Darby Edelen
Forum Replies Created
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You can copy the vectors on the shape layer and paste them into a Vector Mask on a layer. The Vector Mask is separate from a Layer Mask though.
Darby Edelen
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Adjustment layers usually come with layer masks by default, so you shouldn’t need to add one, just work with the one that’s already there. It sounds like you may be adding a Vector Mask to the adjustment layer.
Darby Edelen
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If you want exactly the same mask on all the layers then I’d pre-comp the mask layer, apply a Set Matte effect to the layers you want to mask and point it to the mask pre-comp. The pre-comp does not need to be visible.
Darby Edelen
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I managed to get a decent look by adding a PFriction node and giving the Repulse & Bounce an inverse square falloff. Not exactly what I wanted, but it seems to be close.
Darby Edelen
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What we’re seeing there are shadows cast from the ground geometry onto the grass.
The Shadow properties under the Illumination tab of the hair material can be adjusted to reduce this.
Shadow Density will affect all shadows, including self shadows, so that likely won’t be the best option.
Reducing the Received Shadow will make the shadow the ground casts less intense, but it will also affect the shadows cast by any other objects so that might also not work.
Lowering the Back Shadow is probably your best option.
Darby Edelen
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Core i7s are a fine buy if you cannot afford a pair of Xeons.
The Xeon is better for those who can afford it and use applications that take full advantage of multi-threading like After Effects and most 3D renderers.
For example, I chose to go with 2x 8-core Xeons for my next system because Cinema 4D will be able to render 32 buckets simultaneously instead of the 12 buckets that you would get out of your Core i7. So while the overclocked Core i7 may render a single bucket faster than a Xeon, it would have to render almost 3 times as fast to keep pace with the wealth of threads that the Xeons can handle.
In my experience Cinema 4D handles multiple threads much more effectively than AE. In the end the Xeon to i7 comparison in After Effects might favor the Xeon less, but it’s still going to be damn hard for the i7 to beat out a pair of Xeons.
Ultimately it comes down to what you can afford though. Xeons are very expensive.
Darby Edelen
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[Brian Murphy] ”
So it sounds like if I would have cached both particles, then dynamics on the beginning, I would have the same run of particles and collisions no matter how may times I render it and from any frame?The key is to do this before I even render the first time though, correct?”
Yes. I always cache before I render. It’s absolutely essential in a distributed render and is incredibly helpful when issues such as yours arise.
I believe if you only cached dynamics you should still get the same rendered result every time, but the particles (which are essentially locators in space that don’t render) would appear in different places. For sanity’s sake I’d cache both so that it looks entirely predictable.
Darby Edelen
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If you want random still images for your particles you’ll want to sequence the layers in your pre-comp so that each image is visible for a time. If you distribute them evenly in your pre-comp then you should see them appear evenly in your particle system, if you want to favor one image or another then you can make that image take up more duration in the pre-comp. Then you’d use the “Random – Still Frame” Time Sampling mode in the Particle settings.
If you have several video clips you’d like to use then you’ll need to make sure they’re evenly distributed in the pre-comp and use one of the “Split Clip…” Time Sampling modes. If the video clips loop then the “Split Clip – Loop” mode is ideal. Then you need to tell Particular how many clips are in the pre-comp, this setting is 2 properties below the Time Sampling selection.
Darby Edelen
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I’m pretty sure you can get away with just caching the dynamics, but I’d recommend caching the particles first as well. You’d still need to re-render from the beginning though, I don’t think there’s any way around that.
One benefit of caching should be painfully evident at this point, but another is that you can then distribute the render using NET Render if you have access to more than one machine.
Darby Edelen
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Can you upload an image of what you’re expecting to see (with the plane disabled)? I’m not seeing a problem with the grass colors, so it’d be easier to identify the problem you’re seeing with a second sample image that doesn’t show the problem.
Darby Edelen