electron microscope shader

[cspears2002]

Can anyone give me some hints on creating an electron microscope shader? Not quite sure how to start...

Thanks.

[anim]

as a start you can try Simple Ramp material from the library with some displacement

[Alanw]

Can anyone give me some hints on creating an electron microscope shader? Not quite sure how to start...

Thanks.

I would start with a Fresnel VOP. Take it's "kr" output and multiply it with your surface color or opacity. I'd also try an eta of around 0.75.

[Jason]

I would start with a Fresnel VOP. Take it's "kr" output and multiply it with your surface color or opacity. I'd also try an eta of around 0.75.

Yup! And a common hack for a Fresnel-like effect is pow( dot(N,I), exponent ) -- like what you get out of an Edge Falloff VOP. Sometimes it's a little more controllable.

[cspears2002]

Well, I used the Fresnel VOP like an earlier user suggested. In general I like the look but the shader seemed to have flattened my lighting. Am I doing something wrong?

microworld_v01_4.hipnc

[cspears2002]

Ah ha! I got better results by creating a shader utilizing this formula:

Cf = 1 - abs(dot(normalize(N), normalize(I)))

However, I have lost the shadow that my diatom casts on the surface that I created. Not sure why....

microworld_v01_5.hipnc

[sam.h]

Yup, you didn't add in any diffuse or specular. Fresnel is completely independent of lighting direction.

I don't really see 'lighting' in electron microscope images, maybe if you use a simple shader like that and add lots of geometry detail with displacements and little bits of debris... ?

microworld_v01_5.hipnc

Edited July 17, 2009 by sam.h

[sam.h]

I put the fresnel inside a illuminance loop to multiply by the shadows, then multed by the diffuse, could be interesting

microworld_v01_6.hipnc

[cspears2002]

Ok I think I nailed it. I used a shader created with this formula: Cf = 1 - abs(dot(normalize(N), normalize(I)))

For the surface that my diatom rests on, I used a Riverbed Displacement shader as well. I rendered the scene out as one pass. Then I rendered an ambient occlusion pass. Finally, I combined the two passes in COPs with a Multiply COP.

Let me know what you think!

microworld_v02_5.hipnc

[cspears2002]

Ok I think I nailed it. I used a shader created with this formula: Cf = 1 - abs(dot(normalize(N), normalize(I)))

For the surface that my diatom rests on, I used a Riverbed Displacement shader as well. I rendered the scene out as one pass. Then I rendered an ambient occlusion pass. Finally, I combined the two passes in COPs with a Multiply COP.

Let me know what you think!

Adjusted brightness and contrast in COPs.

microworld_v02_6.hipnc