February 2018 – Page 3 – Oded Maoz Erell's CG Log

Create a richly colored metallic surface in UE4

Posted on February 8, 2018May 1, 2018 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

One of the optical properties of many metallic surfaces is changing it’s color slightly as the surface viewing angle changes.
This effect can be simply created using a Fresnel node and a color-ramp texture.

Create a metallic material (metallic value of 1.0).
Use an image editing software to create a linear color ramp texture (gradient) of the color change per viewing angle from left to right. like this example for a golden metal, and import it to your project.
Add the ramp texture to the material Blueprint, and connect it to the material Base Color Input.
Create a Fresnel node and set its Exponent value to 1.0 and its Base Reflect Fraction to a value of 0.0 so it will provide a linear angle blend value.
Connect the Fresnel node’s output to the UVs input of the ramp texture node.
* the reason the Fresnel node can be providing both the X and Y texture coordinates is that the texture’s Y dimension provides the same color for all values anyway.

Note:
When the Metallic property of an Unreal Engine material is set to 1.0, the material automatically simulates the metal’s color fading to white at parallel surface viewing angle (the sides) like it should.
So using a Color Ramp Texture like in this example creates an amplified effect.
* Simply put: You don’t have to have the Color Ramp fade to white on the right side of the texture..

UE4 – Material Fresnel Node

Posted on February 8, 2018June 30, 2020 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

The UE4 Fresnel node is actually a “Facing Ratio” node (aka Perpendicular / Parallel) with some extra control.
It basically allows controlling material effects according to the incident angle the surface is viewed at, which is a hugely important feature for designing advanced material effects.

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Exponent:
The steepness of the value / angle curve.

Base Reflect Fraction:
The value at perpendicular angle.

Normal:
An option to connect World Space surface normals input to affect the output of the Fresnel node.
* Tangent Space normals must be converted to World Space by using a Transform Vector node.

Note:
A value of 1.0 for the Exponent parameter, and a value of 0.0 for the Base Reflect Fraction will produce a linear “Facing Ratio” (“Perpendicular / Parallel”) falloff blend.

Examples of different values:

More info:
https://docs.unrealengine.com/latest/INT/Engine/Rendering/Materials/HowTo/Fresnel/

Related posts:

UE4 – Material Transform Vector Node

Posted on February 8, 2018February 8, 2018 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

The Transform Vector material node transform the supplied vector between different geometrical spaces according to your choice:

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Note:
This is useful in order to convert surface normals from Tangent Space to World Space to connect them as input to a Fresnel Node.

Using VRayMtlHair3 shader with nHair in Maya

Posted on February 6, 2018July 22, 2018 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Maya 2018 | V-Ray 3.6

Select the nHair object.
In the Attribute Editor, in the hair system shape attributes.
Open the Attributes menu, and choose VRay > Hair Shader.
Create a VRayMtlHair3 shader.
Connect the shader to the Hair Shader slot under VRay Extra Attributes in the hair system Shape Node attributes.

Related:
V-Ray for Maya and XGen

3ds max – Quickly move multiple objects pivot points to a specified location

Posted on February 4, 2018February 8, 2018 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
3ds max 2017

To move the pivot point of multiple objects to 0,0,0 location:

Select the objects.
In the MaxScript Mini Listener at the bottom left of the 3ds max window,
Type:
$.pivot = [0,0,0]
And then press Enter

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UE4 – Changing the timing of animation tracks in the Sequencer

Posted on February 4, 2018 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

To move multiple clips in multiple track to a different time:

Shift + Click multiple clips to select them.
Click on one of the selected clips and drag to change time.

Note:
Infinite clips like Key-frame sequences in Transform tracks must be made finite to be movable.
Right-Click the track and in Properties uncheck Infinite.
* Make the the track Infinite again after the operation if needed.

Blender Node Editor – Create quick Rerout for multiple connections

Posted on February 3, 2018October 1, 2019 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.8

To create quick re-rout between multiple nodes:
Hold Shift and RMB drag over node connections.

Quick_Rerout

To disconnect multiple nodes:
Hold Ctrl and RMB drag over node connections.

Align camera to view in Blender

Posted on February 2, 2018September 3, 2018 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Blender 2.79

Create a camera.
Press Ctrl + Alt + 0.

Note:
This command will align the Scene’s Active Camera to the view,
And not the camera that is selected as the Active Object.
To make the selected camera the active camera:
In the 3D View select:
View > Cameras > Set Active Object as Camera

Basic architectural glazing material in UE4

Posted on February 1, 2018June 30, 2020 by Oded Maoz Erell

Software:
Unreal Engine 4.18

Create a new material, and double click it to edit it.
In the Details panel, under Material, set Blend Mode to Translucent.
In the Details panel, under Translucency, set Lighting Mode to Surface Translucency Volume.
Set Base Color to White.
Set Metallic to 1.
Set Roughness to 0.
Create a Fresnel node and connect it to the Opacity input.
In the Fresnel node, set Base Reflect Fraction to control reflection amount in perpendicular surface viewing angle (front).
* Note that its connected to Opacity, but since the material is basically a flat mirror, when it’s not purely transparent it will be reflective.
In the Fresnel node, set Exponent to control the reflection amount falloff curve from perpendicular surface viewing angle (front) to parallel surface viewing angle (sides).
* Higher values will create a steep falloff curve, resulting in less reflection in most viewing angles.

Related:

Month: February 2018