Cineversity

Hello!
I’m trying to create a tunnel like the one in the attached image.
(here in case the attachment doesn’t work : https://www.dropbox.com/s/ck3x5y5poq6o7kz/Maze.jpg?dl=0)
I’ve been playing with a few ideas, mostly trying to clone on splines, working with S&T etc..but the tricky thing is to achieve the mix of texturing, maze pattern, outlines etc…

Any suggestions on the best way to approach this?

Thanks!

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the image. Is the tunnel static?

Can the maze be based on an image?

Please advice.

Cheers

Alex,

Here is a little file to start the discussion.

Let me know what you are missing.

Scene file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/X3KgCbysWHfsZ84GqbibqfLi2MHywPyKXpALHi6DJfy

All the best

Hello Sassi!  Thanks for sending this!

Super interesting.  I have to get myself properly up to speed on fields, so I’m not completely clear on what you did.  Would you mind explaining a little bit?

I think eventually this has to animate, so this solution would probably work for a still.  Maybe the maze image is what has to animate?

Thanks!

Yes, Alex, Fields are powerful. Any time investment will pay off quickly.

The first step was to get a cube with many segments in one direction, and only one Segment along Z. have a look at the Cube [BackUp]. In this way, I was able to get six separate sides after making it editable. Two of those I deleted and merged the other four. I used the Optimize tool, to avoid double points and edges. With this, I was able to select all edges quickly and saved those in an Edge Selection.

With the Edges active, I used the Edge-Cut to create a lot of small segments, without losing my edge-selection. In the Selection Tag is an option to use Fields. The Freeze layer stores the selection. With the Shader layer, I was able to use the image information to limit the previous Selection. Those layers work like Photoshop-layer. Selected edges resulted in a ‘one’ and unselected a ‘zero’. By multiplying the image data over it, the gaps become visible.

The Selection Tag is then used in the Cloner Object>Object. Please compare these settings in the Object tab.
I have set the Clones to Multi Instances and Bounding Box, to speed up the redraw.
Material: is set world inside the Noise, while the Colorizer works on top of it.

Press play to see it animated. The noise moves in the space and the gap textures along the Z axis.

Some parts are only seen after rendering.

Scene file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/FzwfD8xouMh1RSpdTb6ilB0iHFpbsWQVXxgSyFzAqsD

Let me know if I kept this explanation too short, I’m happy to elaborate more of course!
(Yes, I have tested a pure polygon set up, but with such, the texture [alpha] needs to be precise, to not cut into the surface.)

All the best

P.S.: Here is an easy setup. I always assume to set up something which will allow you good adjustability and freedom. However, if the image that you have shared is the target, please have a look into this set up:
Scene file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/s99nLWaxAQcnpJjf0oDdkhOdZcHab8bNbT5VuLRazIm

Thank you so much for all this Sassi!  Super excited to look into it.  I have had two crazy days but hopefully can dive in tomorrow morning.

Thanks again!  Will send feedback asap

You’re very welcome, Alex.

Please feel free to add any thoughts and ideas so I can have a look into it.

I hope we will find the right solution for your project.

All the best

Thanks Sassi, this is all really interesting. There were some things I didn’t completely understand, such as this paragraph

“With the Edges active, I used the Edge-Cut to create a lot of small segments, without losing my edge-selection. In the Selection Tag is an option to use Fields. The Freeze layer stores the selection. With the Shader layer, I was able to use the image information to limit the previous Selection. Those layers work like Photoshop-layer. Selected edges resulted in a ‘one’ and unselected a ‘zero’. By multiplying the image data over it, the gaps become visible.”

But I’m guessing I need to deepen my understanding of fields to fully get this…Great result!

You’re very welcome, Alex.

Yes, with perhaps very little time for the fields so far, as you mentioned, this might sound very cryptic.
I hope the screen capture will illuminate the procedure a little bit, please have a look.
Screen capture
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/f4vO0rUyiKfZTfKVZqjM9PLB8E95G44T3ZQvFIb3eFQ

Fields: I would like to stress the point that black is seen as equal to zero and white in the texture calculated as the value one. If we now multiply the Freeze values of the selection, the black areas are resulting in zero (1*0=0). In this way, the often cumbersome selection process can be done visually, via image. To not stress that option too much, I prepared the cube in the way I have shown in the capture, which is the fastest way to get only the edge parallel to the z-axis selected, quickly.

Please let me know if there is any other question.

My best wishes for the project

This is perfect!  Thanks so much for clarifying.  Super helpful!

You’re very welcome, Alex, thanks for the feedback.

I have explored S&T and Hair/Splines for this, but so far, this set up above seems to have the advantage of being fast and versatile.

The S&T had the most short-comings while considering your target, and the Hair/Spline set up has a lot of preparation work. To share a little bit of my exploration, just for fun, here is the Spline/Hair idea.
Scene file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/e5NqHlnyXiwyMSI5QANOyfhKhAGcYYauBKt3kgZnoJo

Enjoy your weekend