Gradient generation through curves.. how?

kodde

Hey guys,

I am working on a shader that will have a warped diffuse features using a bitmap, like for instance the TF2 shading. Now here's my question.What tool would you use to generate the gradient bitmaps? The photoshop gradient tool is all linear as far as I know, which is utterly yuk.

So far I have been using Maya and doing some really funky things to get the kind of control I want. I want curves with bezier handles to generate my gradients.

Does anyone have any good advice? Any cool software/plugin recommendations?

I'm using Maya and Photoshop as my main tools.

Thanks

arrangemonk

you can define your gardients by painting them...

Neox

arrangemonk wrote: »

you can define your gardients by painting them...

yep thats it

Michael Knubben

Curves with bezier handles for gradients? That's what a gradient mesh does ink Adobe Illustrator!
Not that I would recommend Illustrator for normal gradients, though >__>
I believe they only (finally!) added a way to change gradients live on-canvas without just redrawing them.

kodde

I had a similar thread going earlier so here's a picture.


In my mind I figured this was the way to go to get these smooth transitioning curves. Now that I think about it I kind of like doing it in Maya since I can see the result on a mesh immediately.

MightyPea> I might have a look at illustrator then. Thanks.

pior

Photoshop's gradients are linear ... but can have as many handles and color transitions as you want, and also let you define the mid transition location just any way you want!

kodde

Pior> Yes I am aware of this, but I'm also a perfectionist by heart and I like what I'm able to do in my screenshot there. I just want less steps of generating a 2D bitmap than what I'm doing in Maya now. If I could choose I'd want a Extended Gradient Tool plugin for Photoshop with more control, like curve handles. It might be that I am alone in thinking that curves would be the way to go. Illustrator seems like the best so far.

Thanks though.

multivac

If you want to create color ramps in photoshop,just create a linear gradient and modify it with adjust-curves.
You can also modify the curves of a screenshot of your model,save them as preset and apply on the colorramp.

Mark Dygert

Sounds like you're looking for something like 3dsmax's Output gradient ramp?

kodde

multivac wrote: »

If you want to create color ramps in photoshop,just create a linear gradient and modify it with adjust-curves.
You can also modify the curves of a screenshot of your model,save them as preset and apply on the colorramp.

You mean as in Adjustment > Curves?
This won't be a substitute for what I'm looking for. I want the kind of tweakability as shown on my linked screenshots and like Vig is showing in his image above.

Vig> Yes that's it. I'm doing a similar thing in Maya by generating an animation curve, detaching it and connecting it in a shading network. But it's quite a hassle doing all this and rendering it in order to create a 2D bitmap in the end. I want that feature you have in your screenshot in a 2D application, like photoshop for instance.

hijak

might seem obvious but have you tried the ramp shaders and ramp texture in maya. I believe the ramp shader can use beizer curves when you expand the curve windows. Then you could just batch bake to render it to texture. Just a thought.

kodde

Ah, never occured to try the ramp shader. I'm so used to using the regular 2D Texture Ramp. Unfortunately the Ramp Shader doesn't seem to have bezier handles. Not that I can find anyway...

You can expand it as you mention, but that just gives you a new window with a bigger view of the ramp. It's still the same functionality as the regular 2D Texture Ramp.

viktore

Did you find a solution for this?
I know this is an old thread, but I would love to be able to use curves to control gradients, much like the falloff map in 3ds max.