Baking Displacement

Szark

I need some serious help now, getting way over my head.

I have Jack's Cliffhanger prop that comes with some nice displacement maps however I am wanting to use AOA's Rock Shader that doesn't have the capabilities to utilise the Displacement Maps. Is the any way I can use both. I am not sure if I could bake or some how use the displacement maps to sculpt the mesh in Blender and use that as a morph. Is this possible with the tools I have?

Szark

I used the Displacement Modifier in Blender and it worked up to a point.

WendyLuvsCatz

in carrara you can just export it as an obj with displace in 3D view enabled to create subdivided mesh I don't think DAZ studio has this option
I assume thats what you were trying in Blender, just saying in case you own carrara.

Szark

Oh cool I have Carrara 8.0. Blender was ok but not quite what I had in mind so I will give that a go. Any tips or info would be helpful in doing this. :)

WendyLuvsCatz

in shader room under displace enable in 3D view
tick morphs and skinning on export

Szark

LOL can you do me a big favour and go back a bit to where I have a displacement map and apply it to the mesh. I haven't used Carrara in this way ever. All I have used it for is rendering and 3d text. :)

Szark

I figured it out cheers

Szark

Well that Carrara method split the mesh something chronic the Blender way worked in such a way that it didn't. But neither way gave me the result I expected which was different from what the displacement maps do inside DS. But it did give me some variations so I will call it a win.

micro displacement, one of the bestest features of 3Delight if you ask me. :)

Takeo.Kensei

Question would be : is the rock shader made with shader mixer?
If yes, then you could modify the network to add the displacement
If not, then you'd need a bit of coding to get the displacement. Or you could ask the feature to AOA.

Szark

Yeah the shader is Shader Mixer and I took a look and for the life of me couldn't work out what and where to put a map node in the mix.

PS it has procedural displacement built in just no place to add displacement maps

Takeo.Kensei

Of course you can. Whatever the complexity of the actual network, you can add displacement on top of what exist

Locate the DS Default Displacement Node

Then you add a Binary node configured to Add Floats

Before that one you add an image map node and eventually a tiler and make connections to one of the input of the binary node

Redirect whatever displacement exist to one of the other input of the Binary node

Example below. In yellow are the additionnal nodes

WendyLuvsCatz

Displacement is different in carrara to DS it kinda depends on how you got the model in as to how it applies.
DS has negative displace Carrara like Poser does not.
Most stuff needs tweaking.
The usual trick is to use an add operator and have the map and a value slider, duf imports tend to come in this way to C8.5 you need to manually do it on C8.1.
You may need to enable subdivision.
Dispacing in 3D view should show you the result as well as the interactive update in the preview.

Richard Haseltine

Poser can have negative displacement if you subtract a value from the map before plugging it into the displacement input on the root node, and DS can have positive only (or negative only) displacement by zeroing one of the bounding values.

WendyLuvsCatz

Richard Haseltine said:

Poser can have negative displacement if you subtract a value from the map before plugging it into the displacement input on the root node, and DS can have positive only (or negative only) displacement by zeroing one of the bounding values.

yes Carrara can do what Poser does for negative displace with the map and an operator too, what I meant is you need to add the operator with the slider not just the map

Richard Haseltine

Sorry, I managed not to read most of your post - feel free to ignore me.

Szark

Takeo.Kensei said:

Of course you can. Whatever the complexity of the actual network, you can add displacement on top of what exist

Locate the DS Default Displacement Node

Then you add a Binary node configured to Add Floats

Before that one you add an image map node and eventually a tiler and make connections to one of the input of the binary node

Redirect whatever displacement exist to one of the other input of the Binary node

Example below. In yellow are the additionnal nodes

Very nice and thanks for taking the effort to help. Just one problem how do I control the additional min and max of the additional Displacement

Wendy thanks I didn't know about Carrara being like Poser and yes I had Subdivision selected. I know about Poser displacement and how to set that up so it shouldn't be hard to do that, cheers. If the Shader Mixer route becomes to much for me I will give this another try.

Takeo.Kensei

Szark said:

Takeo.Kensei said:

Of course you can. Whatever the complexity of the actual network, you can add displacement on top of what exist

Locate the DS Default Displacement Node

Then you add a Binary node configured to Add Floats

Before that one you add an image map node and eventually a tiler and make connections to one of the input of the binary node

Redirect whatever displacement exist to one of the other input of the Binary node

Example below. In yellow are the additionnal nodes

Very nice and thanks for taking the effort to help. Just one problem how do I control the additional min and max of the additional Displacement

Wendy thanks I didn't know about Carrara being like Poser and yes I had Subdivision selected. I know about Poser displacement and how to set that up so it shouldn't be hard to do that, cheers. If the Shader Mixer route becomes to much for me I will give this another try.

Don"t you already have a min and max ? Or do you mean you want a separate control?

Szark

Yes I have a min and max for the procedural rock displacement but I need a separate one for the displacement map

Takeo.Kensei

Then forget the binary node and try this one

Szark

Thanks Takeo.Kensei I will have a play with this later

Richard Haseltine

Unless something has changed, using the strength slider on the map to control displacement strength won't work - as far as the calculations are concerned that's pulling the values down (white, instead of 1, is 1 * strength) which means that the displacement will remain full at the minimum but will not attain the maximum. The map strength for displacement should always be 100%, you should use a separate value parameter to control the displacement strength.

Szark

well in this case 100% will be ok so I can't see it being a problem but thanks Richard I had no idea that this was the case.

Szark

Takeo.Kensei said:

Then forget the binary node and try this one

I gave it a shot and I got all the channels sorted and renamed, applied, loaded the displacement maps and to result was no displacement at all from either the maps or the procedural side. I will have to leave this image for time being and finish to others. When I get time I will have to come back to this and play some more. That the trouble with having a deadline. :(

I appreciate all the help though and it would be nice to see if it is indeed possible, :)