A nuclear one to be more precise.

I've been looking for a way to add a good looking nuclear explosion to a scene. I tried adding a photo as background and lights to simulate the effect but the composition is never good. I could also use those flame plants or otherwise to create the explosion, but I can't do the specific shape needed. It needs to be in the background so it's hard to do in post. Any suggestion on how to do it?

Mushroom!

Textureless mushroom obj........assign cloud and other materials to it!

Or make one using booleans!

Ya but which mushroom do you use that looks right? And it's not just the mushroom it's also the pillar for flame and all the flames at the bottom:

http://phenomenaonbreak.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/nuclear-explosion-badger-tests.jpg

I need an obj that has the right basic shape with materials for the fire and the smoke. Wouldn't that be fairly easy to do in something like zbrush? lol

http://www.caerdroia.org/116/nuclear-explosion.jpg

The bottom of this should be reasonably easy with a torus or two or three I would think!

Flames a bit harder........Hmm!

I know, why not throw it out as a challenge for the Vue forum............give us your nuclear explosions!

Well that might work but I'd give it more as a modeling challenge, possibly for zbrush or other sculpting program, to create an obj of that shape with the right materials :P

Go for it, I don't model so I'd have to do it with booleans or torus's or mushrooms [LOL].

Of course if someone modelled a good one, I'd be willing to purchase!

Let's have it!!.............

Same! Come on all you lurkers, make that mushroom cloud and you've got 2 customers!!

Realize you need several parts to get best use, as the mushroom cloud has a stalk and a fireball, and each has different materials

use metablobbed spheres or tori to build the stalk

the fireball cloud you can make using several tori arranged in a circle and metablobbed

assign a displacement material or volumetrics to them as you see fit.
or, i
nner displaced solid, and surround with a duplicated larger versions with a volumetric for smoke/steam etc.

best way I can show you is to go look for the nuclear fireball from the game FALLOUT3, when they blow up the nuke in Megaton ;)

*FALLOUT3, when they blow up the nuke in Megaton ;)

*Hey I never did that when I played it, I'll have to re-install now and play it again! [LOL].

You know i've extracted tons of FO3 assets, but I never looked for that. Although I think it's all done in special effects, there is probably no model behind it.

it's bloody impressive, set it off at night for best effect, *mmmm mmmmm!!! *;)

pretty sure it's tori they use in it from the shapes, very sweet!

remember: scale is VITAL, mushroom clouds are bloody huge, severla miles high

I tried one a while back, Vue 6, no post work.

I used smoke and a lot of sphere's a thorus indeed..

Feel free to ask questions.

Full size: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/full.php?image_id=1790797

That's very nice, the flame pillar and bottom clouds look real. I'd make the top clouds look more spherish. What did you use for the flame material?

It's hard to say "one" material, it's a mixture between spheres of smoke in different colors and lights.. I remember i spent most of the hours with adjusting.. finetuning...  and it depends also on the scene how well it works.

I started with metaclouds, but that didn't do the trick for me. So i ended up using smoke and lights

I just reloaded the scene and the object in vue 7 and i notice it looks a little different as in 6.. 

Anyway.. i can give you the file if you like ( im not such a seller ;-)  so you can study it.. 

Material view:

Cherryman nice!! :)

some odd bug keeps giving the "fuzzy" setting of this mat a blue tinge on it's outside, grrr

Nice job Cherryman, impressive!

I'm going to try this challenge.

Good on ya, don't forget to post back what you make!

Well... painting an eco-system of cloud objects onto my explosion model in various layers only increased Vue's rendering time for just one frame to over a week.  So now I'll give the Cloud Function Editor a try on a sculpted explosion model.

Quote - some odd bug keeps giving the "fuzzy" setting of this mat a blue tinge on it's outside, grrr

I was getting that also in my renders.  I was changing the color for each of my cloud objects added into my eco-system list to paint with.  So I learned to just leave that color (whatever Vue Infinite 7.5 uses as its default) alone.

I have not tested yet to see if Build 44720 fixed the problem.

Quote -  So now I'll give the Cloud Function Editor a try on a sculpted explosion model.

It should be possible to sculpt the explosion in the FE, although it`s quite a challenge if you are looking for a realistic look.

Eonite,
talking of the function editor reminds me of a running gag a friend of mind always brings up, nd when folk doing REALLy dumb things in 1970s horror movies,, you know, like, going to the scary ruin where dozens of folk were killed by some raving lunatic, on this exact night 100 years ago...

pal speaks in thick Devonshire accent like a yokel warning some city gent of a horrible fate in store for him ahead
*"You don't wanna be going up there! That be haunted, that be!"

Silverblade pokes the Function Editor
"You don't wannna mess with that thing! That be possessed, that be! Turn your Vickey 4 into Micheal 4 crossed with Godzilla!"
*

(really impressed with the stuff you can do in the editor, but my goddness I'm getting too old for that stuff! hehe)

Quote - Eonite,
talking of the function editor reminds me of a running gag a friend of mind always brings up, nd when folk doing REALLy dumb things in 1970s horror movies,, you know, like, going to the scary ruin where dozens of folk were killed by some raving lunatic, on this exact night 100 years ago...

pal speaks in thick Devonshire accent like a yokel warning some city gent of a horrible fate in store for him ahead
*"You don't wanna be going up there! That be haunted, that be!"

Silverblade pokes the Function Editor
"You don't wannna mess with that thing! That be possessed, that be! Turn your Vickey 4 into Micheal 4 crossed with Godzilla!"
*

(really impressed with the stuff you can do in the editor, but my goddness I'm getting too old for that stuff! hehe)

LOL :laugh:

Hey, Silverblade, it seems you are really inventive when it comes to finding excuses for not having to deal with the FE ;-)

Below are some drafts. Trying to get the shapes necessary to create a credible explosion.

But feel free to spend the rest of your life trying to get your explosion with spheres,cylinders and tori. :tt2:

 The shapes are sculpted inside of a cloud layer.

Wow!  The first one is almost like a Twister!

You are a FE wizzard!

Quote - [......

But feel free to spend the rest of your life trying to get your explosion with spheres,cylinders and tori. :tt2:

Well.. I'm not a wizard, but i was quite pleased with my spheres, cilinder en tori one in VUE 6  (Image above) 
And if you look carefully you can see i made an effort in the FE as well, i opened up the clouds above the explosion with it.

Now we are on the subject..  Is there a way to directly TYPE in a formula in the FE ?

 Thanks, Cherryman. It could possibly be turned into a twister by using for instance a Spiral math node.

I did not mean to criticize what you have created. Its indeed one of the nicer explosions with Vue I have seen so far. However I get the impression that no matter how much effort you put into texturing you will still see its made with simple objects.
Yeah, I have seen the hole in the sky :-)

Quote - Now we are on the subject..  Is there a way to directly TYPE in a formula in the FE ?

You mean a math formula? No, I don`t think so.

Oke Tnx. One day i will understand all those parameters ;-)

Eonite,
hehe! ;)
oh heck I preffer engineering to maths, so I'll build the damned things the old fashioned way!
I am not scared of the function editor, not a bit of it! crosses his self and makes the sign against the Evil Eye
*"Bah! Humbugs! kids these days with their new fangled gadgets!! Steam engines, STEAM engines?! Bah! What next? Calculating machines, eh? Damn Babbage..."
*:D

Quote - Eonite,
hehe! ;)
oh heck I preffer engineering to maths, so I'll build the damned things the old fashioned way!
I am not scared of the function editor, not a bit of it! crosses his self and makes the sign against the Evil Eye

:biggrin:

...The devil himself tought me how to use the FE and the only thing we wanted was my soul. What a generous guy ;-)

*Quote - "Bah! Humbugs! kids these days with their new fangled gadgets!! Steam engines, STEAM engines?! Bah! What next? Calculating machines, eh? Damn Babbage..."
*:D

...and progress is evil too :rolleyes:

Eonite
roflmao!! ;)

Progress?! BAH! Humbug! I loved taking days to render an 800x600 piccy in Bryce!!
All these uncouth "quadratic core" thingy-mabobs that can render at 1680x1050 in three hours WITH radiosity is uncivilized, I says!!
We should go back to line graphics, yes when X wings and tie fighters in glowing lines with NO textures, no polygons, them were the things, young feller-me-lad!
PONG!! that was real graphics for ya!!
:tongue2:

Silverblade is dragged off to the retirement home for Gibbering Old Fart Renderers 
hehe!!

back on OT, as said, awesome work in the editor, mate! :)

Quote - Eonite
roflmao!! ;)

Progress?! BAH! Humbug! I loved taking days to render an 800x600 piccy in Bryce!!
All these uncouth "quadratic core" thingy-mabobs that can render at 1680x1050 in three hours WITH radiosity is uncivilized, I says!!
We should go back to line graphics, yes when X wings and tie fighters in glowing lines with NO textures, no polygons, them were the things, young feller-me-lad!
PONG!! that was real graphics for ya!!
:tongue2:

Silverblade is dragged off to the retirement home for Gibbering Old Fart Renderers 
hehe!!

back on OT, as said, awesome work in the editor, mate! :)

:cursing: ...:crying: ...:lol:

Thanks Silverblade.

I have given up trying to convert you...but I wont stop teasing you with the FE (Vues treasure island). 

Hmm... I suspect you are spending more time with it than you dare to admit :tt2:

 Here is a little teaser ;-) Tornado, modeled by using 1 cloud layer. All elements adjustable and animatable.

 Jeez... eonite... You should have warned before posting something like that. I dropped from my chair.  :blink:

 Oh sorry, tvtech,, I forgot to add the Content Advisory label ;-)

Eonite,
lol hey ya gotta have chuckle, eh? ;)
daaaaamn cool tornado!! :) 

[quotedaaaaamn cool tornado!! :) 

Thanks, Silverblade :-)

Quote - Eonite,
lol hey ya gotta have chuckle, eh? ;)

Sure :biggrin:

OMG that looks so real!  :scared:

 Thanks, Peggy :-)

I really like this option in Vue to actually be able to sculpt things by starting with a raw block of uniform density.

This does not only apply to clouds but also to terrains. Theoretically one could create an entire landscape in full 3D all within a single cube using hypertexture.

Ok, rendertime is another story...

 That is amazing. Is this a feature in Vue 7.4 or just 7.5+?

 Thanks, Paloth.

It`s not exactly a feature. The tornado is "sculpted" inside of a cloud layer by using the function editor. I guess this could even be achieved by using Vue 6.

I`m personally using Vue Infinite 7.4.

I like the function editor a lot, but I find using it  for 'sculpting'  not very intuitive. The things I see you do in it, eonite, are very clever and inventive, but there should be a simpler way. For example for the lenticular clouds, you made the middle bit go up above the brim by changing the origin according to the position. That's brilliant, but really convoluted. I would have liked to have the overal shape separated from the density aspect. So I could define the shape mathematicaly, eg its a sphere, its a wave.  (and this shape will enclose 'most' of the density )
Also, I could have an object defining the shape and then change the material using the FE. At the moment I dont seem to be able to assign the same cloud material to an object as is defined using a cloud layer or even a meta cloud. I find this really frustrating. I can make a toranado shaped object in 5 minutes in a modelling program. but I cant assign to it a spectral cloud or meta cloud material.
(I tried to drop the meta cloud material onto an object but it wasnt the same after the copy)
Of course, maybe it is possible and I'm just doing it wrong...please enlighten me someone:)

 Hmm... Artpearl, not easy to reply in one sentence.

Personally I find the FE intuitive. Of course I would not try to model a car. However for clouds, terrain, mats etc its really cool and very flexible. "Clouds" of nodes can be compiled into a Metanode and you can extract the relevant parameters, so you have a convenient editor for your purpose. Of course going deeper into the FE eats up a lot of time and its not something you do when you are working on a composition.
Also handling the FE requires a lot of experience and practice. For example I guess that if I were
a mathematician I would not be much better off. 

Lets take the example of a tornado. Sure, if you are skilled enough you can create an object that comes somewhere close the shape of a tornado. But even if Vue allowed you to assign a cloud texture I bet it would still look fake and if you tried to animate it, it would probably look rather ridiculous. And btw. the tornado I created, even though it looks somewhat rea,l is a simplified model. I just tried to capture the key elements which are: The trunk, the spiral, the surrounding sky, the dirt/dust/water which is  soaked up, and of course the texture. All those elements need to be in relation and should kind of interact. In this case you cannot separate the object from the texture. Its one one giant phenomenon.

As for shapes, sure you have basic shapes like a sphere, cylinder, cube etc  by using a Math Tooth node, sometimes in combination with other nodes.
For example I tried to create a cube with smooth edges (like the object Mazak posted not very long ago) and it worked (Hypertexture).
Once created in the FE you can deform them anyway you want with vectors. This is something you cannot do with imported shapes.

I agree it`s not as convenient as using imported objects and texturing them.
Also you cannot see the shapes in the 3D views, only in the preview.

I understand if for you it`s not very intuitive and straight forward.

 I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents worth.  This is done with Vue 4 back in 2005.  RIght now I don't have a PC that can run Vue 7!

www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php

Eonite - I'm not trying to convince anyone not to use the FE, specially not you:)
Your enthusiasm for it is very contageous, and I'm always drawn to try out what you present. I'm just commenting why I (and maybe others) arnt yet completely hooked on it.
The only thing I would refute is that it will be impossible to achieve the same realism if the same cloud textures were available when starting from an object. You start from an object too, yours is a giant layer. It has finite lower  and  upper limits (maybe infinite in x and y). You manipulate it in the FE to define a smaller shape, like the tornado or a lenticular cloud or those 'pipe' clouds. I would have liked to create those shapes in another way, by modeling or by mathematical equations. After that I would do (if I was as skillful) exactly as you do, modify and enhance using the function editor + parameters defined for the clouds.
I agre trying to do an animation with a pre-modelled object would be harder, but I dont do animations.
I have no doubt you can make simple shapes in the FE, but making them requires skill and experience, as you said. Making a rectungular shape is something a complete novice can make, even in VUE, even for you it was a (mini?) challenge to do it in the FE. That is my point, making a shape should be trivial.
I'm not sure what shape you can make by a math gaussian tooth node + vectors that cant be made in a modelling program.

 Artpearl,

...and I dont try to convince anyone to use the FE. Im just showing/explaining a couple of things
that is FE related, because I consider it to be worthwile.  I really should make clear that my goal is not to prove that I am right on it, and I don`t want to prove that those folks who are not using the FE are wrong.

If in the end people are not hooked on it, that`s no problem for me. But no one should come along and say I have not told them :-)

Yes I am enthousiastic about the FE because it allows me to create things that are outside of the frame that the Vue developers have set.

What objects are concerned, I cannot say for sure if it is really impossible to create the same realism with texture applied on imported objects. If you manage to do it and it blows my mind I will be the first to say: "wow". 

Btw. doing the cube with blurred edges was not that easy to achieve in the FE, specially not when I wanted to have control over the amount of smoothness. Try it and you will see...

Actually I have no experience whatsoever with modelling software or imported objects, so I cannot say what can/cant be done. But as far as I know, when you import an object into Vue you have to take it as it is. I mean its not possible to further edit the object in the FE.
While this is ok for most models like ships, cars etc, I find this very restrictive when it comes to cloud objects.
Isn`t it more satisfying if they are created in the FE and compiled into Metanodes, with some key parameters extracted that people (including me) can edit easily?

Anyway, what counts is the result, no matter what options or tools we are using.

I agree, the result is what counts. I might even agree that getting the result using the FE is more satisfying because it is a challenge, but for me it would require more effort. You cant edit models in vue (except by using booleans) but if it has a volumetric material you can edit the density in the FE exactly the way you demonstrated for the lenticular cloud. I attached a (very non-wow) image where I started from a vue primitive sphere, made the material volumetric, copied the content of the FE of the Lenticular cloud and pasted it in the FE for the sphere. It only uses part of the volume of the sphere because I havnt changed the parameters I had for the scales/multiplies in the cloud but I'm sure it can be adjusted. Doesnt look that great becuase (a) I did it in 2 minutes flat and didnt play with what can be adjusted (b) As I said, you I dont have all the extra parameters a spectral cloud has. I dont think it is impossible to allow spectral cloud material to a regular object, just e-on didnt think about it. Same could be done for an imported object -If I started with a modeled 'hat' shape I would just need to assign the volumetric(or spectral) material, and/or I could further adjust it in the FE. I like this better conceptually becuase the shape and the density are different aspects and I would have liked to treat them independently. I used the combination of an imported object/ volumetric material before, for example [ Ella in mid creation](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1833673) and [ In need of change](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1831873)

The general volume where I wanted the rocks & water chunks was modelled in Hexagon and imported to vue. I created a hypertexture material for these shapes to actually form the chunks within.

So in principle I wish I could create the shapes by modelling or mathematical functions and then assign the appropriate volumetric materials, and enhance them using the FE.
But I concede that in practice for the time being somethings are only achievable by using the FE.
I wish I was better at it:)