity w UD 50 Gravity w UD 75 Gravity w UD 100 Gravity w UD 150 Dynamic Gravity If you have applied some gravity to your fibers when you rotate your model the fibers will also move with the model By turning on Dynamic Gravity your fibers will always point in the direction of gravity even when the object is rotated Bias Vmap A Bias Vmap is an RGB Vmap vertex map which tells the fibers which direction to leave the surface In order to create a bias map you must model your fibers in the Strand Modele
3. As already mentioned these are fibers that are grown on your model using the FiberFX Pixel Filter plugin they require no physical geometry guides as these can be created and styled within the plugin O 8 Modeler FERE FiberFX Pixel Filter Generated Fibers Advantages The main advantage of FiberFX Pixel Filter generated fibers is that they are much quicker and easier to setup Within a few clicks you can have fibers on your model Your models are also smaller in file size as there is no geometry needed to be saved The other big advantage are the styling tools available for FiberFX Pixel Filter fibers They are much more intuitive and interactive to use than their modelled counterparts although modelled fibers can be controlled much more accurately as they use the LightWave 3D Modeler environment Because FiberFX Pixel Filter generated fibers can interact with the volumetric system instancing of large areas of fibers is possible Disadvantages As already suggested the main limitation with FiberFX Pixel Filter fibers is that they cannot themselves be animated using LightWave 3D s dynamics tools So if you had a character with long hair and you wanted the hair to move naturally then you would want to use geometry based fibers FiberFX Pixel Filter generated fibers will move with the underlying mesh however giving some impression of movement but not as realistic Because F
4. b FiberFX User Manual Contents Chapter 1 Introduction What is FiberFX Page 03 How Fibers Are Created FiberFX Pixel Filter Generated Fibers Page 04 Advantages Disadvantages Guide Geometry Based Fibers Page 05 Advantages Disadvantages 3D Strand Modeler Geometry Fibers Page 06 Advantages Disadvantages How Fibers Are Rendered Page 07 Chapter2 Layout Tools Introduction Page 08 FiberFX Pixel Filter Adding Fibers to a Model FiberFX Pixel Filter Interface Overview Page 09 Global Controls Page 10 Geometry Tab Page 11 Instance Tab Color Tab Shading Tab Page 2 Shadows Tab _ Page 28 Etc Tab Editing Strand Guides FiberFX Node Editor Chapter3 Modeler Tools Introduction _ FiberFX Strand Mod lerineaiiedd e Overview Global Controls re ee Fiber Tab gt P Guides Tab Random Tab ae Gravity Tab a a Tools1 Tab sa ee ra Tools2 Tab Options Tab oe Strand Tool Ze Ee a F Strand Maker A x A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 1 Introduction OF What is FiberFX FiberFX is a new addition to LightWave 3D 9 5 that allows you to create hair and fur effects on your models Whether it s grass for architectural exteriors flowing hair on a character fur on a teddy bear or any other effect which is largely fibrous looking FiberFX offers you the flexibility to create many different looking styles FiberFX Hair Example FiberFX Grass Example FiberFX consists of 4 separa
5. grow fibers on your models F Layout NewTek LightWave 3D Win32 FF _s5urfacing_Presets lws Parent in Place Load On Draw Object Aj meree cl Add N are Dynamic Obj gt E ae EAT A Replace pen Delete Clear Selected i AE ee N AE ie TRA a Nh ret Yge qh Deyr EN ae an the 3b PAR TLIA a Om Drag mouse in view to move selected items Auto Key F1 ea eaj an n ee e Om Sel 1 Light Taget wif Create Key Preview v ou 50 cm Em i a Properties Delete Key MA A FiberFX Pixel Filter Plugin The FiberFX Pixel Filter takes either the fiber guides you grew on your model or the strand guides modelled in LightWave 3D Modeler and renders the fibers using them The FiberFX Pixel Filter is also where you can set surfacing attributes for your rendered fibers All fiber rendering is handled inside LightWave 3D Layout by the FiberFX Pixel Filter plugin this is the main engine of FiberFX For the most part fiber rendering is a post process effect which means once LightWave 3D has finished it s part of the rendering the FiberFX Pixel Filter plugin takes over and renders the fibers onto the image in reality FiberFX is working alongside the LightWave 3D render engine which we ll talk about more later but the actual fibers are drawn to the image at the end hence the name post process Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek I
6. 2 3x4 16 total edges fiber Fiber Smooth 0 Fiber Smooth 1 Fiber Smooth 2 Fiber Smooth 3 Fiber Smooth 4 Fiber Kink This Fiber Kink setting is only available when Fiber Smooth is set to 1 or above As fiber edges are subdivided each newly created edge end point can be perturbed This creates a kinked look to the fibers Because subdivision of fibers is performed just before the edges are drawn they are not used in creation of the shadows as these are created prior to subdivision As a result the kinking effect will not be visible in shadows ani Kink 20 Kink 40 Kink 60 Kink 80 Kink 100 Fiber Width Controls how thick or thin fibers appear Thinner fibers are more transparent and build up density slower whereas thick fibers are less transparent and build up density faster Model scale has an effect on fiber width as does the distance to camera Fibers further away are smaller in screen space and are more transparent The percentage is based on human hair which has been measured at 0 017mm to 0 181mm with blond hair being the thinnest and black hair the thickest At 100 width a fiber is calculated using a median value of 0 05mm Fiber Width 10 Fiber Width 25 Fiber Width 50 Fiber Width 75 Fiber Width 100 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 12 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Geometry Tab Splay Controls how
7. A EAE pu n w an Om 0 Om Drag mouse in view to m Om Sel 1 Jin Objects 0 Bones FiberFX Strand Guide Editing in Layout Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 31 lt N b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Editing Strand Guides Brush Type Push Push mode is similar to combing guides can be dragged in the direction you move the mouse Brush Type Scale Scale mode will increase the length of the guides if you use the right mouse button while dragging the guides will decrease in length Brush Type Straighten This mode will straighten the guides based on the normal direction from where the guide started Brush Type Single Single mode allows the pushing of individual guides useful for tweaking any stray guides that may have occurred as a result of styling guides Brush Mode Radius Uses airbrush like manipulation of the Brush Types anything within the brush circle is edited except on Single where only one guide will be moved Brush Mode Global Every guide on the object will be edited equally allows en masse editing Brush Mode Surface Hug Works similar to Radius mode but follows the nearest surface on the object Brush Radius Sets the working size of the brush when Brush Type is set to Radius Brush Strength Sets the power of the brush smaller
8. Page 29 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Etc Tab The Etc tab contains preferences for the FiberFX plugin as well as buffer saving options Cull Angle To speed up the OpenGL display of fibers this setting eliminates fibers early in the drawing stage that would be behind the object and not be drawn At 100 fibers beyond the objects profile edge will be culled at 0 no fibers are culled Fade Angle This is the angle the fibers fade out over Tweak this value to have long back facing fibers fade gradually instead of just disappearing from the OpenGL view Scene Edge Limit Sets the maximum number of fiber edges drawn in the OpenGL view The higher the number the more fibers will be visible at the expense of slower OpenGL responsiveness World Turning this option on gathers fiber coordinates in world space and not in relation to the object parent coordinates Typically you would have this setting off but if you are using LightWave Dynamics to animate fibers you need to turn this on and unparent to gather the coordinates correctly Before Volume Runs the pixel filter and sets the depth buffer before any volumetric plug ins This allows volumetric effects like LightWave s HyperVoxels to contribute to the FiberFX depth buffer Save RGBA Saves the RGBA buffers to a separate file When this item is active the fibers will not be drawn into the image filter buffer Make sure you sele
9. Tab Once activated FiberFX will take whatever fiber setup you have and clone it to each particle location In the example below we want to use instancing to create a number of grass clumps across the ground If we applied FiberFX to the whole ground surface it would be cloned many times over itself This is not what we want as can be seen in the image below FiberFX Instancing Incorrectly Applied What we need to do is setup a smaller patch of grass by renaming just a few polygons on the ground plane we will then use this smaller surface to setup our fibers on The rest of the ground plane needs to be named differently from the grass surface In the image below you can see the fibers setup on the surface BEFORE instancing is applied FiberFX Grass Fiber Setup Before Instancing Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 20 FiberFX User Manual gt Instance Tab Once instancing is activated this is what we now see wi Layout NewTek LightWave 3D 9 5 wWin32 FFX_Instancing lws fh tems Modi Setup Ui S Render View Modelet Teale M Fi2 Perspective _w maha Eeoa Parent in Place Load Scene SS 0m 0 an 1 Om Drag mouse in view to move s elec ted items Auto Key F1 rea ta an im ee Om Set DimPee ____ H Tata O gt Gid BD cm Ce ee r SE DEEKIE ma iea nen FiberFX Grass Fiber Setup After Instancing Here are some examples showing what can be achieved usin
10. and a NULL object wW Node Editor Fiber Displacement 01X Add Node v Edit v Undo Redo Purge Update Options e A Veet Nod SA A Item Info Nul Object 1 ion e Hem Info Fibes lt Ball 1 ositic 3 i Subtract 1 me fect yer oe Q Fake Dynamics Node Flow The fibers vector direction is controlled by subtracting the NULL s world position from the sphere s world position The amount of the resulting vector direction is then controlled by the Fiber U position so that at the root of the fiber the strength is low and higher at the tip this gives the illusion of fading out of the movement In Layout the sohere and NULL object are hand animated to move the fibers in the general direction they would move in reality to simulate dynamic movement Clearly this is not as accurate as using actual LightWave Dynamics but it s a neat solution to animating Pixel Generated fibers that usually can t be animated using LightWave Dynamics The result using the node editor to simulate dynamic movement of fibers Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 36 A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Introduction There are a number of tools available in LightWave 3D Modeler for FiberFX These tools not only allow you to build 2 point poly chain fiber guides for use with the FiberFX Pixel Filter plugin in Layout but the c
11. fiber density according to the weight map values from Oto 1 Make UVs UV coordinates are created for the fibers 0 at the base and 1 at the tip Useful for weighting animated fibers using clothFX Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 49 A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Options Tab Contains preferences for the FiberFX Strand Modeler Fiber Color Sets the color of the fibers within the Interface This does not affect the fibers color when rendered Bkg Color Background Sets the color of the viewport background within the Interface Grid Draws a X Z grid in the viewport Reset Current Surface Reset current surface to default settings any styling will be lost Guides will not be deleted Surface Offset Push points off the polygon by set amount Useful to offset single point polygons from the surface Knots Only Show only the guide knots turning off the spline drawing Ends Only Show only the root and tip knots hiding any knots inbetween Fat Lines Thickens up the fibers and guides within the interface to make them more visible Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 50 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools G FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Strand Tool This is a Modeler tool for adjusting fiber strands using IK after creating them in Strand Modeler When launched the Strand Tool scans the selected layer an
12. much quicker way of doing the same operation Scale Guides Scales the length of the selected guides this will also scale the length of any fibers they are controlling as a result Del Guide Delete Guide To delete a guide hold down the Shift key and drag a box selection using your mouse over the guide you wish to delete normal left mouse clicking doesn t select a guide as this is how you move guide knots not select them You can continue to use this same method to select multiple guides When a guide is selected the last knot will be highlighted white You can now click the Del Guide button to remove the selected guides Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 43 A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Guides Tab Add Node Guide Knot To add a new node or knot click this button It will add a node knot to ALL guides Currently all guides must have a uniform node knot count Del Node Guide Knot Clicking this button will delete the last node or knot from ALL guides Add Guides Load Guides You can add or load guides in a number of ways using this popup menu You can load guides previously saved on layers in your object 2 point polygon fiber chains can also be loaded back in as guides and not fibers Guides can be created from fibers currently growing on the surface Note guides created using this method take on the exact shape of your cu
13. reserved Page 42 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Guides Tab Spline Type Changes the spline calculation method for all splines you can toggle between them Interpolating splines pass through each knot of the guide Whereas Approximating splines act more like Bezier splines Interpolating splines can be bent tighter Approximating splines are smoother i X i Yet SQ SOON X N NNI 4 UNS y MAAA N hy ASS Kt NA NY AN Raio ITANA nN gt N t AK ANY aN yn KAA CE WA QA WAAR SY Uy ip A N f t N ON ARR LN N NA N N ARR a a x at SS TN ANS X Interpolating Splines Approximating Splines Add Guide To place a guide on your model to control the fibers click this button or press the hotkey g then select a polygon on your model that will serve as the place holder for your guide You can only place one guide per polygon To add many guides in one go use the Grow button to add fibers to your model and set the Fiber Qty setting to the number of guides you require Then click the Okay button to commit your settings Run the Strand Modeler again and use the Add Guides popup menu selecting the layer that contains the fibers you just created These will then load up as guides and not fibers Or you can select Current Fibers option which is a
14. root your fibers start to have transparency down to 0 at the ends effectively fading them out 0 means your fibers have no transparency and so will appear solid right to the tips 50 would mean that at 50 along your fibers they start to fade out until they reach 100 transparent at the tips Makes hair look thick 0 or fine and fly away 100 In the examples below Diffuse was set to 75 and Specular 100 to better see the effect Tip Trans 0 Tip Trans 25 Tip Trans 50 Tip Trans 75 Tip Trans 100 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 26 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Shading Tab Translucency Translucency is only really apparent with lights placed behind the subject Higher translucency settings give the impression of more light passing through the fibers making them lighter This effects the outer edges of your fibers more than the main body In the examples below Diffuse was set to 75 and Specular 100 to better see the effect more noticeable down the right hand side Translucency 10 Translucency 50 Translucency 100 Translucency 200 Translucency 400 Cuticle Tilt This setting only works when the Specular setting is above 0 as it controls the position of the specular highlight on the fibers At 0 the specular highlight is where it naturally lies when light hits it negative values pull the hi
15. within LightWave 3D Layout Once you have added fibers to your model you can now start to modify how they will look when rendered In the next part we will go through the FiberFX Pixel Filter interface and the various options available Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 8 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt User Interface Overview The Fiber Filter panel in Layout found in the Image Processing Panel gt Add Pixel Filter gt FiberFilter is for creating pixel generated fibers Unlike the FiberFX Strand Modeler found in LightWave Modeler no geometry is actually created it is a post process effect Although it s main usage is for shorter fur type effects it can also be used to create hair grass carpets etc Wf FiberFX Fj le O pe rati ons amp snow chic Guides 16295 Fibers 0 Edges 0 Fi be r nfo rm atio n FiberFX Activation Surface object Shadow Voxels 0 Leats 0 Global Properties Volumetric Shadows Guide Editing EE FiberFX Fiber Filter Interface fp Edit Strands On Draw Object Objects List 500 0 ee Fiber Properties Edit Guides Interface Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 9 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Global Controls There are a number of controls on the main FiberFX interface that allow control ove
16. 4 inputs that you can control Vector Amplitude Length and Color When anything is plugged into the Color input the Node Editor will override that parameter but the Vector and Amplitude inputs allow blending of any calculations within the Node Editor and any settings changed on the Geometry tab Double clicking on the FiberFX root node will display two parameters for how the Node Editor will calculate the resulting direction ya Miber Displacement FiberFX FiberFX Root Node amp Properties Local Displacement orients the displacement to be performed along the underlying polygons normal this mode is useful for creating swirls as the ripples radiate down the fiber Turning it off uses object space displacement use this mode for things like fields of waving grass Nodal First changes the order that the nodes and other effects are evaluated for instance if you have gravity set to make the fibers droop it is possible to set the nodes to override the effect of the gravity The default setting for nodes first will prevent this Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 33 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Node Editor FiberlnfoNode The FiberlnfoNode allows access to fiber edge information which you can then use along with regular nodes to modify them this allows you to create more custom styling of fibers not available by using the
17. Jitter Y Randomizes the Y axis direction the fiber as it leave the objects surface Jitter Z Randomizes the Z axis direction the fiber as it leave the objects surface Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 46 A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Gravity Tab Contains controls for simulating gravity affecting the fibers to create a more natural appearance Strength The percentage of gravity affecting the fibers Gravity bends the fibers in the direction of the arrow in the gravity direction control box Use Normals Percentage of force pulling fibers into the direction of the surface normal Useful for creation of surface hugging fibers instead of being pulled only in the direction of gravity Gravity Direction The gadget allows you to change the direction you want the gravity force to be directed To modify the click and drag the arrow using the mouse Reset Reset the gravity direction arrow to point down Slope Changes the force of the gravity effect according to the slope of the surface Fibers on upward and horizontal facing surfaces receive more of the gravity strength whereas fibers on downward and vertical surfaces receive less of the gravity force Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 47 A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Tools1 Tab Tools for fiber styling can be found on thi
18. a Scaled option whereby the size of the underlying polygon is taken into consideration you can adjust this compensation by adjusting the Area Scale property This gives a total of four actual distribution methods By Area The number are fibers in the Fiber Qty setting are scattered across the whole surface randomly Fiber Distribution By Area By Area Scaled The number are fibers in the Fiber Qty setting are scattered across the whole surface randomly but scales the length of the fibers according to the underlying polygon area size This scaling can be adjusted by the Area Scale control W N N Ti ANNIN N WN i NY W N W i NN Ni T t N MN W WN RAN a A K ll KN N AN it Wy N Fiber Distribution By Area Scaled Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 39 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Fiber Tab 1 Per Polygon Places one fiber at the center of each polygon on your surface this creates a very ordered appearance If you use these fibers as guides in the FiberFX Pixel Filter in LightWave 3D Layout you can create many more virtual fibers clustered about the centre of these guides giving the appearance of more fibers y i W N aa wr Bin N 1 Per Polygon Scaled Places one fiber at the center of each polygon on your surface but scales the length of the fibers a
19. around each guide hair The limitation is that because fibers are not attached to the surface increasing the radius too far will force fibers off the surface as can be seen in the examples below This control is disabled for surface generated fibers as geometry guides are not used a NYA WN WN MNN Qty 32 Rad 6cm Qty 32 Rad 12cm TTN Qty 32 Rad 2mm Qty 32 Rad 2cm Qty 32 Rad 48cm Cluster and Cluster Radius The Cluster setting allows you to add additional fibers around each guide hair the distance these additional fibers are away from the guide hair is controlled by the Cluster Radius Clistr 1 Rad 3mm Clstr 4 Rad 3mm Clistr 8 Rad 3mm Clistr 8 Rad 3cm Clstr 8 Rad 12cm Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 11 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Geometry Tab Fiber Smooth FiberFX draws surface generated fibers as a series of two point polygon edges they are not perfectly smooth splines When the number of Edges setting is greater than 1 you can then use the Fiber Smooth setting to subdivide each edge even further it works much the same way as Subdivision Levels do on regular LightWave models Fiber Smooth has four levels of subdivision Level 1 2 Edges 2 4 Edges 3 8 Edges 4 16 Edges these edge values are how many times EACH edge in the Edges setting is divided up into So 3 Edges with Fiber Smooth level
20. ast Shadow 30 Cast Shadow 60 Cast Shadow 100 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 28 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Shadows Tab Shadow Depth This controls the shadow quality Shadows are created by subdividing the fiber object into many small voxel boxes The density of each little box is measured and used to create the shadows Lower values result in coarser less accurate shadows but will render faster Higher values mean smoother more accurate shadows but slower rendering A value of 16 works best for most setups Shadow Depth2 ShadowDepth4 ShadowDepth8 Shadow Depth 12 Shadow Depth 16 Multisample Creates multiple shadow samples randomized on a hemisphere about the Light direction This smooths out shadows at the expense of more shadow rays Shadow Type There are three shadow types for fibers in FiberFX Interpolated Ray Trace and Point Sample Interpolated Shadows Ray Traced Shadows Point Sample Shadows These are the fastest shadows Fully traced but slowest Better quality than Interpolated but slower Sample Radius When Shadow Type is set to Point Sample the Sample Radius option becomes available The larger the sample radius the smoother but less accurate point sampled shadows become Sample Radius 1 Sample Radius 2 Sample Radius 3 Sample Radius 4 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved
21. ccording to the underlying polygon area size This scaling can be adjusted by the Area Scale control Fiber Distribution 1 Per Polygon Scaled Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 40 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Fiber Tab Area Scale This setting becomes available when the fiber distribution method is set to By Area Scaled or 1 Per Polygon Scaled It adjusts the percentage of scaling from the largest to the smallest polygons i NY Ni NA A ARANNA OANA NN y A ANN IARNA ANN Me Wy MANAN Yh Dv NAN N a SATUN N r a ON MARRS iN NEA AD MUNIN TANS N ANY A UNAN EINO D WY aad LAE Pe XY THT A My ty i N NY i Wa ENN NA white ee bi ANNI PERAIRE Ii MN Wy alee Ry y SEY K arai AA R AN WW HTA dhe d AW WA eh Se Sahat AL ta aie Win AANA AAG WM SAVANE Area Scale 0 Area Scale 25 75 Area Scale 100 Fiber Qty Quantity Determines the number of fibers to be used in By Area distribution mode Fiber Length Set the length of the fibers If Area Scale is active this would be the length of the polygons with the largest area Length is measured from root to tip with the fiber in an absolutely straight position Effects such as Curl Kink and Gravity change the shape of the fiber and may cause the overall length to appear shorter Edge Qty Quantity The number of edges on each fib
22. clustered fiber is being evaluated To Up Right Transform from polygon coordinates to up right To Up Up Transform from polygon coordinates to up up To Up Forward Transform from polygon coordinates to up foward From Up Right Transform from up right to polygon coordinates From Up Up Transform from up up to polygon coordinates From Up Forward Transform from up forward to polygon coordinates FiberFX Root Node ofp Fiber Displacement Fibers FiberFX Root Node amp Properties Color Changes the color of the fibers Use a Fiber U input on a gradient to change colors based on the position along the fiber length Amplitude Use this input to change the amount of amplitude of the Vector input s perturbation Without any amplitude input 100 of the Vector input will be used often resulting in harsh changes of direction Vector Controls the direction of the fiber edge vector The old and new fiber directions are interpolated together by the Amplitude amount Length Controls the length of the fiber Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 35 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Node Editor Example Node Flow Here is an example of what can be achieved using the node editor Faked Fiber Dynamics This very simple node flow gives the illusion of dynamics on the fibers The scene has a simple sphere object with fibers grown on the surface
23. ct a file format capable of saving in RGBA RGB Alpha or you will lose the alpha channel Save Z Saves the depth buffer information in separate floating point buffer When this is selected Z buffer values will not be written to the image filter buffer Make sure you select a file format capable of saving data in floating points Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 30 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Editing Strand Guides FiberFX allows airbrush like styling of fiber guides directly within the LightWave Layout OpenGL viewport These tools are very intuitive to use and allow more natural styling of fibers than using just the basic parameters found in the Geometry tab To bring up the styling tools click the Edit Guides button in the lower left corner of the main FiberFX interface Once clicked the main FiberFX interface will be hidden and you will be presented with Edit Strands dialog box The fibers also become hidden and you will see the guides that control them instead these are what you will be styling It s worth noting at this point that when you begin styling your guides the Edges setting in the Geometry tab will become locked so either make sure you have edges set to what you want before styling or save a before styling version of the scene to preserve the ability to edit edges we Edit Strands ERP Mi a s p a
24. d builds a list of fiber strands A handle is drawn at the end of each strand and inverse kinematics is used to calculate the new position when moved Pressing the n key brings up the numeric panel allowing you to set the IK strength The numeric panel also lets you toggle all knots to adjust interior knots in a strand Modeler NewTek LightWave 3D 9 5 Win32 Pa Numeric Strand Tool x Actions F 50 0 g __ All knots vK O He fe f OD AS Ar Poe AY Gop Sel E 0 E Points G Edges Polygons Symmetry Numeric n Statistics ic Surface Make Edit Strand Modeler Fibers Using The Strand Tool Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 51 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Toos FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Strand Maker This Modeler tool allows you to create fiber strands using standard LightWave Modeler tools When Strand Maker is run it scans the polygons in the current layer then moves to a new layer and builds fiber strands based off the geometry You can also use LightWave Modelers curve drawing tools like Sketch and Spline Draw to create fiber strands by hand or convert whole objects into fibers Any objects with edge loops will create fibers that are continuous whereas open ended curves will create strands exactly matching them Once these strands have been creating you can either use them back inside the Strand Modeler as fiber guides
25. er strand The more edges the smoother the strand If you render your fibers using the FiberFX Pixel Filter in LightWave 3D Layout fiber strands can be further subdivided by using the Fiber Smooth setting If required you can cover an object with single point polygons by setting the Fiber Sides setting to 0 The maximum edges per fiber is 127 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 41 A FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Fiber Tab Fiber Sides Fibers can more sides if you intent to use FiberFX for creating fully 3D fibers 1 side will create 2 point polygon strands which can be used as guide strands 2 sides creates flat polygon blades and any number above 2 will create full 3D fiber objects Sides 1 2 point poly chains Sides 2 Flat 2D blades Sides 3 Full 3D geometry Fiber Radius The setting controls the thickness of the fiber at the base It only becomes available when the Fiber Sides setting is 1 or above Angle Multi sided fibers can be rotated around their axis using this control Taper Multi sided fibers can be set to taper along their length from root to tip Higher percentages will create sharper pointier looking fibers If set to a negative value fibers can be made to have blunt flat tips It only becomes available when the Fiber Sides setting is 1 or above Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights
26. es and so can be used for styling hair using other third party tools such as Worley Labs Sasquatch plugin Disadvantages Interactive styling of fibers is limited to basic parameters in the Geometry tab in the FiberFX Pixel Filter interface although it is possible to style the modelled guide strands in FiberFX Strand Modeler If you want to create human hair using a combination of guide strands and FiberFX Pixel Filter generated fibers you will need many guides to ensure good coverage of the head surface as using the Cluster setting see page XX to create additional fibers around the guide strands will result in fibers leaving the head surface if the Cluster Radius setting is too large Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 5 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 1 Introduction 3D Strand Modeler Geometry Fibers These fibers as their name suggests are actual hard geometry and are created in LightWave 3D Modeler using the FiberFX Strand Modeler Geometry fibers can also be given multiple sides so that they have physical 3D volume at this point you don t need to use the FiberFX Pixel Filter to render them as they will be seen by the LightWave 3D renderer like any normal geometry They can even be made large enough so that you can create flat areas in which to map images onto When fibers are created this way the Strand Modeler also generates UV maps of the
27. fiber modelling session Once you have selected your surface click the Grow button this will then add fibers to the selected surface using the current settings Switching between surfaces allows you to edit the fibers parameters for that particular surface You can also click the Hide button should you need to clean up the view while working on a particular part of your model im a o o ti WM rl Hali i l Fir i j H i ed HH K hi AF l j if F j jl WA i NPAT ig FiberFX Strand Modeler showing fibers with different parameters grown on an object Load Save If you want to save your fiber editing session for later you can save and load using these controls you will need to save each surface setting if you have more than one Note any guides you ve added will not be saved To store guides you must click the Okay button to complete the session Fibers will be created along with the guides each in different layers To recall your session you must first load the settings then load the guides using the Add Guides popup menu found under the Guides tab Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 38 A FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools Oy FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Fiber Tab Fiber Distribution There are two methods for distributing fibers over your models surface By Area and 1 Per Polygon Both of these methods also have
28. for further controlling your fibers or take them into LightWave Layout for use as guides for the FiberFX Pixel Filter plugin In the quick example below creating a ball object delete one half to create a hemisphere Flattening it in the Y Axis and finally converting the geometry to fibers using Strand Maker could be the beginnings of a spiders web w Modeler NewTek LightWave 3D 9 5 Win32 32 Ag Fie Create Mody Multiply Constuct Detai Map Setup Utities Selection View Unnamed ET AAAA AAE Ea v Perspective v Textured Wire v Fean Symmetry umeric Stat AMA i ES Converting Existing Geometry to Fiber Strands Using the Strand Maker Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 52 Q NewTek Copyright and Trademarks LightWave and LightWave 3D are registered trademarks of NewTek Inc TriCaster and VT 5 are trademarks of NewTek Inc Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved
29. g this method Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Color Tab This tab is where you control the base color of your rendered fibers There are two main modes for coloring fibers Mixed default and Textured Color Mode Mixed When this mode is selected you can blend between two fiber colors each with a different root and tip color You can also set the amount each color influences the overall fiber color At 0 Base Tip Color T will be the predominant color at 100 Base Tip Color 2 will be the predominant color In this example we have the first color set to a reddish color and the second to a blue color 4 Aa Aa Color Mix 0 Color Mix 25 Color Mix 50 Color Mix 75 Color Mix 100 Blend Mixed Color Mode When Blend is checked the colors values themselves are actually mixed as oppose to just the amount of fibers using those colors you can see this best in the 50 setting below when compared without With Blend 0 With Blend 25 With Blend 50 With Blend 75 With Blend 100 Highlight Mixed Color Mode This setting randomizes fiber shading by choosing lighter and darker values based on the original base colors used The percentage determines how much different the light or dark values are from the original colors f d 4 d 1 Highlight 0 Highlight 50 Highlight 150 Highlight 200 Highlight 400
30. ghlights towards the roots whereas higher positive values push the highlights away from the roots and towards the tips Think of it as a manual override for where specular highlights hit your fibers In the examples below Diffuse was set to 75 Specular 100 and Gloss 5 to better see the effect Cuticle Tilt 100 Cuticle Tilt 50 Cuticle Tilt 0 Cuticle Tilt 50 Cuticle Tilt 100 Secondary Gloss Cuticle Tilt 2 Simulates the secondary gloss or shine fibers display mainly hair when light is bounced around inside the fibers as a result of being naturally translucent not linked to Translucency setting Works the same way as the first Gloss setting Cuticle Tilt 2 controls the position of the secondary gloss in the same way Cuticle Tilt controls the first Gloss setting en 4 t N Cuticle Tilt2 100 Cuticle Tilt2 50 Cuticle Tilt2 0 Cuticle Tilt2 50 Cuticle Tilt2 100 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 27 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Shadows Tab This tab contains the controls for tailoring the look of the shadowing of your fibers FiberFX uses LightWave s Volumetric system for creating shadows by creating Voxel objects along the fiber length Each voxel contains the fibers opacity at that point which means unlike standard LightWave 3D Shadow Maps the s
31. hadows from fibers can be opaque or solid where the fiber density changes Shadow Maps also require a Spotlight whereas FiberFX can use any LightWave light and only needs to create one shadow structure for all lights in the scene whereas Shadow Maps require this process to be completed for each light using shadow maps You can view the voxels used to create the volumetric shadow objects in Layout by clicking the View Voxels button To globally toggle shadows on off use the Volumetric Shadows button Self Shadow Sets the amount of fiber self shadowing Higher values result in darker shadows giving the appearance of thicker looking fibers whereas lower values result in lighter shadows giving the appearance of thinner fibers In the examples below Cast Shadows was set to 15 It s also worth noting that the greater your Max Fiber Density Fiber Qty setting on the Geometry tab the more dense self shadowing will appear as there are more fibers to cast shadows Self Shadow 0 Self Shadow 15 Self Shadow 30 Self Shadow 60 Self Shadow 100 Cast Shadow Sets the density of shadows cast by fibers onto other objects Higher values result in darker shadows lower values result in lighter shadows In the examples below Self Shadow was set to 15 The shadow you see when Cast Shadow is at 0 is from the object the fibers are attached to not the fibers themselves Cast Shadow 0 Cast Shadow 15 C
32. iberFX Pixel Filter generated fibers have no physical 3D volume they are limited to the finer looking fibers like hair and fur Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 4 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 1 Introduction Guide Geometry Based Fibers Although these fibers are also grown on your model they differ in that they are added to guide strands created by the FiberFX Strand Modeler and not on your base object Strand guides can be used when modelled as two point polygon chains in FiberFX Strand Modeler which are then used in conjunction with the FiberFX Pixel Filter in LightWave 3D Layout to draw the fibers directly where the strands are located You can also add more fiber strands around these base strands but there is a limitation which we will go into in the disadvantages section we Layout NewTek LightWave 3D 9 5 Win32 FFX_Guide_Test ws File Modify L Setup Utilities L Render View Modeler Tools lodeler T Textured Shaded So v 7 Herem FiberFX Pixel Filter Geometry Guided Fibers Advantages Because the generated fibers are attached to geometry guide strands they can be animated like any other LightWave 3D model using dynamics As the guide strands are affected by dynamics the fibers follow them which allows more natural movement of the fibers Guides strands also have the ability to imported and exported to and from other packag
33. much fibers can be tilted away from each other The splay center is calculated from the centre of each polygon When using this setting with geometry guide driven fibers the splay center is the position of the each guide fiber all the other fibers tilt away from it Splay 20 Splay 40 Splay 60 Splay 80 Splay 100 Swirl Controls how much fibers can be rotated around each other The splay center is calculated from the centre of each polygon When using this setting with geometry guide driven fibers the swirl center is the position of the each guide fiber all the other fibers rotate around it Swirl Turns at 50 The Random checkbox makes a random starting rotation offset Swirl 40 Swirl 60 Swirl 80 Swirl 100 Swirl 20 Swirl Turns When the Swirl setting is above 0 the amount of turns can be controlled by the Swirl Turns setting Swirl Turns 20 Swirl Turns 40 Swirl Turns 60 Swirl Turns 80 Swirl Turns 100 Tuft Controls how much fibers can be shorten the further away from the guide center they are The tuft center is calculated from the centre of each polygon When using this setting with geometry guide driven fibers the tuft center is the position of the each guide fiber Tuft 20 Tuft 40 Tuft 60 Tuft 80 Tuft 100 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 13 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Geometry Tab Stray O
34. n a guide changes its interpolation method the color also changes to show which mode your re in and if applicable the radius of influence the interpolation has r N i ORN AR IN NN Ni TUNS S N MN ARNIN ERY NAY WNN WIN AN Sharp Wide WN an W K i Wi AN LANN WY A Radius Sharp w fx NN es ea EEA lt A VSG iN r l N NNA Raa NI NY SUNN NN BAA ya SSN sS AND NN NANS N NEN AN Bundled Radius Sets the radius of influence for interpolation modes that support it Bundle yy N oN S DRS CS N N 9 NN NK ANNANS NN NY A N NN a WY A WON Interpolate Wide INN WAN ry i AS N an Awe AN NK Aw wi RAN Radius Interpolated NN KON WANS LAAN e N Radius A w fx The bundle percentage pulls all fibers in the radius of influence together forming a ponytail Bundle Bias Sets how far along the fibers length they start to bundle together At 0 the bundling starts nearer the tip of the fibers at 100 bundling starts nearer the root Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 45 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Random Tab This tab contains controls for randomizing the appearance of the fibers to create a shaggier look Length Randomizes the lengths of the fibers Jitter X Randomizes the X axis direction the fiber as it leave the objects surface
35. nc All rights reserved Page 7 A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Introduction In order to use the FiberFX Pixel Filter it needs to be added as a Pixel Filter in the Processing tab in the Effects window The Effects window can be found under the Windows popup menu on the main interface or by pressing the hotkey CTRL F8 Option F8 for Macintosh users To bring up the FiberFX Pixel Filter interface once added double click on the FiberFX entry in the Pixel Filter list ya Effects Com 1 0 a 100 0 Add FiberFX as a Pixel Filter Effects Panel gt Processing Tab Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Adding Fibers to a Model To quickly add fibers a model select the object s name in the Object List on the left then click the Activate button a tick will appear in the On column to indicate fibers are now grown on the model By default Draw Fibers is turned off to see fibers on your model in the OpenGL view click the blank space in the Draw column next to your object name You should now see fibers drawn on your model using the default settings You can set the limit of how many fiber edges are drawn in the OpenGL view by changing the Scene Edge Limit found under the Etc tab Increasing this number will allow more fibers to be visible in your OpenGL view at the expense of working speed
36. ne fiber in each wisp can be scaled to a larger size but following the original shape This creates a look where just a few strands of hairs poke out from the rest Stray 40 Stray 80 Stray 120 Stray 160 Stray 200 y Random Length Randomizes the length of the fibers to create a less uniform appearance Rand Length 20 Rand Length 40 Rand Length 60 Rand Length 80 Rand Length 100 Clump Fibers can clump together as if sticky or wet Only fiber within a wisp can clump together idl Clump 40 Clump 60 Clump 80 Clump 100 Clump 20 Bump This effect perturbs the initial fiber direction by simulating a surface bump using the local gradient of the texture Similar to Bump Maps in the Surface Editor in LightWave This effect needs something in the texture channel such as a Procedural Texture to be visible Bump 50 Bump 150 Bump 300 Bump 600 Bump 1200 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 14 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Geometry Tab Bump Root Only With the Root Only option switched on bump is calculated from the root only giving a different look to how the bump effect is applied Bump w RO 50 Bump w RO 150 Bump w RO 300 Bump w RO 600 Bump w RO 1200 Scale Scales all fibers up or down by the specified amount Scale 200 Scale 400 Scale 20 Scale 60 Scale 120
37. or Color Evaluation in the Color tab Interpolated Color and Per Pixel Color Interpolated Color Interpolated evaluation is slightly faster than per pixel but can only evaluate color changes at edge end points and then blends between them along the fiber The limitation of this mode occurs if you want many color changes along a fiber without having enough edge end points for FiberFX to evaluate the color on So if you had 4 color changes on a gradient along the fiber length but only 1 edge you will only see 2 color changes one change for each end point on the edge Per Pixel Color Although slightly slower than interpolated mode it can evaluate color changes anywhere along the fiber length regardless if there is an edge end point there or not This means that using Per Pixel Color evaluation would show all the color changes along the length even if you didn t have enough edge end points to change colour on The differences are best best shown in the examples below There are 9 color changes along the length of the fiber using a gradient locations 0 12 5 25 37 5 50 62 5 75 87 5 and 100 fiber smoothing is off and edges have been set to 1 which means each fiber has a total of 2 edge end points As you can see the Interpolated Color evaluation only shows two of those color changes along the length of the fiber Whereas Per Pixel Color shows all 9 color changes Interpolated Colo
38. polygons ready to be textured and corresponding weight maps which could then be used to animate the polygons even further Using this method it s possible to create leaves using a texture map along with a transparency map or even feathers FiberFx strand modeler Fiber Guides L Random Gravity Tools L Tools2_ Options FiberFX Strand Modeler 3D Fibers Advantages Just like guide based geometry fibers 3D polygonal fibers can be also be animated using dynamics Styling of fibers is much more precise as you can use any of Modelers tools to tweak your fibers once created or even convert existing geometry into FiberFX ready strands and guides Disadvantages The biggest draw back is the heavy geometry that will be created especially if you have large areas of dense fibers so doing large areas of grass using this method is not really the best option both for memory performance and file size reasons Setup time is usually longer using this method as there is the extra process of modelling the fibers ready to be taken into LightWave 3D Layout with your model Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 6 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 1 Introduction How Fibers Are Rendered Once you have created your fibers or more specifically fiber guides they are ready for rendering Fiber rendering is handled by the FiberFX Pixel Filter in LightWave 3D Layout yes the same plugin that can also
39. r in LightWave 3D Modeler below left image The directional information of the fibers is automatically stored as a vmap below right image on the model not the fibers or guides This is a useful way to control exactly the direction of fur on your models The vmap isn t created until you build the fibers by pressing the Okay button in the Strand Modeler If you only intend to use the bias vmap you can delete any fiber strands or guides that you created as these are no longer needed for the bias map o im Plane vma Y AAA leam Creating a Bias Vmap in the Strand Modeler Resulting Bias Vmap After Creation Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 16 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Geometry Tab Direction Bias When a Bias Vmap is selected from the popup menu you can use this control to influence the amount the Bias VMap contributes to the direction of the fibers Dir Bias 0 Dir Bias 50 Dir Bias 100 Dir Bias 200 Dir Bias 300 Surface This popup gadget allows you to specify which surface is used to grow fibers on The default is All which will grow fibers on every surface of the selected model when you select a surface fibers are grown only on that surface If you need to isolate different areas of the model with the same surface name you can use either weight or image maps found under the T button to the
40. r 1 edge 2 colors evaluated Per Pixel Color 1 edge all 9 colors evaluated Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 24 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools ter Pixel Filter gt Shading Tab TI QO D T1 prs D This tab contains all the surfacing parameters for your fibers much of the settings work in the same way they do in the standard LightWave 3D Surface Editor Diffuse Determines how much your fibers react to the diffuse setting on lights Essentially simulating the scattering of light over the fiber surface not to be confused with sub surface scattering The higher the percentage the brighter overall your fibers will look Diffuse 10 Diffuse 50 Diffuse 100 Diffuse 200 Diffuse 400 Specular Specular Color Controls how much your fibers will react to specular settings on lights As with other specularity settings in LightWave this is the simulation of lights being reflected on your fibers Higher values will increase the intensity of this effect You can also specify the color of the specular highlights using the Specular Color picker Specular 10 Specular 50 Specular 100 Specular 200 Specular 400 Gloss In order to see the effect of the gloss setting you must have Specular above 0 Much like the gloss setting in the surface editor the gloss setting controls the spread of the specular highlights on your fibers This setting works slightly differentl
41. r certain global parameters as well as some other operations Copy Paste When you have more than one object with FiberFX applied you can copy and paste the settings using these buttons Load Save Allows you to load and save your FiberFX preset settings to disk Note any fiber guide styling done using the Edit Guides option is NOT saved in the preset this information is saved into the scene file Activate Deactivate Options to turn on off fiber generation on selected objects Show Voxels FiberFX uses LightWave s Volumetric system for creating shadows by creating Voxel objects along the fiber length Each voxel contains the fibers opacity at that point which means unlike standard LightWave 3D Shadow Maps the shadows from fibers can be opaque or solid where the fiber density changes Shadow Maps also require a Spotlight whereas FiberFX can use any LightWave light and only needs to create one shadow structure for all lights in the scene whereas Shadow Maps require this process to be completed for each light using shadow maps Clicking this option allows you to see shadow s voxel objects in the main viewport Reflections A global switch to turn on off reflection of fibers seen in other objects in your scene fibers do not reflect within themselves Currently only the base color of an object can be seen in reflections Volume Only A switch to draw Fibers using LightWave s Volumetric system instead of u
42. re set the Generate By option to Frame then set the Particle Limit to the same value as the Birth rate these settings can be found under the Generator tab Next under the Particle tab make sure you set the Life Time Frame setting to 0 this makes the particles live forever This will set the number of particles to appear all at once at the start of your animation stop generating as the particle limit is reached on the first frame and last until the end of your animation Finally set the Nozzle type on the Generator tab to one that best suits the distribution your re after Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 18 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Instance Tab Setting Up Instancing Once the particles that will drive the fiber instances are setup you re ready to setup FiberFX to take advantage of them On the Instance tab make sure Volume Only is switched on then select the particle emitter you setup on your object from the Particle System popup menu gfe Fiberrs Tri Plane 1020 guides 1000 fibers 4000 edges On Draw Object Volume Orly Volumetric Shadows Activating FiberFX Instancing Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 19 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Instance
43. reation of full 3D fiber geometry Vertex Bias maps for controlling fiber direction and auto creation of UV maps for 3D fibers FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Interface Overview The Strand Modeler is the main part of FiberFX inside LightWave Modeler It can be found under the Setup tab gt Fiber FX title When opened the Strand Modeler interface looks like this Settings File Operations Tool Property Tabs View Settings Viewport amp Viewport Controls Tool Properties Surface Selection E as s amp Fiber Operations ee FiberFX Strand Modeler Interface Fiber Information Viewport Hotkeys The OpenGL viewport window supports many of the same hotkeys as LightWave 3D Holding down the Alt key while dragging in the viewport rotates the view Alt Ctrl zooms and Alt Shift pans the view The a key auto fits and centers the object in view The numerical keys 1 6 changes the viewport to show front back top bottom right and left views respectively Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 37 FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Global Controls Surface Selection amp Controls In the lower left hand corner you can select which surface on your model to grow your fibers on using the popup menu You are not limited to just one surface selecting a different surface name allows you to grow fibers with different settings on each surface in one
44. right of every parameter that supports them to further control the look of your fibers Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 17 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Instance Tab How Instancing Works FiberFX utilizes LightWave s volumetric system in order to achieve instancing To activate the instancing controls within FiberFX you must first add a Particle Emitter to your object This step MUST be done BEFORE you add FiberFX to your scene Instancing also only works with Volumetric fibers so on the main FiberFX interface makes sure you switch Volume Only on To add a particle emitter to you object First select the object then bring up the properties panel keyboard shortcut p Under the Dynamics tab there is a popup menu called Add Dynamic click that and select Emitter from the menu Next double click the FX Emitter entry to bring up the properties ye bject Properties Objects in Scene 2 Points 1085 Polygons 1024 Hame Adding a Particle Emitter to an Object When using the particle system for placement of fibers you must remember that fibers will be subject to the properties and behavior of particles To avoid having your fibers disappear over time and to ensure they are all visible at the beginning of your animation set the Birth Rate to the number of instances you requi
45. rrent fibers so any styling done to them will be reflected in the shape of the guides You can also create guides based every polygon on the currently selected surface guides will be created matching each polygons normal vector Or you can create guides based on every single point on the currently selected surface again these will be created using the point normal vector Save Guides Saves the current guide set to the next available layer in Modeler Select Node Knot This popup allows you to select either the First Last node or knot on every guide it selects all knots on every guide because any deletion of knots must be equal on all guides You can also use Previous Next to step through intermediate knots or use the None option to deselect Clear Guides Clear all guides on the surface IK Guides By default when manipulating guides using the mouse they use an IK Inverse Kinematic method of handling the guide chains which keeps all knots at an equal distance apart If you wish to override this method uncheck the IK option You will now be able to move knots anywhere you desire Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 44 FiberFX User Manual FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Guides Tab Interpolation Chapter 3 Modeler Tools amp b Guides have several Interpolation methods available to them to further refine their area of influence on the fibers Clicking the root knot o
46. s tab Curl Percentage of curl Use in combination with curl turns to create various curl types These require many edges for the smoothest effect Curl Turns The quantity of curl revolutions Set to 1 a curl would make a single 360 degree curl Randomize Curling Randomize the phase of the curl start Kink Sets the percentage of back and forth kinking like pleats or accordion fold Slope Shorten Shorten the fibers according to the slope of the surface At 100 the fibers facing down are scaled to 0 and fibers in between are scaled accordingly UV Bias Set the directional bias to be applied over each polygon laying down according to the direction chosen Think of this like a joystick at the North Pole Setting this to have a specified direction lays all the fibers over into this direction Handy for creation of parts and the whorl at the top of the head Bias works by laying a fiber up or down against it s underlying polygon It can be used to create sleek lay down types of hair To illustrate say you are doing a Wolfman In the normal UV position the hair part would be at the top of the head when contoured All the hair would be flowing down over the face If you changed the UV contouring setting appropriately the same operation would produce the part at the nose Then the hair will flow from the nose back across the face more like animal fur Reset Reset the UV bias and directional bias back to default Dir Bias Use this
47. sing the default post process pixel filter mode Volumetric fibers are coarser in appearance but are able to participate in all volumetric effects including volumetric lighting Edit Guides Brings up the fiber guide styling tools which allow you to comb fiber guides directly in the main viewport using airbrush tools This is covered in more detail later in the manual Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 10 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Geometry Tab Max Fiber Density Fiber Qty Controls how dense your fibers look on your surface This setting behaves differently depending on whether your re using surface generated fibers or guide driven fibers For surface generated fibers Max Fiber Density multiplies the number of fibers by the number of polygons and then distributes them across the entire selected surface area Small polygons might not receive any fibers if they haven t accumulated enough area for a fiber to be placed When using geometry guide driven fibers the Fiber Qty is the number of fibers generated around each guide fiber each bunch of fibers form a wisp the whole wisp will follow the movement or animation of the base guide fiber Ot A Wi i Density 2 Density 15 Density 60 Density 100 Density 200 Guide Radius When using geometry guide driven fibers the radius is how far additional fibers are scattered
48. standard controls on the Geometry tab on the main FiberFX interface Double clicking on the FiberlInfoNode allows you to select which FiberFX object to gather the data from Fibers FibednfoNode 1 of Fiber Displacement FiberF X FiberInfoMode 1 EAEE FiberFX FiberlnfoNode amp Properties Fiber U The position of the evaluation down the length of the fiber Starting from 0 0 at the root to 1 0 at the tip Use this as an input to opacity on a node to control effect strength down the length Poly Normal The normal vector coordinates of the underlying polygon that the fiber is growing from Poly Center Position The center position of the underlying polygon that the fiber is growing from Offset The offset position of the fiber currently being evaluated Fiber Tangent The normal vector of the edge currently being evaluated Fiber Base Position Position in local coordinates of the base of each fiber currently being evaluated Fiber Edge Position Start position in local coordinates of the edge currently being evaluated Fiber Number Returns the fiber number that is being evaluated Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 34 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Node Editor Offset Amt Amount The offset of each added fiber from the parent wisp or guide fiber Cluster Returns the fiber s Cluster number Use it to determine if a
49. te plugins one is located in LightWave 3D Layout the others in LightWave 3D Modeler Plugin Name Type Location In LightWave 3D FiberFX Pixel Filter Layout Image Processing Panel gt Add Pixel Filter gt FiberFilter FiberFX Strand Modeler Modeler Setup Tab gt FiberFX gt FiberFX Strand Tool Modeler Setup Tab gt FiberFX gt Strand Tool Strand Maker Modeler Setup Tab gt FiberFX gt Strand Maker Each of these tools falls into one of the two main concepts you need to understand while working with FiberFX how fibers are created and how they are rendered How Fibers Are Created Before fibers can be rendered fiber guides have to be created first Within FiberFX there are two ways to create guides which ultimately allows three approaches to fiber generation One is to grow them on your model using the FiberFX Pixel Filter in LightWave 3D Layout the second is to model guide Strands using the FiberFX Strand Modeler found in LightWave 3D Modeler which then control the FiberFX Pixel Filter generated fibers and the third is to create fully 3D geometry fibers also using the FiberFX Strand Modeler Each of these different fiber creation methods has advantages and disadvantages Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 3 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 1 Introduction OF FiberFX Pixel Filter Generated Fibers
50. to tip the UV bias joystick at the North Pole into a different orientation Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 48 A b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 3 Modeler Tools FiberFX Strand Modeler gt Tools2 Tab Tools for fiber styling can be found on this tab Clip Object Select another modeler layer as a clipper object to cut the hair that intersects it The clipper object is shown in wireframe For instance you can use a box in another layer to clip hair into a flat top style Imagine hair growing into a form and stopping where it intersects Clip Transformation The clip object can be moved by selecting the transform and using the Ctrl key to manipulate it Reset Resets the clip object back to origin Hide Hides the clip object Collision Set the fiber collision with the surface These are subject to effects and be aware that guides plus effects can drive fibers into the surface since by nature those are predetermined and subject to interpolation Guide knots themselves are subject to collisions and can be place down on a surface Axis Mirror Only available when using guides and is handy for creating a symmetrical hair part Place the guides on one side and fibers on the other side with use them in a mirrored fashion Length Vmap Choose an existing weight map to alter the length according to the weight map values from 0 to 1 Density Vmap Choose an existing weight map to alter the local
51. values allow finer tweaks larger values edit guides much more aggressively Entering negative values invert the direction of the Scale brush type without needing to use the right mouse button while brushing Undo Redo Allows you to undo redo brushing strokes whilst within the guide editing interface Reset Resets all changes made going back to when you last opened the Edit Guides interface Reset Default Completely resets ALL styling changes use with caution as you cannot undo this change Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 32 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Node Editor The Node controls for FiberFX are more advanced that the basic parameters found on the Geometry tab and so have been deliberately left until the end of this section before introducing them Having an understanding of the basics in FiberFX will hopefully help making node editor concepts easier we Node Editor Fiber Displacement AddNode v Edt v Undo Redo Purge Nod E Vie EA LIL FibeFx FiberdnfoNode 1 Make Vector 1 Dot 1 i Hultiply 3 An example FiberFX node flow Node Editor Usage The node editor in FiberFX allows you to control the appearance of the fiber geometry styling as well as the base color of fibers Once opened you are presented with a standard LightWave 3D Node Editor The FiberFX root node has
52. y however At 0 gloss is off once over 0 low values result in a broader spread of your specular highlights as the percentage goes higher the spread then becomes narrower In the examples below a specular value of 200 was also used Gloss 60 Gloss 90 Copyright 1990 2008 NewTek Inc All rights reserved Page 25 Gloss 5 Gloss 10 Gloss 30 b FiberFX User Manual Chapter 2 Layout Tools Fiber Filter Pixel Filter gt Shading Tab Luminosity Another similar acting surface editor setting Luminosity controls how bright or self illuminating your fibers look higher percentages mean brighter fibers They don t actually emit any light though In the examples below Diffuse was set to 75 and Specular 100 to better see the effect Luminosity 10 Luminosity 50 Luminosity 100 Luminosity 200 Luminosity 400 Ambient Controls how much ambient light affects your fibers In order to see any changes your scene must have Ambient Intensity in your Light Properties panel above 0 Higher percentages mean your fibers receive more ambient light and therefore look brighter as a result In the examples below Diffuse was set to 50 Specular 100 and Ambient Intensity 50 to better see the effect Ambient 10 Ambient 50 Ambient 100 Ambient 200 Ambient 400 Tip Transparency Tip Transparency controls at what percentage along your fibers length starting from the

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