Other things that I've been messing with

I have been working on Multi Chan Hax. After all that I've accomplished with it, I'm currently wrestling with a silly little problem with the wrap-around. If I don't get nail it soon, I'll dump it and leave it for a bit. Couple of other little things. blah blah blah

RGB Theta was mentioned in another thread. I've also been hacking away at this and some related ideas. Since it was mentioned, thought I might give y'all the heads-up on some of the directions that I've been going in. Once I get past one more little thing, I'm sure I'll be putting a big smile on yooz faces.

These things aren't terribly ground-shaking, but you never know.

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RGB Ellipsoid

Actually defines an ellipsoid in RGB<>XYZ space. Does kind of like spherical volume selects, but with non-uniform scaling on the seperate axis. I went about it the long way, but necessary for what I was after.

If you are into making sculpties, try this on a sculptie map and see what happens.

http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=RGB_Ellipsoid

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RGB Theta

Apparently this is the one that made me almost famous. I recently gave it a re-compile, but I don't remember why. And I still have yet to implement the theta=0 hack. When the theta=0 hack chucked in, I'll holler.

This is another good one to try on a sculptie map.

http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=RGB_Theta

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Bump to Tangent Normals

If I remember correctly, nVidia has some tools for converting greyscale bumps to tangent normal maps. I'm sure that there are other out there as well. Not wanting to mess with somebody else's tools, I made my own.

http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Bump_to_Tangent_Normals

Once I get another little thing figured out, I'll have a surprise that makes awesome use of this filter. Let's just say that I haven't forgotten about that vector bending thing that I mentioned way back when.

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Trigs in Space

This is actually a Lab mode filter. It's a personal filter that I use to make quick work of making selections in Lab mode. With this filter and another one, I can make damn quick work of colour correcting.

In Photoshop, you can use Split Channels and Merge Channels for some fancy RGB<>Lab channel swapping. This is good for space renders and normal renders. If you can get a sculptie map into Lab mode with the RGB channel intact, you've got to give this one a whirl.

This also has Theta in it with the theta=0 hack fix. I'll port this over to RGB Theta one of these days.

If anybody manages to figure this out and likes it, I just might do an RGB version 'as is' so there won't be any need to do the RGB<>Lab channel acrobatics.

http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Trigs_in_Space

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Dink around with those things if you have the yarbles for it. Who knows? Maybe you'll find a little piece in there that you like and keep it in your Bag o' Tricks.

And that's about it from me for now.

I apologise in advance for how upside-down this post might be. My brain is still trying to come to grips with how powerful and ingenious these things are.

Multi Chan Hax blew me away when you posted about that a week or so ago. Your example of the photo sourced head should have been enough to pop a few eyeballs. Mapping channels in Photoshop- OMFG! You RULE! Anyone who want to take the time to use Multi Chan Hax properly (?) shouldn't be put off by *quick-and-sleazy* tag-line- hehe. I can see a lot of time and frustration saved with seam issues by using MCH. I am yet to use (abuse?) it to it's full potential, but I am definitely planning to!

RGB Theta gave me heart palpitations when I tried it out for myself using Chips normal maps of the avatar figures. It did make you sort of famous or should we say... infamous? A mad-man, an evil genius, a legend in his own lunch hour? I have been doing my bit to tell everyone about that plug-in *giggles*. You might have already noticed that- lol.
I also tried it out on a sculptie map as well! ^.^ This was before I'd tried out RGB Ellipsoid though.

RGB Ellipsoid from what I can tell... uses just a single point to create a greyscale "bake" or fake lighting effect of the sculptie map which you can change by moving the sliders. Again- utter coolness, dude! I've had more convincing results using this than I got with RGB Theta on the same map. That could be user-error though- hehe.

Bump to Tangent Normals....
Errr... Ummm... Oh my... this is where my brain starts imploding just *slightly*...
Abu... You need to come with a warning label:
Concentrated Goodness! Proceed with CAUTION!

So these are my thoughts of what is possible, using a few of your goodies... I'm yet to actually *do* it yet. I had to get my head around how to do, what I want to do... but here goes. Let's say I want to make a top for my avvie...

- I make the top all pretty in PS, details and hand painted shading all done... flatten the image, save as I normally would.
- Next is to desaturate all the colours, in effect making a fake bump map. Save as TOP_BUMP.
- Grabbing your Bump to Tangent Normals plug-in... I can convert it to a normal map... again, save as a copy TOP_NORMAL (I'm saying save as a copy, because I'm not sure if I'm doing it right!)...
- Now that I have the top I made for my av as a normal map... I can use the RGB Theta filter to add depth and shading (faux lighting effect) in to the *design* itself... not just the avatar normal maps I had been using before. Save as TOP_BAKED
-I then paste this "fake baked" layer over the original, change the blend mode and BAM- I get something very close to a 3d baked design- completely detailed- and all within Photoshop!?!

HOLY HELL!!! BRAIN STRAIN!!! I LOVE IT!!!! If anyone can understand what's going on inside my head- congratulations! That makes one of us! *giggles*.

I'm not sure if you were meaning them to be used this way, or if you merely created the filters for sculpt work, as opposed to avatar based designs. Going by what is possible with these tools, you'll certainly make a lot of people happy either way (if they can wrap their heads around how to use it)!

I haven't got around to really testing out Trigs in Space. I did try it, it looks somewhat similar to RGB Theta, with a few variations. I'll have a play with it again later, when my brain stops taking me back to the Bump to Tangent Normals filter ^.^ . I think you can see from above... I've got enough thoughts and ideas flying through my head without trying to cram any more in! At least not right now, maybe tomorrow- hehe.

I am slightly embarrassed at how long this reply to your post is. So with that, time to go test the idea I had above.

YOU FREAKING ROCK, DUDE!!!!

Actually, the technique you posted is what I've been working on. If you actually go through it, you will find that the opposite side will have 'flipped' shading and that the sides will be all funky. I still have yet to bend or rotate the normals properly for it to work as expected.

But you are definitely on the right track of where I'm headed. I'll get there eventually, but not sure when.

Actually, it can kind of work in certain circumstances. It should work for up/down, but will probably get funky with left/right. But this would be for a system using a cylinder style mapping thingie. Well, try it and see what happens. Take some notes and stuff.

Crap, I just confused myself. Heh.

BTW, I have been known to use warning tags when going on rants at other forums that I frequent. Things like head may explode, ears may bleed... things like that. But I have to restrain myself because this isn't exactly a regular Photoshop forum.

All that aside for a moment, I implemented the theta=0 hack in RGB Theta. I took it for a quick spin and it looks good so far. Hopefully no more unexpected artifacts. You can grab this fix in the above link. Bear in mind that it is the latest even though I'm not really using version control. I'll edit the wiki entry for it later.

And I'll tuck the differences between RGB Theta and RGB Ellipsoid away in the back of my head. Hopefully get around to writing some quick little tutorials about these things.

Ok - now I'm confused. I'm not sure what this is... Is it a plug-in for Photoshop that does this or is it a script for Max???

You sir, are waaaaaaay smarter than I.

What I've done so far is a few of Photoshop filters. These filters are bits-n-pieces for bigger techniques. I could have just thrown them together for the big technique, but I wanted the bits-n-pieces to be modular for maximum flexibility for a variety of uses.

Claire has already alluded to one of the big techniques. With Chip's normal maps and with RGB Theta, you can do faux lighting. What I've been working on is taking that idea a bit further. Imagine painting a bump map in greyscale, converting that to a tangent normal map, and then putting that result together with Chip's normal maps for a whole new normal map.

A simple example would be to paint a bump map for a shirt with a pocket lapel and buttons. After a few simple steps, you can use RGB Theta for faux lighting on the shirt - shading for the pocket and buttons included.

The net effect is doing lighting tricks in Photoshop (or a compatable filter host) that usually can only be in a big 3d package (Max, Maya, et al). Baking lighting for clothes or what have you without the big 3d package.

I've only gotten so far, but I am getting closer. I will get there eventually.

Why throw these pieces out if I haven't gotten the big technique yet? Because they are little pieces and have other uses for what some of the content creators out there do. For example, RGB Theta and RGB Ellipsoid can do some cool with sculptie maps. Or maybe we'll get lucky and someone will run with them in an entirely different direction with more uber coolness.

LEGEND!

Your explanations made *far* more sense than mine. I understand how 3D programs work- I understand the lingo- but I've never touched anything other than Blender, and that was very short lived. I'll leave the 3D stuff to people who know how to use it properly.

I spent a couple of hours last night messing around with all those goodies in Photoshop, and I'm pleased to say I got some impressive results. Some things didn't behave as I thought they should. A couple of "hmmm" moments followed by changing a few settings meant I could get around it though. Persistance is the key.

You've definitley made me think about getting back in to clothing design... With the help of these filters my old stuff goes from being "ok, not great" (IMO) to being a quality finished item. Small details just look better, seams are no longer an issue. The standard has been lifted. Big thank you!

I am going to post a couple of requests for Multi Chan Hax on the other thread that's been bumped up *grins*, you did ask! I might be pushing my luck- but let's see. Hehehe.

Thanks again Abu- YOU ROCK SOCKS!

That normal map filter is solid. Not as many bells and whistles as the Nvidia one, but it produces better results by default. With the Nvidia filter I would have to go into channels and tweak levels and other lame things. I haven't messed with the other toys, but the normal map filter alone is tasty stuff. Maybe someday we will get normal maps in SL, but I'll sure be using this for my non-SL work in the meantime. Thanks for sharing this stuff. You put the Leg End in Legend.

I didn't know Nvidia had a similar tool. The only bump to normal converter I knew of is Crazy Bump (which is pricey). I'm looking forward to trying this out. I can see it being VERY useful. It drives me mad that I can't bake the effects of a displacement map in either Vray or Mental Ray, but normal maps bake just fine. If this has good results it may be a complete life saver.

Rock on, Abu.

I honestly haven't really looked into bump to normal stuff since normal maps started getting popular. There were already a few converters out there and even some Photoshop Actions. I figured that the market would have been saturated by now, but I guess that was a bad assumption. Silly me.

I did take a quit romp and look at a few things. For as complex and option-laden some of the converters are, I can't help but wonder what kinds of algorithms are being used. The method that I settled on is actually pretty simple, straight forward, and hasn't given me any problems.

I did look at Crazy Bump and it looks mighty competent for converting photographs. From the video that I watched on their site, I'm sure I can duplicate the results using some freebies and regular tricks. I just might have to do some playing around.

Pygora, sometimes I do some regular tricks on normal maps and renders like you mentioned. When things look like they are starting to get out of hand, I use Spherify RGB to re-normalize things. You might want to give it a try.

http://tech-slop.serveit.org/wiki/index.php?title=Spherify_RGB

Nap time.

You guys rock - I don't know why, maybe you're related to Santa or the Pope but all of you are way too generous.

I wish I had your smarts - I understand quite a bit but I know that really in comparison I lack the neural net that you do. I am a pretty good artist but with the tools you churn out - I can be a great artist.

Minor Update

New version of MultiCH soon. Auto loads the last MCH file used, which means that it works with Ctrl + F. This means you can layer it up and going through layers and hitting Ctrl+F in a batch hack. Should be able to do up one of Eloh's templates and keep the transparency in each layer, but in a different mapping channel. Cool that. In adding this, I discovered a little something that I don't like, but it should be fine.

Will probably also be releasing a face/head pack for Camille. Front, side, and quarter with an MCH file. Hopefully this will prove interesting.

Finally figured out why I haven't been able to bend the vectors for tangent + world acrobatics. Turns out that there is a black hole on the far side that needs to be opened up. Stop sucking my vectors! Shouldn't be too hard to hack with some sort of a bias setting.

Been thinking about doing a filter that does reflection map stuff. Imagine painting a lighting solution and slapping that onto a normal render. Or slapping on an enironment map. With a little savvy, can even quickly paint a base complextion for skins. I've been hacking reflection stuffs for quite some time using cheap 2d tricks, but might be time to take it to the 3rd dimension.

Hopefully a substantial update this weekend or shortly after. Stay tuned.

~does a happy dance~

Finally figured out the vector bending thing to my satisfaction and got it working. Bump map to tangent, add that to the world normal render, and awesome faux lighting right in Photoshop. Just gotta think through how I want to put the options together and clean it up.

As awesome as that will be with RGB Theta, it will be even awesomer once I do the reflection/environment map thing. Instead of one little light at a time, will be able to light it up using an long/lat environment texture. Key and fill light in one shot. Will even be able to use colour, like a bluish-purple fill light over here and an orange tinted light over there. It will be static, but still awesomer.

~butt wiggle and a jig~

Time to give my brain a break for a little while.