Static Cling
Wow!! A cheap, hokey lightning effect!
Somebody always wants to do lightning and static electricity all over an
object - with the accompanying glow of course.
Well, here it is!
OPTIONS
- Intensity
Because this effect is applied over top of the standard materials/textures, this option will control the intensity of the effect. One = total effect. Zero = no effect (Good if you want to use the effect in an animation, but don't want it to always be present).
- Complexity
This controls the convoluted nature of the curves. Low values (1-3) result in fairly thick, flowing curves. At higher values the curves start to break up and get extremely messy.
- Animation
The speed of the animation. A value of zero will (obviously) result in no animation, with increasing values resulting in a faster changing of the effect.
- Thickness
How 'thick' the actual streams of static are (white lines in the above picture).
- Glow Thickness
The thickness of the glowing surrounding the static streams (blue in the obove picture).
- Glow Sharpness
The falloff between the static streams and the glow. A zero value has no noticeable step between the two (a smooth transition). As values increase, there is a more definate transition.
- Colours
The colours for this effect are taken from the standard materials editor. The colour for the static streams is taken from the 'Specular' colour, and the colour for the glow is taken from the 'Diffuse'.
NOTE: The animation on this shader still isn't up to spec yet.. I've chosen a very simple animation effect, and in a lot of cases it will appear that the static is 'sliding' across the surface. This is to be expected. A technique for better results is to rotate the centre of the object off to some bizzare angle. Trust me...it actually works! Expect a better animation approach in the future (along with 'Cptn.Nemo').
TIP: The effect is just a material shader, so a good technique is:
- Select the geometry
- Shrinkwrap a sphere over it
- 'Push' the sphere out a bit
- Apply 'static cling' to the sphere
- 'Shape Jitter' the sphere
The shape jitter is important for a good effect, especially if it is being animated. Since it is really just a material, you can still see the profile of the edge of the material when rendered. When you shape jitter it, the surface that the static is on undulates as well, giving a much better result - along with a less obvious profile.
Jason Bright
Developer Support - Softimage Montreal
Revision History:
January 15, 1996 - Initial Version
January 26, 1996 - Added respect for materials and intensity level for Ral.