Making Abstract Shapes using Hexagon
Aussie Artist
Posts: 84
I have send someone make clever abstract shapes using cinema 4.. see attached.
was wondering if 1 can create such things in hexagon ??
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Should be possible in any semi-decent modeller, I think.
Yes, you can make complex 3D shapes in Hexagon.
However, there isn't any scripting support and Hexagon will not generate mathematically-derived objects. So, you'll have to do much of the work by hand.
i guess i will put aside this idea..until later..
thanks for replies, people..
Thanks for the suggestion - A3D...
I have thought of using alpha for cutting holes visually for another idea...
Uh... I don't think you can render Ambient Occlusion in Hexagon. You can make the display window simulate A.O., but that's really not very useful for texture work. You can, however, import the wavefront object file into Blender and bake an ambient occlusion map for it relatively painlessly. (Yes, using Blender is like trying to herd blind cats in a fishmarket... But, it's free. :) )
https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13956/how-do-you-bake-ambient-occlusion-for-a-model
and a vid
A.O. maps aren't very useful for most production renderers/DS/Poser. (Both programs can render them for production renders relatively quickly and, at least Poser, can actually render them separately. I assume DS can too.) However, they're extremely useful for game engines and other animation renderers that might choke while trying to render A.O. during animation or just don't have that capability. A.O. is even baked in many professional movies since any "dynamic" quality a real-time A.O. would have would probably not even be seen. Though, obviously, that may not be true for detail/closeup shots.
In other words, TLDR version - Baking an A.O. using Blender (free!) would be more useful and much quicker than trying to force an OpenGL render in Hexagon to work as a texture for just one production render in DS/Poser.
Note: Using a paid third-party plugin/script for Carrara, one CAN bake A.O. and material textures. I can't remember the script/plugin, but a Google search will reveal it or a search of DAZ's products might reveal it as well. It has been around for awhile, but nobody discusses Carrara much and I'm not sure many use that script. But, it is available, AFAIK.
Baking AO in games is only really good for environment based objects that don't move, and that also won't see a change in lighting conditions. So for example if a character has a flashlight, the AO baked onto the texture is going to look a bit odd, since you'll be seeing shadowing in direct light.
If you're baking AO though, you might as well be baking lighting environments instead. That way you bake shadows, textures, reflections, etc. But again, only good for stuff that doesn't move....but in gaming, this can free up a lot of resources for other things.
AO doesn't have to be baked for everything. A great deal depends on the renderer, of course. Baked AO is almost a staple across genres. (Still rendering, not so much.) However, it doesn't have to be used solely for AO. For instance, you can use a baked AO in texture work to help provide masks. For instance, things normally effected by AO are likely areas that do not see a lot of wear. So, an AO mask can be used while weathering textures to protect areas that "logically" wouldn't get a lot of wear. That even applies to things like a flashlight with a textured surface, grip and any little grooves in it that wouldn't ever feel the touch of a human hand, but get painted, nonetheless. AO'd regions get retained, but with a little random deterioration, whereas areas outside AO would get more weathered effects.
In animation, as you've pointed out, it's all about saving processing power. If you can make something "look better" and save processing power in a fast-paced FPS, it'll get baked AO and that will usually be applied to the texture, itself. (To reduce the overhead loading up a separate AO map would cost.) Why? There's no reason to try to rely on true dynamic, real-time, AO for everything in an FPS where nobody cares about AO and would rather see flashy lasers and gouts of blood spilling all over the place as a busty vixen tosses a grenade (That has baked AO in the texture on it. :) ) through a mirror and blows up a bunch of aliens swimming in the local pool! (Though, some afficionados might complain if her boobs have baked on AO where the bikini touches them...)
All in all - It's just another tool in the chest. It's got plenty of uses and can be a timesaver or processing power saver.
PS - Just my two coppers on it. I'm not an expert. I just know enough to really screw things up if I touch a texturing application. :)