8/7/09

Simple Clouds in Maya that are still pretty :D

So clouds are obviously a daunting task, no matter what use you have for them. More often than not, if it's in the background, it's just going to be an image. But if you're involving them in your story somehow, or just want them to be more in keeping with the whole look of your piece, you may want to create them in beautimus 3D. The problem with that, however, is that you'll most likely have to use some sort of volumetric shading, or even worse.... fluiiiddds 0_0. So in prepping for my thesis I've come up with a procedural shader for making clouds that are worthy of being called pretty, but won't destroy your life like a ridiculously long render will. The video explains in depth how to create the shader, as well as things to think about while making it, so that you can have a good understanding about how to customize the look of your clouds (it's rather large, 60mb). For those who aren't interested in shading tree shenanigans, you can simply download the source .ma here.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Zomg. I will try this out! I will be sure to yell at you if it doesn't work! <3

h.vair said...

facing ratio. so ummm, facing ratio...and the facing ratio. facing ratio.

Josh Bowman said...

Blew my mind, Bo you rock hard!

Anonymous said...

Wow..you're my hero at the moment.
I've wanted to add "shapeshifting" clouds to my short for a while but could never find a pratical shader technique that was satisfying. This might work...thank you!
http://www.dekmar3d.com

Candy said...

omg. i don't even know you well and i love you. lol. i was trying to figure clouds out for my thesis lol

Elizabeth McMahill said...

How would parenting the textures to the clouds and then moving them slightly in the opposite direction on the clouds be? I guess it's essentially the same as leaving them separate, but this seems like a bit more of an intuitive way to animate them.

Also, to get a shape shifting cloud, would there be a way to use blend shapes to transform and then break away from the base shape and shift from target shape to target shape, or would that just be an absolute no-no in maya land?

someone said...

i love you