Random Walkers

Mushroom Asset Development - Renders : Shaders

Mushroom Asset Development - Renders : GI

Initial mushroom renders.
Fairly basic light setup and the mantra surface shader.

Multiple camera renders:

Multiple object level copies of the mushroom asset, posed in world space simply for the purposes of render testing

Same again with addition of DOF

Mushroom Gills - Radial Sorting

If you've ever needed to sort in a radial fashion, see below to find out how.

I've come against this problem countless times. It's come up again while creating the mushroom gills, so I thought it would be good to share the solution I've come up with.

The idea came when I was thinking about the angular gradient as a way to do radial sorting, I recalled the underlying formula for the angular gradient (shown below).

angularGradient = atan2($TX, $TZ) / 2 * $PI

Above you'll notice the $TX and $TZ, that will give us a circular / angular gradient about the Y Axis. Changing those position variables will give results about the other axis.

I might try to implement a VOP version which uses textures to do sorting in a similar way, be very handy to have a visual way to sort attributes.

Mushroom Asset Development - Sketching

Sketching 

Helps me to get a better idea of what I'm creating, also how to create it.
I guess some sketching can be classed to be more about the style, how it's going to look and move, for example. On the other hand, this definitely applies in the case of asset development, it's me undergoing a process of dissecting, breaking down the elements.

Mushroom Asset Development - Objects and Parameters List

Starting to compile a list of objects and parameters used to develop the mushroom asset.

Mushroom Object / Main Parts

• Cap
• Gills
• Gill Cover / Ring
• Stem
• Stem Base / Volva

• etc...

Parameters

• Position
• Growth Time
• Height

• Cap Shape / Ramp -or- Other
• Cap Shape Growth / Morph - Blend

• Gill Count
• Gill Shape Growth
• Gill Cover Decay - Peel / Morph

• Stem X-Section Shape / Ramp
• Stem Noise
• Stem Bend

• etc...

Mushroom Asset Development - Reference Material

The following posts will document my process in developing a mushroom asset in Houdini.

Reference Images - Videos

Just a few I've found on the web. I've heaps more images - photos, for stylistic and technical purposes stored locally that I'll refer to as I go. I'll probably share some of the more influential ones, that I feel are helpful at certain stages of, modeling / building, shading, rendering.