Cineversity

Howdy,

  So, I am about to have to create an animation wherein we have a microphone with it’s pickup pattern visible.  Sound waves are to then come from off screen at various angles, and when they intersect with the microphone pattern, they should cause the pattern to illuminate at the point of collision.

  I could swear I remember seeing something like that here on Cineversity before the site change.  I’ve done a search, and there are loads of TP tuts, which is great, but none of the names are ringing a bell.

  Is my memory correct, and if so could you give me a cue to narrow down my search?

Thanks
- Will

Hi Will,

Use the Proximal Shader for that. Particles should do what you need. If the effect should stay longer than just during the impact, try to use the Tracer, and set its limitation “From End” to adjust the length of the appearance.

Good Luck

Sassi

Yeah, proximal technically does it, and I thank you for the suggestion.  However, the result it seems to yield when I try it is… unexciting.  I’ve placed it in the luminance channel, and made a little half-torus to put in my particle emitter to serve as the sound wave for the purposes of my test.

It would appear that the proximal effect is only capable of creating a round shape at the point of impact.  I was hoping to make it more analogous to the shape of the colliding object.  I figure maybe if I put the proximal in a layer shader, I can give it a more interesting color then white, but I need a more compelling interaction.

Have I missed something, or is there an alternative approach?  I tried to load up your tutorial on the shader, but alas it would not play.

Thanks as always,
- Will

Hey Will,
Check out the Ripple Shader ;o)
(...maybe you render it, do some post work on it and bring the result back as camera mapping.)

Best

Sassi