How to use a color ramp inside a SHOP digital asset?

[magneto]

Hi,

 

I want to add a color ramp to my SHOP digital asset but not have it show up as an input. So I created a color ramp in the Edit Operator Type Properties dialog but how can I refer to this parameter inside the subnet?

 

If I add this to inputs, then I can see it but the type is int, not color. So not sure what to do with that. Also I don't want it to be an input, just a parameter I can use to set up some colors.

 

I also tried creating a color ramp inside the subnet to expect it to show up at the asset level just like in SOPs, but it doesn't.

 

EDIT: Actually the ramp parameter I added inside the subnet directly shows up but at the material level, but my digital asset is meant to be used inside materials so I don't want the ramp to show up at the material level.

 

Any idea what I am missing?

 

 

Thanks

Edited April 3, 2014 by magneto

[anim]

not sure what you mean, but deffinitely do not create ramp through Edit Parameter Interface if you want it to use it within VOP network

 

if you create Ramp Parameter VOP inside of the SHOP node like Material or Surface Shader Builder SHOP, it will show up in parameters for that node no matter how deep inside it's burried and you can then promote it to your asset

 

what do you mean showing as an input?

every ramp vop has an input which is in other words 0-1 lookup position at which the ramp is sampled to give you the output value (float or color)

[magneto]

Thanks anim, basically I made my own SHOP to create a procedural texture:

 

 

Its subnet looks like this:

 

 

So right now "My SHOP" has no parameters at the asset level, which is fine but I want the Color Ramp to show up there, but instead it shows up at the material level:

 

 

Is this normal? I want to control that parameter at the VOP level, not material level, because just like any parameter it belongs to my own SHOP like color, or frequency, etc. But if I want to promote it to material level, then I can do that.

[anim]

yes, that's normal as your mySHOP is actually a VOP asset not SHOP and ramp controls are not allowed at VOP level as all vops are compiled and you shouldn't really animate at that level

even though I agree that it would make much sense to have ramp controls on VOP level directly on the ramp parm node or the VOP level asset then if you promote it's reference to higher level, it would just get greyed out and be driven from outside as for example is the case in Softimage ICE

 

so maybe post an RFE

 

but on top of that your ramp still needs to be driven by the input otherwise it would return just constant value sampled from middle of the ramp for all the shading samples (as input defaults to 0.5)

Edited April 3, 2014 by anim

[magneto]

Thanks anim, yes I am sapling the color ramp inside. I didn't show it in this simple example

 

I am surprised that this is not possible though, because then we don't have the ability to have self-contained VOP assets with ramp parameters, right? I will submit an RFE.