Modeling w/ Displacement

Extreme visual complexity can be achieved with models consisting of millions of polygons, but a better approach is to exploit the displacement capabilities found in Pixels' new renderer, Tempest. This tutorial presents a simple technique using basic primitives and task specific displacement shaders to create very complex objects.

This tutorial requires PiXELS3D 3.7b10, ShaderMaker Pro and Tempest.

Create a Cylinder. Select the
Shape->Cylinder tool to invoke the Cylinder Options dialog. Click OK to accept to accept the default settings.

Close the Ends. Select the
Reshape->Close Ends tool to invoke the Close Ends Options dialog. Click OK to accept to accept the default settings.

Switch to Twist & Taper View. Click anywhere in the Right view, making it the active view. Select the Window->View Options menu item to invoke the View Options dialog. Change the view from Right to Twist & Taper. Click OK to apply.

Taper the Edges. Adjust the blue (taper) spline as shown. The cylinder should resemble the one shown below.

Export a RIB. Export the Cylinder as a RIB file. We will use this in ShaderMaker Pro to preview our shader.

Create a new Folder and Save. Create a new folder. Name it Corncob. Save the RIB file into this folder. Name the RIB file Corncob.rib. Save the Pixels scene into this folder as well. Name it Corncob.pxl.

Launch ShaderMaker Pro. Launch ShaderMaker Pro. Enlarge the preview pane and change the preview primitive to Corncob.rib.

Load our Corncob Shader. Click here to download our corncob shader. Load this into ShaderMaker Pro and preview the shader applied to the corncob primitive. Notice how much visual complexity we can achieve with a minimal amount of modeling. See below for an example of this shader used in a real world project.

	Create a Cylinder. Select the Shape->Cylinder tool to invoke the Cylinder Options dialog. Click OK to accept to accept the default settings.
	Close the Ends. Select the Reshape->Close Ends tool to invoke the Close Ends Options dialog. Click OK to accept to accept the default settings.
	Switch to Twist & Taper View. Click anywhere in the Right view, making it the active view. Select the Window->View Options menu item to invoke the View Options dialog. Change the view from Right to Twist & Taper. Click OK to apply.
	Taper the Edges. Adjust the blue (taper) spline as shown. The cylinder should resemble the one shown below.

	Export a RIB. Export the Cylinder as a RIB file. We will use this in ShaderMaker Pro to preview our shader.
	Create a new Folder and Save. Create a new folder. Name it Corncob. Save the RIB file into this folder. Name the RIB file Corncob.rib. Save the Pixels scene into this folder as well. Name it Corncob.pxl.
	Launch ShaderMaker Pro. Launch ShaderMaker Pro. Enlarge the preview pane and change the preview primitive to Corncob.rib.
	Load our Corncob Shader. Click here to download our corncob shader. Load this into ShaderMaker Pro and preview the shader applied to the corncob primitive. Notice how much visual complexity we can achieve with a minimal amount of modeling. See below for an example of this shader used in a real world project.