If you’ve spent enough time with Lightwave to get beyond the initial memorization of “what does what,” you know that the best results come when you stick things together that weren’t necessarily “meant” to be “stuck together.” That’s the beauty of Art, and that’s the beauty of 3D - there are no limits! If the result works, there’s no such thing as “wrong!”

So, what we’ve got here is an experiment that I’ve found helpful. (You may find it the neatest thing since “sliced bread,” or you may think I’m a few burgers short of a value-meal.) Regardless, exposure to a new and different “angle” on things gets you thinking in new and different ways, and that’s always a good thing!

In short, the Experiment uses Lightwave’s Surface Baker to handle 90% of the “Shading” that gets generated for Sasquatch’s fibers. The end result is a “softer” looking Render that has most of the richness of the Shadows generated by Sasquatch, but at a fraction of the time.

The one drawback to this method is that it involves a bit of “hoop jumping.” So, this Technique and Tutorial must assume that you know your way around Lightwave pretty well. (If you’re new to Lightwave and Sasquatch, have your Manuals within easy reach

(Rendered with Self Shadowing and Receive Lightwave Shadows.)
I Love the way Sasquatch can calculate the “interior shading” of the lush Pile of fur. You can see the beautiful effect of the fur darkening as it is shadowed by the surrounding Fibers. However, not all of us have “The Luxury of Time” to wait for the extra pass and calculations Sasquatch makes to figure this kind of Shading.

The Experiment

Figure 3

So we’re all working from the “Same Page,” Download this .ZIP file that has this Scene and Object ready for us to go. While simple, this Object still gives us a lot of neat little areas for Light to “catch-and-hide.”

Figure 4

I’ve taken the liberty of Surfacing the Dingus with a kind of funky, moderately interesting Procedural. Here’s what the Scene looks like when Rendering Frame 0.

And this is Sasquatch’s Default Fur on the Dingus.

Figure 6

The first thing we’ll need for this Experiment is a UV Texture Map on our Object. (The Dingus already comes with one on it, but if you are doing a “doohickey” of your own, just letting Lightwave create its own default, cryptic, Atlas Mapping will work just fine.)

Figure 7

Now, Activate the Shader, Surface Baker for the Sasquatch Surface of our Dingus. (As you’ve probably noticed, in addition to our Dingus, there’s also a Sphere in the Scene, just ignore the Sphere for the moment, we’ll get to that in a bit when we’re exploring projecting Ray-Traced Shadows onto Sasquatch’s Fur.)

Within the Surface Baker Panel, you’ll want to Bake a Continuous Map, for the Entire Object, (you could Bake just one Surface of your Object to save Time, if you wanted to). You’ll want to Bake To an Image, (as opposed to Baking to a Vertex Color Map). And you’ll want to Bake Color, Diffuse and Illumination for our Dingus, (If you apply any Shaders to a Surface you want Baked, you’ll need to Check Bake Shaders as well).

You’ll want to Select the UV Map [Coordinates] that have been made specifically for affecting Sasquatch’s coloring. (When Painting Maps for my doodads, I usually lay out my UV Maps so Symmetrical parts of the Object are right-on-top of one-another on the UV Map so I only have to Paint one side of the thingamajig.)

The Image Resolution doesn’t have to be high at all, (Sas’ Fur does a very good job of blending even highly “Pixely” maps.) Your Image Type and Image Base Name should suit your personal preferences.

It may be tempting to want to activate Antialiasing, but it seriously slows-down generation of the Map.

Temporarily Deactivate Sasquatch, (all we’re doing is giving Surface Baker a chance to Bake our Surface, which happens at the time of Rendering,) and give ‘er a Render! (F9 is fine.)

Figure 8

Right after the Render Display Window opens-up, (if you have Render Display active,) you see this nifty little Window that tells you the Status of your Baking. Once this Window goes away, the Baking is Done. (I usually cancel my Render after the Baking in Progress window goes away, since the Render was only being done for Baking the Texture Map.)

Figure 9

And this is the UV Texture Map that comes “out of the oven!”

Next, we’ve got to Deactivate Surface Baker on our Dingus, (so it doesn’t run every single time we’re Rendering our Sasquatch fibers.), and Re-Activate Sasquatch on the Dingus.

Figure 10

In the Sasquatch Options for our Dingus, we’ll need to do two things in order to begin to see the effect of our Baked UV Map. We’ll need to tell Sasquatch to use the Baked Map under the Mapping “Tab.” Be sure to set the Map Type to UV Map, and the UV Coordinates to use to generate the Map you used when Baking your Surface, (for my example, that’s “ShadowBake”).

Then, under the Color “Tab,” set both Root and Tip of Salt to be 255, 255, 255, “White.” Set the Salt Percentage to 100%, so the whole thing is covered by totally “white” Fur, (which the Map will then “blend” with its own coloring).

NOTE: Depending on your personal preferences, you may want to reduce Clump Inheritance, so each-and-every fiber is being more-and-more directly affected by the Map’s PIXELS that lay “directly underneath” it the closer you get to 0%.

Render away!

Figure 11

Here’s what we’ve got. Not bad for only a few minute’s work!

Figure 12

By Decreasing Sasquatch’s Diffuse and Increasing its Ambient Strength, you can make the Fur match more closely the Luminosity of the underlying Object. Since Sas is “pulling” its Coloring information from the Map, this will have the effect of “lightening the lights,” while lettings the “darks stay dark.” (This Render shows the result of Sasquatch’s Diffuse being set to 42% and its Ambient Strength set to 400%.)

NOTE: Most of us, unless we’re using Radiosity, reduce Lightwave’s Global, Ambient Intensity to 0% for our Renders. Using this Technique, you’ll want to have at least some Global Ambient Intensity in your Scene so you can use Sasquatch’s Ambient Strength setting to allow you to effectually increase the Fur’s “Gamma” as we did in Figure 12. (With a Global Ambient Intensity of 5%, I’ve had to use an Ambient Strength in Sasquatch of 2,000% to get the Fur to mirror the Lighting of the Object’s Surface.)

Now, if you Activate Ray-Trace Shadows, Bake another revision of your Map, (by temporarily Re-Activating Surface Baker for another F9,) and remember to Re-Load the Baked Map Image, and then do another Render, you’ll find that the Shadow cast by the Sphere has been incorporated into the Baked Map, and is now a part of Sasquatch’s Fur!

Figure 13

This Ray-Traced Shadow on Sasquatch Fur is generated much faster than using Sasquatch’s Receive Lightwave Shadows Option!

Figure 14

Which means... you can even use Area Lights to generate Shadows on Sasquatch’s Fur in this experimental-sort-of-way!

NOTE: Area Lights tend to be much “hotter” than “regular” Lights on Object’s Surfaces, so when you “turndown” an Area Light’s Intensity, remember you’ll probably have to “turn-up” Sasquatch’s Ambient Intensity to compensate.

Figure 15

You’re probably wondering, “Can I use this in an Animation where Lights and Shadows ‘play’ across Sasquatch’s Fur?” Yes, you can! Looking at the Image Name that Surface Baker generates, there’s nifty little frame-digits between the Name you set in the Panel and the file’s Extension!

NOTE: We’re entering into the area of “Fringe Lightwave,” the seriously experimental area where you’ve got to do a little-bit-of-this and a little-bit-of-that in order to get things working as they “should.” This is the domain of “Bubblegum and Bailing-wire.”

Before you start jumping for joy and setting the Image Type for your Baked Image to Sequence, there’s a couple things you need to do.

1) Know how many Frames your Animation will be.

2) In another Instance of Lightwave, Render out a Sequence of Black Frames that will adhere to the same naming/numbering convention the Image generated by Surface Baker, (in the same Directory as your original Baked Image, and with the same number of frames as your Animation).

3) In the Image Editor, (of your set your original LW Scene,) set your Baked Image to Image Type: Sequence.

4) With both Sasquatch and Surface Baker active, do an F10 to Render your entire Scene!

Sasquatch is “called” after Surface Baker “does-its-thing.” So when Sasquatch “asks” Lightwave for the next Frame in the Sequence, Lightwave retrieves the one just completed by Surface Baker!

Cool, hunh?

There are some caveats to keep in mind about this Process, however, so lets not get too excited just yet.

· The first, and biggest, caveat is that Lightwave will not retain the fact that Sasquatch is using a Sequence when the Scene is Saved and Re-Loaded. (I understand this to be a problem with the SDK.) The solution, (provided by Steve Hurley,) is to assign the same Image Sequence that Sasquatch is using to a Texture Channel of an obscure, SPP, (Single-Point-Polygon,) somewhere in your Object. (Bear in mind, however, that this SPP must be within the bounds your Object currently defines if it is to not change Sasquatch’s Automatic Sizing settings.)

· The second caveat is that you need to change the Current Frame when you F9 to see results of Scene changes when using an Image Sequence. Lightwave caches the Image most recently Loaded of the Sequence. Sasquatch will “ask” for the Image, and Lightwave will say, “Oh, here, I’ve got this one from last time, it’s just as good, right?” So, you’ve got to change to a Frame LW doesn’t already have “on hand” before doing an F9 when using this Technique.

· Third, Surface Baker does not “do” the Shadow Color generated LW 7.5’s Lights.

· And Fourth, Surface Baker is “Hard-Wired” into Layout. It is not a Plug-In. Screamernet won’t be able to find it because it doesn’t exist! So, if you’re using this “Bubble-gum and Bailing-wire,” “Fringe-Lightwave-Science” Technique, you’ve got to do so directly under Layout, (unless you want to do your Baking under Layout, then let Screamernet chew on the Pre-Baked Images via Screamernet afterward). (I understand that Newtek is working on making Surface Baker an actual Plug-In, and that it is a lot more challenging than it might seem.)

And that’s it! That’s the Experimental Sasquatch Shading Technique! Take it and make great things with it if it suits your fancy! I’ve found it to be a great help for what I do, you may find it to be the same!

Have Fun!

Timothy
http://Timothy.ArtistNation.com