I've been somewhat obsessed lately over Lee's hyper-real volume displacement images and artwork. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look through his gallery here:
https://leegriggs.com/volume-mesh
He was also kind enough to author a small glimpse into his process with this tutorial, and this video.
The very general idea of the effect is simply converting a polymesh to a volume, cranking the density, and then displacing it with a texture. I'm sure he's also further manipulating the volume in other creative ways.
Despite a decent amount of information on the subject, in practice, it's very hard to execute at the level and detail that Lee does. But I am very determined and tenacious. 🙂
I emailed @Lee Griggs yesterday and he suggested I make a post here about what problems I was having with the technique. So here I am!
Today I went through the tutorial found here, and documented every step along the way. I did this for reasons twofold: 1. So other artists can follow along, and 2. So @Lee Griggs can tell me what I'm doing wrong and how to improve on my results.
Edit: I've created a fully commented Imgur gallery since I hit the image/attachment limit. Find it here:
https://imgur.com/a/ZW9hKsW
This is where I stopped. I just couldn't figure out how to improve the look any further. The end result was kind of cool I guess, but nowhere near Lee's artworks.
Reflecting on the process:
1. I need more surface detail. The surface should look more like geometry than plumes of smoke. Lee goes into that here. But I have no idea how to get there.
2. The smoke is too even, and lacks depth. I think it's a combination of my lighting, volume density, or some other magical techniques I don't quite understand yet.
3. Look at the extreme detail in this image:
I am at a complete loss as to how that kind of micro detail and contrast was infused into the image. While I feel like I learned a bit about volumes and displacement, I still remain extremely confused. There has to be more to it, or I'm doing something wrong.
Either way, here's my final graph:
One thing to note is that there is no camera projection here in the graph, because I didn't know how to implement it. I'll implement it in my next attempt at this technique.
And many apologies for the length of this post, but I felt it was necessary to break things down step by step for clarity.
Thanks!
Jay
Thanks! I am going to try all your suggestions soon. You're right about the source image. I actually came across a combination that looks much better (although I'm not completely happy with it):
I don't like how the face itself is all displaced. I need to try the ramp I guess.
Some more progress. I think I'm getting the hang of things.
Nodetree:
I think there is still a lot to learn about this technique. Admittedly I don't even know exactly what I'm doing in some cases. Just a lot of tinkering to get good results.
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