Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post your XNALara tutorials here!

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Vonman
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Vonman »

Welcome back for another lesson! :D

Next up, let's learn how to mix shaders using the Mix Shader node. This is an essential part, you can freely create various shader effects on your render. But first, let's introduce ourselves to two of the basic and commonly used shader in Cycles, the Diffuse shader and Glossy shader.

Image

The diffuse shader is the base clay material shader in Cycles.

Image

The Glossy shader is, well...Glossy (i have no other way to put it lol) it's shiny and reflective, just like alloy or silver, or that Terminator 2 cop guy when he melts into that thing and stuff.

Image

And here is the Mixed shader, as a result of mixing both Diffuse and Glossy! :D It looks like shiny plastic, or oily material. Notice that it retains the shininess of the Glossy shader, but at the same time it doesn't have reflection of its surroundings like the Diffuse shader.


Here is the node setup for mixing shader:

Image

NOTES:

i) The Fac value in the Mix Shader node controls the ratio of the mixture. For example you can see that in the picture above it is set at 0.500, which means the material will consists of 50% Diffuse, and 50% Glossy. If you set the value to 1.00 the material will consists of 100% Diffuse. If you set it to 0.00, it will consists of 100% Glossy. If you set it at 0.700 it will consists of 70% Diffuse and 30% Glossy... and so forth! Simple, right? :lol:

ii) The Roughness value in the Glossy node controls the shininess of the Glossy effect. The lower the value, the sharper the shine will become and vice versa.

iii) It is highly recommended to just leave the Roughness value in the Diffuse node as 0.00 so it will be easier for you to adjust and track the mixture.

iv) When adding the texture image for the material, be sure to connect the output to both the color input on the Glossy and Diffuse node.

And that's it! The rest is up to you! :lol: Feel free to mix the shaders and adjust the value to create any shader effects you need! :D For instance, if human skin you can increase the value of Glossy Roughness a bit, and increase the Fac value in Mix Shader to increase the ratio of Diffuse shader against Glossy. Give it a try, experiment and toy around with it ^^

Let me know if you have any questions, or if I've missed something that I should cover. :D
Last edited by Vonman on Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by iheartibuki »

Vonman, you're a natural when it comes to teaching. I'll definitely give these tutorials a try when I get the time. Thanks again for going through all this with us. :hug:
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Love2Raid »

Awesome! I just started learning Cycles, this will come in handy. :D :hug2:

It sucks that adding textures is so much more complicated now. :p
What about spec maps, do you know how to add those? :D
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Vonman »

Love2Raid wrote:Awesome! I just started learning Cycles, this will come in handy. :D :hug2:

It sucks that adding textures is so much more complicated now. :p
What about spec maps, do you know how to add those? :D
thank you :hug: yup :D here's a simple way to apply spec maps:

Image

Its the setting I use for Talim's hat in my second render of her ^^

yeah sad that nothing can be done for adding textures. unless someone can compile a code that can allow us to port .obj models with textures attached just like in blender internal render.
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Love2Raid »

You call that simple? :?

Just kidding. :lol:

Thanks. :hug2:

Oh, something important, all my SC ports (except for SCV Maxi) need the normal maps inverted in Blender for the best result :oops: ). I will update all of them sometime soon. It's just the clothes of SCIV (not the skin normal maps, I already inverted them by accident lol :? ) and all of them for SCV (except for Maxi XD). Just in case you wanted to render another one sometime soon. :P
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Vonman »

Love2Raid wrote:You call that simple? :?

Just kidding. :lol:

Thanks. :hug2:

Oh, something important, all my SC ports (except for SCV Maxi) need the normal maps inverted in Blender for the best result :oops: ). I will update all of them sometime soon. It's just the clothes of SCIV (not the skin normal maps, I already inverted them by accident lol :? ) and all of them for SCV (except for Maxi XD). Just in case you wanted to render another one sometime soon. :P
lol xDD

youre most welcome! :hug: feel free to ask me if you need any help with it :3 it may seem complicated at first but once you get used to it, you can set things up pretty fast... just add some nodes her and there and connect them :lol:

thank you very much! im glad you still work on them :D yup i love those models, I plan to make more Soul Calibur renders in the future. Especially Ivy, im gonna remake her render of her again after dA took her down last time. are planning to port more Soul Calibur characters in the future?
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Dazzy »

LOL! I never knew how to add specs... or bumps... or whatevs. I only knew how to add diffuses and alpha maps :lol: BTW, since you are pretty interested in SC models... I have Xiba 2P and Elysium 2P in progres... that is if your interested in then :lol:
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Vonman »

TRDaz wrote:LOL! I never knew how to add specs... or bumps... or whatevs. I only knew how to add diffuses and alpha maps :lol: BTW, since you are pretty interested in SC models... I have Xiba 2P and Elysium 2P in progres... that is if your interested in then :lol:
i rarely use spec maps, most of the time i just let the gloss shader and lighting do all the work :D unless if the textrure comprises of different materials, for example a shirt with some shiny attachments on it, then i use the spec map to tell blender what is shiny and what is not on the texture :)

LOL yeah of course i'm interested! i love Soul Calibur characters, i always welcome their model like standing in front of widely open palace gate with a massive bear hug! :D i havent seen Elysium 2p clothes yet tho, ill check it out ^^
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Love2Raid »

Vonman wrote:
Love2Raid wrote:You call that simple? :?

Just kidding. :lol:

Thanks. :hug2:

Oh, something important, all my SC ports (except for SCV Maxi) need the normal maps inverted in Blender for the best result :oops: ). I will update all of them sometime soon. It's just the clothes of SCIV (not the skin normal maps, I already inverted them by accident lol :? ) and all of them for SCV (except for Maxi XD). Just in case you wanted to render another one sometime soon. :P
lol xDD

youre most welcome! :hug: feel free to ask me if you need any help with it :3 it may seem complicated at first but once you get used to it, you can set things up pretty fast... just add some nodes her and there and connect them :lol:

thank you very much! im glad you still work on them :D yup i love those models, I plan to make more Soul Calibur renders in the future. Especially Ivy, im gonna remake her render of her again after dA took her down last time. are planning to port more Soul Calibur characters in the future?
Thanks! XD
Yeah, I have worked with the node editor before, haha. :p

I'm really happy to hear this, your renders are epic. :D
Yes, I am, working on a few at the moment. I will release SCIV Ivy first (default outfit, new version with original bones). I picked her to see if anything had actually changed on TRF, but nope... :? :?
I'm thinking of making all my future releases Sticklove exclusive (host the dl links here). XD

Not releasing anything on TRF before the rules are changed, they can take all the time they need, haha. ;)
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Re: Blender Cycles + XnaLara Tutorials

Post by Vonman »

Love2Raid wrote:
Vonman wrote:
Love2Raid wrote:You call that simple? :?

Just kidding. :lol:

Thanks. :hug2:

Oh, something important, all my SC ports (except for SCV Maxi) need the normal maps inverted in Blender for the best result :oops: ). I will update all of them sometime soon. It's just the clothes of SCIV (not the skin normal maps, I already inverted them by accident lol :? ) and all of them for SCV (except for Maxi XD). Just in case you wanted to render another one sometime soon. :P
lol xDD

youre most welcome! :hug: feel free to ask me if you need any help with it :3 it may seem complicated at first but once you get used to it, you can set things up pretty fast... just add some nodes her and there and connect them :lol:

thank you very much! im glad you still work on them :D yup i love those models, I plan to make more Soul Calibur renders in the future. Especially Ivy, im gonna remake her render of her again after dA took her down last time. are planning to port more Soul Calibur characters in the future?
Thanks! XD
Yeah, I have worked with the node editor before, haha. :p

I'm really happy to hear this, your renders are epic. :D
Yes, I am, working on a few at the moment. I will release SCIV Ivy first (default outfit, new version with original bones). I picked her to see if anything had actually changed on TRF, but nope... :? :?
I'm thinking of making all my future releases Sticklove exclusive (host the dl links here). XD

Not releasing anything on TRF before the rules are changed, they can take all the time they need, haha. ;)
AWESOME! thank you very much! Looking forward to it! :D i have yet to make SCIV Ivy default render but last time shes pretty hard to pose. but with original bones it may improve a lot! :D

Yay Sticklove Exclusive!!! :lol: i love this place haha. yeah, no such rules to bug you here! ^^
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