3rd party procedural nodes for texture animation

[dkrelina]

I've been doing some experiments with animated textures. Creating tiling textures and then animating the Translate Frame attribute on the 2D Placement node to create animated displacement maps.

I have a bunch of ideas on things I want to experiment with in the texture animation but I'm finding the 2D Placement node to be limited.

I'd like to do the following...

• skew - skew image horizontally or vertically
• number of repetitions - the ability to control the number of times a texture repeats
• nested 2d Placement nodes - the ability to have multiple place2dTextures "parented" under one root place2dTexture (similar to working with nested comps in After Effects or Photoshop).

If Maya can't do these things, does anyone know of a 3rd party plugin or nodes available elsewhere (to download or maybe part of another renderer) that might do the trick?

I've never used C4D, but I see some people doing interesting things with animated textures using it and I'm wondering how the tools compare, and primarily if the texture placement control is any different.

I like the idea of keeping everything "live" and working procedurally, being able to animate the parameters on a single timeline and see the results inside the 3D viewport, rather than say, working with baked texture image sequences for animation.

Recommendations?

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

You can do all this in Maya with place2dTexture and without the need for a plug-in:

- skew: add Ramp for offset

- number of repetitions: Repeat UV

- nested 2d Placement nodes: use Node Editor

[dkrelina]

Skew

Wow, using the ramp for offset is a really neat idea. Never thought of that. My mind is imagining all the possibilities... using one greyscale image to deform another. There's so much potential in it. Thanks!

Nested Placement Nodes

I'm still not sure about how to approach the nested placement nodes. Have a look at this simple scene...

I have three textures.

• ramp 1 - circular ramp, Repeat UV: 5
• ramp 2 - box ramp, Repeat UV: 1
• combined - the result of multiplying them together.

My goal is to move both placement nodes as one unit. Translate the full frame and scale it as if the two ramps were one texture.

Here is the node graph.

If I use a master 2D Placement Node and connect it to the two others, it won't work because each object has a different scale (unique number of UV Repeats). I would have to put a conversion node between them to compensate for the differences in scale. Is there another approach?

Number of Repetitions

The Repeat UV attribute works like a "scale" function. Instead, I would like to control the absolute number of times the texture repeats. For example, if I used the circular ramp from above and wanted to make a 3x3 grid of small circles, and scale it to half the size of the UV layout, it would not be possible. I would have to use a second texture to mask the unwanted circles. That's the best solution I can think of, but maybe there's another way.

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

Nested Placement Nodes:

If you use Arnold for rendering you could combine / bake the textures before feeding into a material by using aiUvTransform:

https://support.solidangle.com/display/A5AFMUG/UV+Transform

Currently there is not Viewport support for this Arnold node, but i don't know a Maya node that can accomplish the same.

Number of Repetitions:

"...and scale it to half the size of the UV layout, it would not be possible"

Wrong, this is possible by using Coverage.

[dkrelina]

Thank you! Your explanation makes things a lot more clear. I was confused about the difference between coverage and repeat UV. It makes sense now.

The aiUVTransform node looks like it might have potential. I will definitely look into this.

I've been working on some tests with these animated textures. I posted something simple on my Instagram not too long ago. Check it out here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BZRW8BAHuWz/?taken-by=davidbarlowkrelina

I would really like to build on this face and add additional layers of movements and complexity. I was thinking of creating a series of vector displacement maps with objects to map onto the surface. Creating little bumps and design shapes with relief and then use the UVs to tile, repeat and animate them over the model. Initially inspired by this design.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3325/3600199872_86f70dd193_b.jpg

It would be cool to keep in touch. You've answered a few of my forum posts in the past and I really appreciate the feedback. I'd be super curious to hear your thoughts as I progress. You seem like an excellent resource.

Are you on Instagram? Do you have a website?

Thanks once again,

David

[mspeer]

Hi!

"Are you on Instagram?"

No

"Do you have a website?"

Yes, but it's about my company.

If you want to stay in contact just use the forum here and add @mspeer if you want me to join the conversation.

Currently i try to avoid making information about myself public, sounds strange for someone working in the media industry, but ... !

[dkrelina]

Sound mysterious...

Are you a super hero?