hey there guys, a C4D newbie here! Hope ya can help.
What I have cerated is a primative sphere with a good amount of segment size. Next I have a map of the world created in Illustrator. The land is white and the sea is black (keep it simple). What I want is for the illustrator file to wrap around my sphere in C4D and where the sea is black for the sphere to be invisible. So that down the track I can extrude the land to create a small amount of embossing. I do have MoGraph so if it would be easier to do there, I have the technology ;)
Any ideas? Opinions are muchly appreciated!
thanx. Damian
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Brian Jones on Sep 22, 2008 at 4:01:54 am
you can use black and white version in the alpha channel of a material to get land only (like it sounds like you want, and later a bump map in the bump or displacement channels to get relief. Don't need an .ai file, it is usually done with a bitmap (save the illustrator as a psd file) just save with enough resolution in the bitmap that you get smooth enough results - there is no magic number, it just needs to be high enough resolution that it looks good as close as you are going to zoom in to the final object.
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Damian Dunne on Sep 22, 2008 at 4:20:31 am
ahhhh yes! use an alpha. good thinkin'.
yeah I like the idea of using a bump or displacement to get the extrude but I'm finding it's not giving the best results. Would an extrude nurbs or the like work in this situation? Or any other suggestions?
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Brian Jones on Sep 22, 2008 at 4:33:46 am
what are you trying for? An extrude would all be the same height (or very tedious to do) if that's what you want then great, otherwise if you want the 'bumps where there really are bumps' look then displacement is the way to go but you need sub-poly displacement and a good hi-res bump map.
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Damian Dunne on Sep 22, 2008 at 4:40:10 am
thanx Brian,
Yeah, Im going for an all over smooth finish for the land. Not a terrain type look. So I guess an option by which I could extrude the whole "land" surface say a centimeter or two from the spheres surface would be the best result. Is that the tedious method you explained??
cheers!
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Brian Jones on Sep 22, 2008 at 5:00:59 am
no, that should be fairly easy. Excepting the edges of the continents would jagged (because of the polys). You could also do it with the same black and white map you use for the alpha in the displacement, that too would give one height for all the land. Are the continents going to have a back to them?
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Brodd Nesset on Sep 22, 2008 at 1:56:22 pm
1. For a globe where the oceans are 'nothing', use a black/white image to cut holes in the material's Alpha channel. You may get a less fuzzy result by giving the image a slight blur in Photoshop. You can use any color (or image) you like for the actual land appearance, in the Color channel.
2. For a globe where the oceans are see through, but where the transparent areas have say a reflective surface like glass, place the image in the Transparency channel instead. Add just a bit Reflection and Specular (and Diffusion perhaps).
(For the optical distortion you will have with a real glass sphere, change Transparency's Refraction to 1.5)
3. After having used method 1 or 2: to have the land appear embossed on the globe, put the image in the Displacement channel and adjust strength to taste. My tip: see that the image has slightly blurred edges; it gives the plateau a nice round edge too; it reflects the light better for a nice contour.
4. To close the backsides if the embossed land pieces I think you need two globes, which should be twins and have the exact same position (i.e. just make a copy in the Object editor). Give the 'other' globe a material created with method 1 only. Since its land doesn't rise it will create a back cap.
Have fun with the cookie cutter in the Material channels!
Remember for a sphere, the material should be an exact 2:1 factor size to wrap predictably (i.e. the world map should be say 1000 pixels wide and 500 tall).
Her lips said "no!" but her eyes said "read my lips".
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Damian Dunne on Sep 23, 2008 at 8:40:38 am
nice 1! thanx Brodd.
Some of those tips were very helpful, though I am stuck on one of your points. Ive loaded the same image into the displacement though for some reason it won't give me any extrude. If you've got the time can you have a look at the following JPEG?
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Brodd Nesset on Sep 23, 2008 at 11:28:28 am
Try to expand the 'solid' part of the alpha graphic a little. It could be that it cuts the holes for the 'ocean' parts too close to the shore... Hence the edge down to the sea will not appear.
The more abrupt the rise from black to white is in the displacement grphic, the steeper the edge will be; perhaps even so steep that it loses all contact between base and top (i.e. no 'wall'). For a nice edge / wall, do a blur on the displacement graphic.
I think the first option is the most likely one.
Her lips said "no!" but her eyes said "read my lips".
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Damian Dunne on Sep 23, 2008 at 11:53:26 am
sorry to be a pain Brodd,
tried the blur option and nothing. Just to clarify on your first point when you say "expand the 'solid' part of the alpha graphic a little" do you mean scaling up in the displacement area of C4D or in Photoshop. Still just a little confused.
thanx.
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Brodd Nesset on Sep 23, 2008 at 12:02:33 pm
No pain ;-)
I meant 'expand selection' in Photoshop.
Say one continent is '400' wide. When given a blur of say '4', the blur will affect the sides so that it expands '2' (half of the blur) on each side. (The other half of the blur will soften the edge inwards). Now the continent is '404' wide! This is the size the alpha cutout need to be too, so expand the selection with '2' / half the blur. The alpha graphic needs to completely and exactly cover the continent when it has the blur appliead.
Her lips said "no!" but her eyes said "read my lips".
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Damian Dunne on Sep 23, 2008 at 12:16:09 pm
still nada! you've been an awesome help though Brodd. Not sure what else to try though??? I don't think it's the blurring. I think it's something really simple that Im missing along the way! Maybe i gota try turning on my computer first ;)
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Brodd Nesset on Sep 23, 2008 at 2:29:42 pm
DUH!
It's not evident from your screenshot, but my bet is that you're working on a sphere primitive here.
Displacement only works on polygon objects - not primitives (i.e. built in objects like the sphere). You need to make the sphere editable first. Be sure to crank up the resolution from the default 24 to say 200, and when the object is selected in the manager, hit the letter C.
As the displacement actually messes up the object's geometry, this kind of makes sense. Alpha doesn't, and neither does Bumpmaps (even if the appearance can be similar to displacement, bumpmaps is just an optical trick with its limititions), and that's why THEY work on primitives.
Her lips said "no!" but her eyes said "read my lips".
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by Adam Trachtenberg on Sep 23, 2008 at 5:26:18 pm
Personally I would use the illustrator spline with a wrap deformer in "spherical" mode, along with an extrudeNURBS. The key there would be to select Type>Quadrangles in the extrude caps properties, and check the "regular grid" box. Then adjust the width of the grid to minimize and hopefully eliminate artifacts. You'd also probably want to set the .ai spline's type to "subdivided".
Re: using an eps to cut a sphere by damian dunne on Sep 26, 2008 at 5:09:29 am
right on Brodd! thats the one. gota make it editable. Your a legend. We are cooking with gas now! thanx mate, really appreciate your help.
hey Adam, I'm also curious about the example you provided. I tried it just for hey of it. I imported my illustrator path, attached it to an extrudeNURBS, then attached the extrudeNURBS to the warp. They were linked cause when I moved the wrap the extrudeNURBS moved too. Though for some reason it wouldn't wrap around the deformation. Weird.
