Hi, all.

Just a little "mini-challenge", to get your creative juices flowing..

Background:
I watched a BBC news item regarding the Volcano in Indonesia.
Not long after, I read a thread in the Brc forum regarding the creation of clouds by using volumetric spheres and positioning (the equivalent of) point lights within them.
A (glimmer of) light switched on in my head.
I wondered if the same method could be used (in Vue - I have V5I) to create a lava-flow...

I tried it, using meta-blobs and a couple of terrains, but a) I had great difficulty in placing the meta-blobs, and b) difficulty in placing the point-lights.
Mostly the result was cr*p. However, where, in the scene it did work, it worked quite well.

I only spent a couple of hours faffing around with it, then had to retire to bed.

---

So, I was wondering, would any of you be interested in posting methods for creating lava-flows?? (G'wan... show off!! - you know you want to!)

Cheers,
Diolma

And no, I haven't searched for ways of doing this, 'cos it's not really that important to me, but it seems like a cool (errmmm.. hot???) thing to achieve..

Well here is how I took a stab at creating a lava flow for a picture I'm working on: 1. Create a mountain terrain and use a filter to give it a volcano profile 2. Create a small sphere 3. User Scatter/Replicate to produce 1000 small spheres with a rectangular region with no z distribution at all 4. With all the spheres selected I moved them over the terrain and rotated them to where I wanted the lava flow to be 5. Hit drop 6. Leave PC alone while it thinks about dropping 1000 spheres 7. With all the spheres selected hit metablob 8. Leave PC alone while it thinks about metablobing 1000 spheres 9. Select glowing lava material 10. Render

Wow!

cool thanks impish!!! i've never used that metablob thingy before!!!! i didn't manage lava but i made some breakfast!!! dunno why i served it on the floor though!!!!

Now I'm feeling hungry.

When Vue 5 had metablobs I wasn't certain what the point was but in the last month or so I've started to become a real fan.  If you use lots of small spheres you can get quite good liquid like effects.  One thing I realised only after writing the explanation was that if you are making a still image you can bake the metablob to polygons and it renders a lot faster and doesn't eat system resources like 1000 spheres do.

Anyway I need to get some lunch now.  Must resist walking into the greasy spoon by the sandwich shop 

IMPISH! That's a brilliant idea! 1000 spheres... - then drop 'em!!

(Aside - I had a farmer friend many years ago, he used to complain that his cows dropped a thousand blobs a day - but that's another story, and I don't want to put you off your breakfast :blink:)

I'd never thought of that approach at all. Hmmm - wonder if that could be used to create a bifurcating (yes, there is such a word - not sure of the spelling 'tho) lava stream..

And to think I didn't really expect any replies to this thread...

Cheers,
Diolma

Well this didn't come out bifurwhatsificated yet (as my geography teacher used to call it).  I based it on the shape of a real lava flow.  I think it needs more but smaller spheres in the metablob as the bifurcation has been lost with the blog creation...

Nice try, Mark:-)

I've been busy lately, so had no chance to follow-up with your ideas.

But I was wondering.. .. do you by any chance have V5I?
If so, my wondering (wandering?) thought was:
Create terrain. Create bitmap to control eco-system (along the paths that the lava should flow down). Populate bit-mapped controlled ecosystem with lots of spheres (I think you can do that - I'd have to experiment). (Somehow) select all the spheres & group them into a metablob...

Apply texture... I wonder if it would work...

I have a "free" day tomorrow. If I get the chance, I might try that out...

Cheers,
Diolma

Something like this diolma?

To make this I first looked at some maps of Bifurcated flows. I then drew a flow and used it to control the distribution of objects in an EcoSystem on a terrain model of a volcano.

I then used a new Python script, ecotoobject.py, to place cubes where there were instances in the EcoSystem. Next I textured the terrain that had the EcoSystem on in with a rock texture, destroying the instances at the same time. Selecting all the cubes I made them into a metablob and then baked that to a mesh to speed up rendering and reduce memory usage. Finally I applied a magma texture and rendered.

The Python script and image map are both up on my blog if anyone wants to get a copy...

• http://impworks.blogspot.com/2006/06/v5i-bifurcated-lava-flow.html
• http://impworks.blogspot.com/2006/06/v5i-ecosystem-to-objects-python-script.html

[Edited because the picture didn't appear]

:-))

Well done, impish!!
You are obviously far more dedicated than I am! I haven't ventured anywhere near Vue's Python yet (and I should do, 'cos I'm a programmer by profession). But I hope you enjoyed the little challenge anyway. It was just for fun..:-))

Cheers,
Diolma