I finally figured out the formula I needed to get my disc I use for my explosion shockwaves! Formulas are pretty powerful but I probably could have done this with a map faster.

-Kix

I suck so much in maths, i find formulas as difficult as rocket science, or nuclear engineering ! But i'd love to see this formula you created :) By the way, do you think it can be possible to make a shader function react depending on the angle of the object surface from the camera ? See what i mean ? Last time i've checked, i think there was a lack of variables for this in the formulas editor .

Here it is.

The formula means that the shade will be perfect no matter how much I blow up the object. The bright ring around the edge is actually a ring with the glow turned on to full white.

Unfortunately, there are no specific variables for forumlas which relate to angular orientation. You have to build them in using the four animateable parameters provided.

-Kix

Thanks Kix :)

I tried, but i can't get it to work ... What object do you use ? I've tried with a plane, a sphere and a cube, and got really weird results . Maybe it's because my computer works with european maths, you know 2,5 means 2.5, these kind of things ... But i doubt it, Carrara usually understands both ways . Too bad, i wanted to use it as a bump on a transparent and refractive plane to make a spherical distortion, like a magnifying glass :( Would you mind to send me the file so i can have a look at it ? litst@chez.com

Aha! Sorry about that. There is an unfortunate side effect with these kinds of thingamajobbers. This formulation is designed for a disc which has a radius of 1.0 and is oriented with the flat side in the y direction. In other words, if you create a cylinder in the spline modeler with a width and heights of 2.0, you'll get it.

Of course it has a very thin thickness of 0.02 which means the extrusion path endpoints are both at -0.01 and 0.01. respectiviely.

If you create a cylinder by pulling in a cylinder primitive and squarsh it by chagning it's percentage in the z direction, you're disc will;
A be oriented in the wrong coordinates.
B not have the correct radius.

So, don't do that because it won't work. You have to use the disc in the spline modeler.

I hadn't tried to make one for a sphere which is a cool idea and may make an interesting effect. I'll see what I can do. Maybe mystery guest number 1 would like to give this a try considering SHE is the formula MASTER!

Thanks Kix, I couldn't make it work in the bump channel, but i've applied it to the refraction shader on a fully transparent object . I've attached it to my camera and now it gives those wide angle deformations . Isn't nice :) ? Of course, i could have used a refractive object to make this kind of lens, but without your formula, the deformation would not have been so perfect :) . One note : the Spline cylinder i've used as a lens has only one of its sides filled .

Wow! This is an application I would have never ever thought of. Formulas for some things are really nice but they're not a trivial challenge for the un-initiated (ME!). -Kix