Bend This b2

This is a small update and a reminder to myself.

Past few months my RL has been changing. So, I have been busting a hump trying to get some of my projects finished up. One of those things is Bend This. I've had the preliminaries done for quite some time, but I'm taking clean-up and release a little more seriously.

One of the big things I've done with Bend This is switch it over to DevIL. This means that I can distribute the TBN rastor in a variety of image formats. And I will eventually release the 3DS Max shaders for TBN so Max users can do their thing.

I did give it a touch of polish and tie up some loose ends, but I'm sure more fixing will be needed as more little things are discovered.

Kind of got started on the wiki nodes, but still debataing with some organization issues.

Quite some time ago I was talking about a few things. As it turns out, Claire was clever enough to figure out what I was up to. Her enthusiasm in those original threads still puts a smile on my face.

Bend This - what does it do?

I'm sure a lot of you folks are familiar with painting textures for the default avatar. Basically a colour map for a 3d object. You know, clothes and skins. But just a colour map.

In bigger 3d software packages, you have more than just a colour map. Other common maps being specular, gloss, and bump. The kind of texture map that I am interested in is bump. Using my own string of small hacks, I have brought bump mapping into Photoshop.

- Paint a bump map using regular greyscale values.

- Convert the bump map to tangent using Bump to Tangent Normals.

- Fire up Bend This, load the seperate TBN rastor, and let it modify the normals.

You will end up with a world normal map that has been properly modified for further work. For example, faux lighting with RGB Theta.

Once I get this up and running (day or two, but might pull another all-nighter), I'll start busting a hump on more post tricks. RGB Theta is cool and all, but I have a few more tricks up my sleeve that I want to pull out. The big one being reflection mapping.

Ugh! So much work to do and so little time.

Files are up and the nodes are started. The nodes are ugly, but they are started. Will start editing soon with a quick-n-sleazy tutorial.

The TBN rastor images are JPG for size and distribution reasons. This means that you will probably have to clean some JPG artifacts if you get too crazy.

The TBN rastors were rendered using the default female avatar mostly 'as is'. I did do quite a bit of waxing, but no mesh smoothing of any kind because the mesh sucks for smoothing (over-haul on hold pending some things). This means that there will probably be some funky triangle looking shading areas.

However, this will give you a damn good running start.

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

Links to DevIL and TBN Repository in that node. So far the TBN Repository only has the female TBN files. Male versions are in the works.

You will also need Bump to Tangent Normals.

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

Might want to grab RGB Theta so you can get that awesome running start on faux lighting tricks in post.

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


I rock. Can I get some love?

Been romping around when I can.

Moved the link to the MCH node to the main Filter node. You can find it there under 3D. But the name of the node and related nodes haven't changed. Just a quick note if you go looking for it.

Back then, when I first nailed TBN, I wrote a quick tutorial using a sphere. This should give you a damn good idea of what I've done. But the big thing is that I'm now releasing these tricks for the avatar mesh.

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

work
work
work

I read your post and saw your results- this is all so far above anything i can even begin to comprehend. I can see the end result and the obvious 3-d you achieved. You do totally rock - not just for the doing but the sharing. Frankly- I have only vague notion how to apply the end result but i am sure i wd give it a shot- one question though, will this work some how with Gimp? I do not have Photoshop. Carry on- you have achieved something awesome- thanks for sharing.

My filters should work with any host that supports Photoshop plug-in architecture. Theoretically. The only non-PS host testing I have done was with Multi-CH with an old demo of Corel Painter - and it worked. I have heard that my stuff works with PSP, but I can't say for sure with anything else.

The only two real exceptions are that my filters are PC/Win and 32-bit. I am Win XP sp3 and I have no plans of upgrading any time soon. I'm gonna ride Win XP on this junky old machine to the bitter end.

A few months ago I was dinking around with Google and plugged in my name. Just for giggles. Much to my surprise I came across some awesomeness by Claire. Absolutely brims with enthusiasm that makes me smile.

http://mistressofdesign.wordpress.com/2008/10/07/rgb-theta-photoshop-plug-in-for-sl-fake-bake/

I had no idea that she wrote that. I'm kind of surprised that it snuck by me. She did a damn fine job of showing what RGB Theta can do. Thank you, Claire. Love.

So, Bump to Tangent Normals + Bend This takes Claire's tutorial a step or two further.

Also, thanks Chip for the original thread. The original RGB Theta trick was nothing new to me, but it did plant the seeds of taking it slightly into the realm of crazy genius.

TBN Repository is getting there. Just uploaded the male versions. Took them for a quick spin and everything looks straight to me.

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

Show me something pretty.

The short answer is "yes". It is possible to get Abu's filters up and running in The GIMP. It just requires a little legwork to set up.

Getting Abu's filters to work requires two things.
The first is grabbing a GIMP plug-in that reads PS plug-ins.
The second is installing Abu's PS plug-in with the GIMP plug-in.
Confused yet?

I'm asuming you're running the latest version of The GIMP which is 2.6.7. This is the version I've tested this on, so I can't really comment about earlier builds. You also ned to download PSPI which is available here: http://www.gimp.org/~tml/gimp/win32/pspi.html . Scroll to the bottom of the page and select the appropriate download. When that's completed and you've extracted the file it's time to move on to installing it.


Installing PSPI:

Open up The GIMP and go to Edit... Preferences.
A new window will open.
In the left-hand navigation pane, scroll down and expand the "Folders" directory.
In the expanded sub-folder select "Plug-Ins".
Make a "New" directory then open the file selector and browse to where you extracted PSPI. You want it to point to the folder that contains the pspi.exe.
When you've found it, click "ok".
The GIMP will tell you to restart for the changes to take effect, so off you go.


Installing Abu's TechSlop Filters:

Open up The GIMP and go to Filters... Photoshop Plug-In Settings.
A new window will open.
Make a "New" directory to point to, open the File Selector and browse to where you've saved Abu's filters. This time you want it to point to the folder that contains the .8bf for the filter/plug-in you want to load.
When you've found it, click "ok".
This time GIMP *won't* tell you to restart, but you will need to before you can see the TechSlop goodness in your Filter Menu.
Time to restart, again.


Play Time:

Open up The Gimp and go to Filters... TechSlop!!!!!
Mr Nasu's bag-of-tricks will have it's own lil' subfolder in your Filter Menu.
Depending on what filter you want to work with, you're on your own fr0m here.
Abu's *stuff* is easier understood when fiddled with.
It'll hurt your head, but in the best way possible.


FYI: PSPI will read most (but not all) photoshop filters. Experiment by installing any new filters one at a time.

Claire, you are my hero.

I need to take a break for a day or two and work on some other things.

Abu, I think you deserve a break, and a beer.

Hopefully this doesn't hi-jack your thread too much.

I've posted a visual guide on how to go about getting Photoshop filters to work in The GIMP. I know you get asked that question often enough to benefit from a simple answer. So yep, it can be done, and here's how...

http://mistressofdesign.wordpress.com/2009/10/04/how-to-photoshop-filters-in-the-gimp/

Woot! My first blog update in twelve months. Oops. At least now the GIMP junkies can get a taste for your madness. <3

Rock on, Claire. Hopefully some GIMP users will verify.

Between everything, I think I finally managed a tutorial that covers the basics of MCH and Bend This all-in-one go. Real quick-n-sleazy using the skirt mesh. Links for most of the stuff is at the bottom of the tutorial. But I still have to organize the DevIL information.

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

I did note in there that it is a full-bodied lighting solution. In my next tutorial, I'll cover a quick-n-easy masking solution for non-full-bodied faux lighting. You know, an easy method to take out just the detailed parts.

I really don't know how well these tricks work for full production 'as is'. I have made a few things, but I always do all sorts of post-tweaks. A Running start - a damn good running start.