NVil Forum

General Category => Feature Requests => Topic started by: Vaquero on February 27, 2013, 12:22:06 am

Title: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: Vaquero on February 27, 2013, 12:22:06 am
I see more and more apps implementing a material system sometimes referred to as matcaps (material captures). ZBrush uses it, Sculptris has it and the new 2.66 version of Blender has implmented in an early stage. To quikcly show what it's about:
http://youtu.be/P6q_cFtV1dU (http://youtu.be/P6q_cFtV1dU)
It's some kind of environment mapping/projection, but it doesn't use cubemaps. Instead it uses these simple png images, that display a sphere that is a little bit capped on the top, bottom and sides. I don't know how the pixels of the image are mapped to the normals, but I read that it's just a few lines of GLSL. Should be possible in DX, too. But I couldn't find specific information or don't know where to look for it. Well, Blender is open source, but I guess its code of this is only usable under an GNU license.
The advantage is, that you can quickly test your model in different lighting scenarios, because the lighting stems from the image. And if the matcap image is done well, you get some really nice looking material. There are alraedy tools and plugins for the creation of the matcap images.

It could be a nice diversion for some stressed developer, who's looking to once code something that is fun. ;)
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: polyxo on February 27, 2013, 04:18:58 pm
I support this wish and would even go further:
Matcaps in my opinion were the the only required materials for Nvil.

A simple concept - instant cool effect.
There's tons of free matcaps available - overlaying a diffuse colour over
the Matcap to influence its colour as done in Zbrush, controlling the alpha value
(transparency) - more was not required. No dealing with specularity and lights and
such - that all could happen after export, when actually rendering.

Yeah, sure, one needed to be able to display a simple diffuse texture or a Checker,
but I don't see the need for anything more complex.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: Passerby on February 27, 2013, 10:06:39 pm
I would love this for subd work since there are some nice matcaps from zb that are really good at showing off the edges on high poly work.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: mightypea on April 25, 2013, 05:12:40 pm
the only downside to matcaps when compared to cubemaps is that on lowpoly meshes the illusion falls apart. A matcap on a hard-edged cube will show only a single picture per face, which gets really distracting and noisy.

Mind you, no reason not to have both I suppose.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: Vaquero on May 02, 2013, 07:17:25 pm
I took another look at Matcaps in Blender. I don't know if I've seen the stuff, that you were talking about, mightypea, but I can now tell some disadvantages, too. Thus, it would be a really nice addition for the sake of its advantages, but another easy material system shouldn't be abandoned.

Matcaps can make really good looking materials with Subdivision Surfaces. The light rig, so to speak, is attached to the camera. That means, if you deal with a lowpoly mesh that is flat shaded and you change the camera position, the shading on the individual faces can change a lot. Or I guess it feels a bit unexpected in comparison to a static light setup. That's maybe what you meant by noisy? If I have a smooth shaded lowpoly mesh on the other hand, I get kind of like artifacts.
And yes, if you have a rather detailed Matcap, it feels strange that the environment is moving with the camera.

Still, smooth and rather homogeneous Matcaps with slight gradients look great on lowpoly meshes, too. Like Bob Ross used to say: "Just a little."
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: rubberDuck on February 02, 2014, 06:49:58 pm
Any chance this will happen?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: IStonia on November 30, 2017, 09:45:08 am
Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Nov-30-17.rar


  * View > Windows > MatCap Window.
  * Edit > Preference > General > Cube MatCap resolution.
  * View > Object Shading > Freeze MatCap Angle.
  * View > Object Shading > Object Individual Shading > Enable MatCap.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: rubberDuck on November 30, 2017, 03:09:20 pm
Nice! Thanks a lot!
Two problems that I noticed:
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/110xq8994toCIg0HCRql6OPw6wjzA5IRU/view?usp=sharing
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: kevjon on December 01, 2017, 08:28:32 am

  * View > Windows > MatCap Window.

I just get a blank dialog box with a blank input field.

What steps do you follow to show MatCap materials in the dialog box ?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: IStonia on December 01, 2017, 08:40:55 am
Nice! Thanks a lot!
Two problems that I noticed:
  • Object-level scaling affect MatCap scale on the transformed object. Scaling object's components doesn't cause this issue.
  • There's a visible MatCap pinching on the negative Z (world space) side of each object in the scene.
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/110xq8994toCIg0HCRql6OPw6wjzA5IRU/view?usp=sharing


Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Dec-01-17.rar

01. Fixed.
02. Cant fix it. You can use cube style matcap, or check the Freeze MatCap Angle option.




  * View > Windows > MatCap Window.

I just get a blank dialog box with a blank input field.
What steps do you follow to show MatCap materials in the dialog box ?

It has a right click context menu. Create a group first. Then populate the group.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: rubberDuck on December 01, 2017, 01:01:56 pm
Nice! Thanks a lot!
Two problems that I noticed:
  • Object-level scaling affect MatCap scale on the transformed object. Scaling object's components doesn't cause this issue.
  • There's a visible MatCap pinching on the negative Z (world space) side of each object in the scene.
Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/110xq8994toCIg0HCRql6OPw6wjzA5IRU/view?usp=sharing (https://drive.google.com/file/d/110xq8994toCIg0HCRql6OPw6wjzA5IRU/view?usp=sharing)


Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Dec-01-17.rar (http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Dec-01-17.rar)

01. Fixed.
02. Cant fix it. You can use cube style matcap, or check the Freeze MatCap Angle option.
Another problem is that MatCaps do not fully overwrite a material that the object currently uses, so if for example the object has a dark red material applied to it, MatCap will be tinted red and darkened. Can you perhaps add an option to ignore material settings when MatCap shading is enabled?

Also, would it be possible to enable drag-and-drop for MatCap window? So that we could simply drag our files there, directly from the file browser?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: rubberDuck on December 01, 2017, 05:37:52 pm
I can't stress it enough how I like this feature. Finally we can see how environment reflections look like on our objects which makes it even easier to find surface imperfections like bumps and pinching.

By the way, it would be awesome if it was possible to assign different MatCaps to different objects.
Considering the fact that the spherical MatCaps are very easy to create, using the same lighting conditions we could create the whole library of different MatCap materials for nice model representation in the viewport.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: kevjon on December 01, 2017, 08:37:17 pm
Hey RubberDuck

Can you describe how to create the matcap materials.

I don't understand how to do it.

I've created a group in the Matcap window, then what ?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: rubberDuck on December 01, 2017, 09:02:07 pm
Hey RubberDuck

Can you describe how to create the matcap materials.

I don't understand how to do it.

I've created a group in the Matcap window, then what ?
Hi Kevjon.
After creating a group, right click in the MatCap window again, choose New Sphere Map and select an image file containing a render of a lit sphere. Something like this for example:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=matcap&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2Foriginals%2F45%2F08%2Fcb%2F4508cbe6f026e5b7329ee2462216543a.jpg

Double-click the newly added MatCap to apply it to the scene or to selected object. Make sure you enabled MatCaps and that they are frozen using:
Quote
* View > Object Shading > Freeze MatCap Angle.
 * View > Object Shading > Object Individual Shading > Enable MatCap.

You can create your own MatCaps very easily in any DCC program by rendering a sphere. Just set up a camera, frame the sphere, add some material, lights and optionally a background.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: kevjon on December 01, 2017, 09:22:25 pm
Thanks,

What size would you typically render the sphere at 512 ? 1024 ? 2048 ?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: rubberDuck on December 01, 2017, 09:43:23 pm
Thanks,

What size would you typically render the sphere at 512 ? 1024 ? 2048 ?
Usually at 512 px2.
Actually, I just opened my scene for rendering  MatCaps and I see that the camera is set to 256px2.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: IStonia on December 02, 2017, 12:28:27 pm
Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Dec-02-17.rar

* File drag-drop is done.
* Matcap can be assigned globally or to individual object. Cube matcap can only be assigned globally. When assigning to object, the object will be set Matcap Enabled automatically.

Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: kevjon on December 02, 2017, 08:45:51 pm

Actually, I just opened my scene for rendering  MatCaps and I see that the camera is set to 256px2.

Ok, thanks !
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: IStonia on December 03, 2017, 12:25:55 pm
Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Dec-03-17.rar

Some bug fixed which may occur if multiple matcap groups are created.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: Woolfy on December 06, 2017, 09:23:06 am
Its just amazing ! Its just increase the preview quality by 3x. Thanks!
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: mkdm on December 06, 2017, 11:19:38 am
Try this
http://www.digitalfossils.com/Download/NVil-Dec-03-17.rar

Some bug fixed which may occur if multiple matcap groups are created.

WOW!!!!

Thanks a lot Istonia!!

You rock :)

Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: Woolfy on December 06, 2017, 01:06:21 pm
One thing i noticed, if i split object by using

Common Modeling Shortcut Tools>> Split

Splitted object looses the matcap and switch to normal material.

workaround in the moment:  Turn on/off "Rendering Options>> Enable MatCap"

I use in the moment "NVil-Dec-03-17"..
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: samardac on January 16, 2018, 10:46:14 am
Hay, what is the algorythm of usig it?
What I have to do, first, second, etc...?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: IStonia on January 16, 2018, 11:11:10 am
It is somehow complicated. Try this

1. Download some sphere images from this google 'MatCap' search result.
https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=matcap&rlz=1T4ADRA_enNZ383NZ387&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=tJXG4BAQxt-luM%253A%252Csh0qq1Ebvxh3tM%252C_&usg=__OydEbVxpLJ8HTzMnQnjNQpZGmTo%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjd8IGTqdzYAhXIXLwKHS0JBVQQ9QEIVDAJ#imgrc=tJXG4BAQxt-luM:

2. View > Windows > MatCap Window.

3. Right click > New Group.

4. Right click > New Sphere Mat > load the images you downloaded. Or just drag the image files into MatCap Window.

5. LMB drag matcap material from MatCap Window into scene object to assign.

6. Ctrl + LMB drag any matcap material from MatCap Window into scene object to unassign.

Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: samardac on January 17, 2018, 01:09:41 pm
Thanks, how Global MatCap works?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: IStonia on January 17, 2018, 01:15:22 pm
The Global MatCap is a scene level matcap. Once it is set, an object will use it as long as the object's this flag is turned on, View > Object Shading > Object Individual Shading > Enable MatCap, and no individual matcap is assigned to the object.
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: samardac on January 17, 2018, 02:27:15 pm
So what is the case when we have to use it?
Title: Re: "MatCaps" Materials
Post by: IStonia on January 18, 2018, 01:02:31 am
I don't know. You may never want to assign a sphere matcap as global matcap.

Cube matcap can only be assigned as global matcap before it can be used that means it can not be assigned to individual object. Cube matcap has 360 degrees ability while sphere matcap only has one direction. But cube matcap has some disadvantages. It needs 6 images which are not commonly available. If you increase its resolution, viewport performance can drop quickly.