34] How do I obtain a nice sparkle off the edge of a wine glass
or chrome object (By George deBeaumont)?
I've got a quick thought on how to achieve a sparkle type of
effect in an animation. Presumably You want something less intense than
a lense flare, but something more than a simple specular highlight...
the result of what one would see in real life from some minor
imperfection or poorly seen detail on a rotating reflective object.
I'd approach it this way:
- Create a primitive disk with even number of sections (lets
use 12). Select every other point (pick points mode) and scale down
(result = six point star).
- Apply the Fakely texture to the sparkle object, TYPE
NUMBER = 2 (this will affect the filter value of the object only),
CHANGE THRESHOLD = 0.9 (this will make the sparkle object visible only
when it directly faces the camera), SIDE RGB = 255, 255, 255,
FRONT RGB = 0, 0, 0.
- Group the six pointed star to the object needing the sparkles.
Make sure to orient it such that it becomes visible (directly faces the
camera) at the desired point in Your animation. Each sparkle object
will now remain invisible until its plane is perpendicular to the Y axis
of the camera.
Anyway that's the basic idea. You'd probably want to use
multiple sparkle objects (with slightly different orientations) and keep
them relatively small. You might want to experiment with other shapes
as well.
------------------------------
... Please Return to News ...
... Please Return to Index ...
------------------------------