0:00:00.066,0:00:02.456 >> Hello and welcome, everyone,[br]to another video. 0:00:02.626,0:00:06.886 Recently, I have created this Dragon[br]Ball Z aura type effect in Blender. 0:00:06.886,0:00:08.996 And today, I'm going to show you[br]how you can make it yourself. 0:00:09.136,0:00:12.316 Of course, as most of my videos,[br]this effect is fully procedural. 0:00:12.316,0:00:15.656 So, if you don't like something about[br]it or you just have your own vision, 0:00:15.726,0:00:19.826 then chances are you can just adjust the values[br]that I will show you later and make it your own. 0:00:20.136,0:00:23.876 So, again, as in every video, if you managed[br]to make something out of it or use it 0:00:23.876,0:00:26.246 in some scene, I would really[br]love to see your creation, 0:00:26.246,0:00:28.466 so make sure to share with me on Twitter. 0:00:28.466,0:00:29.766 Link for that is in the description. 0:00:29.766,0:00:31.926 And now, let's just jump right into Blender. 0:00:32.096,0:00:36.016 So, first of all, we will delete everything[br]and we will start with a mesh sphere. 0:00:36.016,0:00:40.156 And for those of you that watched my[br]recent tutorial about the fire effect, 0:00:40.156,0:00:42.506 the beginning is going to be very, very similar. 0:00:42.506,0:00:44.816 So, you may just skip to[br]the shader creation part. 0:00:44.816,0:00:48.106 And for those of you that are new,[br]we will start by going into modifiers 0:00:48.106,0:00:53.386 and add a subdivision surface modifier as[br]first one, then a normal edit modifier, 0:00:53.386,0:00:55.766 and as last we will add a displace modifier. 0:00:55.846,0:00:57.976 So, your stack should look something like this. 0:00:58.006,0:01:02.026 The next step, we will create an[br]empty and put it below ours here. 0:01:02.136,0:01:05.386 Let's also name it "normal[br]controller" because we will use it 0:01:05.386,0:01:07.746 to control the normals of our sphere. 0:01:07.846,0:01:11.156 It may not make a lot of sense[br]right now, but just bear with me 0:01:11.156,0:01:14.106 and you should soon see visually[br]what I'm talking about. 0:01:14.166,0:01:18.346 So, now, let's go into the displace modifier[br]and click "new" to get a new texture. 0:01:18.346,0:01:21.656 And go down to the texture tab[br]and change the type to clouds. 0:01:21.766,0:01:25.536 Now, back in the modifier stack in[br]the normal edit, the target is going 0:01:25.536,0:01:28.466 to be the normal controller,[br]so the empty we created. 0:01:28.466,0:01:32.196 And then, open up mix and change[br]the mix mode from copy to add. 0:01:32.196,0:01:35.966 You may also notice that we have this[br]warning that tells us to enable auto smooth 0:01:35.966,0:01:38.416 for this modifier to work,[br]so we'll do just that. 0:01:38.416,0:01:42.076 Go to the object data properties,[br]normals, and enable auto smooth. 0:01:42.076,0:01:43.566 Now, as you can see, not much happened. 0:01:43.726,0:01:47.386 But as you move this empty around, it may[br]look like we are moving a light source, 0:01:47.386,0:01:50.866 and that is because we are actually[br]editing the normals of our mesh, 0:01:50.936,0:01:54.776 which also means we can use these[br]custom normals in our displace modifier 0:01:54.776,0:01:56.496 to displace it only where we want to. 0:01:56.496,0:01:59.686 So, in the displace modifier,[br]change the direction from normal 0:01:59.686,0:02:01.766 to custom normal, so the one we edit. 0:02:01.766,0:02:05.566 And now as you move the empty, you can see[br]that the mesh is being displaced according 0:02:05.566,0:02:08.266 to the custom normal that[br]we are editing in real time. 0:02:08.356,0:02:09.376 So, let's keep it under. 0:02:09.376,0:02:11.446 And now, in order to have further control 0:02:11.446,0:02:14.156 over the displacement itself,[br]we will create another empty. 0:02:14.206,0:02:15.306 So, again, empty. 0:02:15.306,0:02:18.496 Plain access is fine or any[br]other will do just fine. 0:02:18.496,0:02:21.626 And this one we will call a displace controller. 0:02:21.626,0:02:24.226 Now, back in our sphere in[br]the displace modifier, 0:02:24.256,0:02:26.426 change coordinates from local to object. 0:02:26.426,0:02:29.756 And the object is going to be the[br]displace controller that we created. 0:02:29.756,0:02:34.436 This way, we can easily control the[br]displace texture by simply scaling our empty. 0:02:34.436,0:02:38.416 Also, moving it around is going to phase[br]through the three-dimensional texture. 0:02:38.516,0:02:43.976 Now, with this basic setup, let's make our aura[br]look like an aura, so sort of an egg shape. 0:02:44.096,0:02:46.046 We can just pick the top vertex. 0:02:46.046,0:02:50.706 And with the proportional editing enabled, we[br]can see simply move it up and just adjust it. 0:02:50.706,0:02:54.226 Just make it look like a sort[br]of egg or a droplet of water. 0:02:54.226,0:02:56.086 And then when you get out of the edit mode, 0:02:56.086,0:02:58.546 you can see that it resembles[br]aura a little bit more. 0:02:58.686,0:03:02.006 Now, one thing to pay attention to is[br]when you go back into the edit mode, 0:03:02.006,0:03:06.476 you can see that the density of the vertices[br]is much higher down here than it is up here, 0:03:06.476,0:03:09.226 so it is a good practice to sort of even it out. 0:03:09.226,0:03:14.406 So, feel free to just add some loop cuts in the[br]middle to sort of have a uniform or at least 0:03:14.406,0:03:17.116 around a uniform across the whole surface. 0:03:17.196,0:03:21.806 So, with that done, right-click shade[br]smooth so we have a nice smooth sort 0:03:21.806,0:03:24.616 of bush looking mesh, which is perfectly fine. 0:03:24.796,0:03:27.796 Don't worry too much about the[br]displacement and the values so far 0:03:27.796,0:03:30.256 yet because we can always[br]adjust it later down the road. 0:03:30.256,0:03:32.496 And now, let's just focus[br]on the material itself. 0:03:32.496,0:03:35.396 So, let's get a new window,[br]change it to shader editor, 0:03:35.396,0:03:37.246 and click "new" to create a new material. 0:03:37.246,0:03:42.936 We can delete the principled BDSF and get an[br]emission shader node as well as transparent BDSF 0:03:42.936,0:03:45.536 and also a mix shader connected like so, 0:03:45.536,0:03:47.846 the transparent on top and[br]the emission on the bottom. 0:03:47.846,0:03:52.736 And now, let's add a Fresnel node[br]as well as layer weight node. 0:03:52.736,0:03:55.686 Now, let's also go into the render[br]preview so we see what we're doing. 0:03:55.746,0:04:00.306 And as we preview the Fresnel node, the[br]preview is control-shift left mouse button, 0:04:00.306,0:04:02.386 but you have to have a node wrangler enabled. 0:04:02.386,0:04:05.566 For those of you wondering, it's[br]under edit, preferences, add-ons. 0:04:05.626,0:04:09.186 And by default, it should be in Blender[br]already, so just make sure it's enabled. 0:04:09.266,0:04:14.486 So, the Fresnel node as you see gives us this[br]really, really nice effect where only the edges 0:04:14.486,0:04:18.946 of the mesh is highlighted, which is going to[br]play perfectly into what we are trying to do. 0:04:18.946,0:04:21.816 So, right after Fresnel node,[br]let's add a color ramp. 0:04:22.016,0:04:24.306 And here, we can already[br]start laying in some colors. 0:04:24.406,0:04:27.306 First of all, let's change the[br]interpolation from linear to constant 0:04:27.306,0:04:31.476 so that we don't have any gradient, but rather[br]sharp contrasty look between the colors. 0:04:31.476,0:04:36.506 And now, let's start with the darkest being[br]sort of reddish, maybe something like this. 0:04:36.596,0:04:41.726 Then, the next one, we will go through[br]orange then to yellow and the last one sort 0:04:41.726,0:04:43.976 of washed out yellow going into the white. 0:04:44.276,0:04:46.916 Now, we can adjust it as it is[br]right now or you can do it later. 0:04:46.916,0:04:52.076 Just make sure it looks something like that,[br]it gradually goes from darkest to the lightest 0:04:52.076,0:04:55.636 in the edges poking out of the mesh,[br]but don't worry about it too much. 0:04:55.636,0:04:56.936 We can always come back to it later. 0:04:57.066,0:05:00.016 And this color ramp is going[br]straight into the emission node. 0:05:00.016,0:05:03.046 Now, as we preview the mix shader,[br]you can see that we have just that 0:05:03.046,0:05:06.846 and we don't have any transparency yet, and[br]that is because first of all we need to go 0:05:06.846,0:05:11.226 into the material properties and in blend[br]mode enable alpha blend instead of opaque. 0:05:11.226,0:05:13.756 And the second thing, let's[br]also enable backface culling. 0:05:13.756,0:05:18.046 Now, as you see, everything is sort of half[br]transparent because this mix shader is now set 0:05:18.046,0:05:21.206 to being half transparent[br]BDSF and half emission. 0:05:21.266,0:05:23.986 So, what we need to do is we[br]need to get an alpha mask. 0:05:23.986,0:05:25.906 And for this, we will use[br]this layer weight node. 0:05:25.906,0:05:30.136 So, let's get another color ramp and[br]connect facing into the color ramp. 0:05:30.136,0:05:30.936 And let's preview this. 0:05:31.046,0:05:33.836 Here, we can change the interpolation[br]from linear to B-spline 0:05:33.836,0:05:36.626 to get a much softer gradient than with linear. 0:05:36.626,0:05:39.626 And also, let's bring in[br]the black value quite high. 0:05:39.746,0:05:44.366 And the white one, just slightly[br]move it from the edge to like 0.9. 0:05:44.436,0:05:49.266 Now, let's duplicate this color ramp and this[br]time connect it with Fresnel from layer weight. 0:05:49.266,0:05:52.296 And as you preview this one, it[br]has slightly different result. 0:05:52.696,0:05:57.506 You can see that the facing has more[br]of that gradient going into our aura 0:05:57.506,0:06:00.666 and Fresnel only really highlights[br]the very edges. 0:06:00.716,0:06:04.116 So, here, we can actually dial[br]back this black value a little bit 0:06:04.176,0:06:05.636 to have that gradient as well. 0:06:05.636,0:06:08.046 And now, we just need to[br]combine these two color ramps. 0:06:08.136,0:06:11.826 So, let's get a math node, connect[br]both of them together, leave it at add. 0:06:11.826,0:06:12.666 Let's preview that. 0:06:12.926,0:06:16.456 And the only thing you need to do[br]is enable clamp just to make sure 0:06:16.456,0:06:20.046 that the white values do not exceed[br]one because this will go directly 0:06:20.046,0:06:24.806 into the mix shader factor, and so everything[br]of value one is going to be fully opaque 0:06:24.806,0:06:26.866 and the black values are[br]going to be transparent. 0:06:26.866,0:06:31.056 So, as we preview this, we can see that we[br]already have something going on in here. 0:06:31.156,0:06:34.086 Now, make sure that the backface culling[br]is on because if you turn it off, 0:06:34.086,0:06:36.016 then you see that we have some sort of artifact. 0:06:36.486,0:06:38.296 Not sure why it happens, but it does. 0:06:38.376,0:06:40.136 So, just make sure it's checked in. 0:06:40.476,0:06:44.866 And here, we can adjust the color ramp values[br]just to make sure that our colors are popping 0:06:44.866,0:06:48.826 in nicely and they are not too faded, but[br]also that we still have this nice gradient. 0:06:48.956,0:06:51.226 Also, if this mesh is pretty spiky, 0:06:51.226,0:06:55.386 remember that in the modifier stack we added[br]a subdivision modifier at the beginning, 0:06:55.466,0:07:00.226 so we can up the levels of subdivision and[br]this should give you a lot more geometry 0:07:00.366,0:07:03.316 to work with, which should also make[br]the gradient a little bit smooth. 0:07:03.316,0:07:07.596 And then as you see in my case, I have[br]very noisy displacement going on right now 0:07:07.666,0:07:11.636 and that is why we have this displace controller[br]in here so we can easily just scale it 0:07:11.636,0:07:14.706 up a little bit in order[br]to get much softer results. 0:07:14.766,0:07:19.376 Now, because it's an aura and it's supposed[br]to be glowing, we can up the emission strength 0:07:19.376,0:07:21.236 in here to something like maybe 10. 0:07:21.786,0:07:26.096 And if you don't have this glow going[br]around your mesh, just make sure that you go 0:07:26.096,0:07:28.486 into the render settings[br]and you have a bloom enabled 0:07:28.486,0:07:31.786 because that's the setting that's[br]allowing your emissive areas to glow. 0:07:31.956,0:07:35.616 Now, as you can see, we have very cell[br]shaded sort of stylized look of the aura. 0:07:35.616,0:07:39.036 And if you want to have it more[br]gradual, I would say blurry or smooth, 0:07:39.156,0:07:42.526 you can go into this color ramp that[br]is dealing with the color of your aura 0:07:42.776,0:07:45.886 and just change the interpolation[br]from constant to whatever you like. 0:07:46.116,0:07:48.226 I would recommend B-spline[br]because it gives this really, 0:07:48.226,0:07:51.966 really nice soft gradient[br]between the values that we have. 0:07:53.686,0:07:56.136 So, as I said, just an artistic[br]choice for you to make. 0:07:56.366,0:07:59.176 And now, to put a little bit[br]more life into this whole effect, 0:07:59.236,0:08:03.586 we can take the displace controller and[br]just animate it going up because as you see 0:08:03.586,0:08:07.526 with the displace controller, the texture that[br]is displacing the mesh is going up as well. 0:08:07.646,0:08:11.676 So, on the frame one in his base[br]position, I'll just click "I" 0:08:11.876,0:08:14.546 and add a location keyframe to the first frame. 0:08:14.546,0:08:19.406 And then on let's say frame 20th, I will[br]move it upwards and then click "I" again 0:08:19.406,0:08:21.126 and add another keyframe location. 0:08:21.126,0:08:24.806 And now, if we play this, you can[br]see that it's moving from 1 to 20, 0:08:24.806,0:08:29.366 but what we can also do is change the[br]interpolation to linear by clicking "T" 0:08:29.366,0:08:34.266 on the keyboard and choosing linear and then[br]shift-E and choose linear extrapolation. 0:08:34.386,0:08:36.836 And this will take these two keyframes and based 0:08:36.836,0:08:40.536 on them it will extrapolate this[br]animation further so that we don't need 0:08:40.536,0:08:45.126 to have the keyframe all the way up there in[br]order to have this animation going infinitely. 0:08:45.126,0:08:47.176 And then if you want this[br]to go faster or slower, 0:08:47.256,0:08:51.816 you just move this second keyframe further[br]or crunch it in closer to the first keyframe 0:08:51.816,0:08:53.886 to have it really, really frantic. 0:08:53.886,0:08:56.316 I like the slower one, so I'll[br]put it somewhere around here. 0:08:56.446,0:09:00.776 So, with this flamy color done, the[br]next step is to add those bluish sparks 0:09:00.776,0:09:02.746 that are moving through the whole aura. 0:09:02.806,0:09:06.516 I'm talking about those blue sparks that[br]you can see appearing and disappearing. 0:09:06.516,0:09:10.026 So, for that first of all we will[br]duplicate this color ramp with the colors 0:09:10.026,0:09:12.236 and connect the Fresnel node to it as well. 0:09:12.236,0:09:13.236 And let's preview it up. 0:09:13.236,0:09:18.256 And here, we want to change the color scheme[br]from this orangey yellowy flamy looking one 0:09:18.256,0:09:20.736 into the bluish sort of sparky colors. 0:09:20.766,0:09:25.196 So, we will just go through all those color[br]stops and just move it into the blue areas. 0:09:25.396,0:09:29.746 So, this one here, this one maybe a little[br]bit like this, this one much, much brighter, 0:09:29.876,0:09:33.596 and then the last one going[br]into almost whitish just to have 0:09:33.596,0:09:36.206 that little oomph at the at the very edge. 0:09:36.236,0:09:39.646 Now, if we preview this blue spark[br]color by plugging it into the emission, 0:09:39.646,0:09:44.816 you can see that it looks nice, but looks[br]much better if its interpolation is changed 0:09:44.816,0:09:48.606 to constant because electricity[br]usually is quite harsh and jagged. 0:09:48.756,0:09:50.056 So, I would recommend this. 0:09:50.056,0:09:51.306 But again, your choice. 0:09:51.356,0:09:55.136 So, let's move back the flamy[br]boy into emission as a default. 0:09:55.136,0:09:58.306 And then, we want this blue[br]one only to appear in waves. 0:09:58.306,0:10:00.736 So, let's start by adding a wave texture. 0:10:00.776,0:10:05.286 And then again, if you have the node wrangler[br]enabled with the node selected, click control-T. 0:10:05.436,0:10:09.636 To get a mapping and texture coordinates[br]node, change it from generated to object. 0:10:09.636,0:10:13.096 And then as you preview this, you can see[br]that now the waves are going vertically. 0:10:13.226,0:10:18.386 So, we will need to rotate it on the y-axis by[br]90 degrees and also change the scale all the way 0:10:18.386,0:10:21.976 down to something like 0.7 so[br]we have those waves quite big. 0:10:22.086,0:10:24.786 The next step is to animate the phase offset. 0:10:24.786,0:10:28.266 As you can see, we have the single value[br]that can control the waves going up. 0:10:28.456,0:10:33.116 So, we will simply type in here hashtag frame,[br]which is going to change it into a driver. 0:10:33.116,0:10:35.256 And then, we can divide it by let's say two. 0:10:35.256,0:10:38.966 And as we play the animation, you can see[br]that these waves are moving downwards. 0:10:39.016,0:10:42.896 So, in order to change the direction,[br]we just need to put a minus sign before. 0:10:43.006,0:10:44.016 Now, it's moving upwards. 0:10:44.016,0:10:47.946 And if it's moving too slow, you can[br]just change the frame divided by 2 0:10:47.946,0:10:51.226 to like frame divided by 0.5, whatever you like. 0:10:51.226,0:10:55.326 I will have it at 0.8 because I found[br]this value to work great for me. 0:10:55.326,0:10:57.406 And then in order to refine this gradient, 0:10:57.406,0:11:00.686 we will get another color ramp[br]right after the wave texture. 0:11:00.766,0:11:05.226 And this time, we will change it to B-spline[br]again so we have much, much softer gradient 0:11:05.226,0:11:09.016 and move the black value all the way in[br]and the white value just a little bit 0:11:09.016,0:11:13.516 so that we have this really, really[br]white value in here, then the gradient, 0:11:13.516,0:11:16.606 and then the black values in here,[br]which is exactly what we're looking for. 0:11:16.686,0:11:19.206 Now, in order to give a little[br]bit more variation to this, 0:11:19.206,0:11:22.186 we can increase the distortion,[br]the detail scale in order 0:11:22.186,0:11:24.626 to just give it a little bit of irregularities. 0:11:24.776,0:11:30.086 Now that we have this wave texture already[br]done, we will need a mix RGB in order to change 0:11:30.086,0:11:33.146 between the yellow and the[br]blue based on this mask. 0:11:33.246,0:11:38.646 So, this mask goes into the factor, and then[br]the yellow one goes into the color one input 0:11:38.646,0:11:40.516 and the blue into the color two input, 0:11:40.516,0:11:43.696 and the output of the mix RGB[br]goes straight into the emission. 0:11:43.786,0:11:46.796 Now, as we preview the mix[br]shader, so our finer material, 0:11:46.796,0:11:50.786 you can see that we have this[br]nice sort of sparky wave going 0:11:50.786,0:11:52.986 from the bottom to the top of the whole effect. 0:11:52.986,0:11:55.976 But right now, it's visible[br]all the time and I just feel 0:11:55.976,0:11:57.726 like it's much better when it's blinking. 0:11:57.726,0:12:00.596 So, we will need a couple more[br]nodes in order to achieve that. 0:12:00.656,0:12:05.046 The first one will be a math node[br]changed from add to ping-pong. 0:12:05.366,0:12:11.056 So, in order for us to have a blinking mask, we[br]need to type in hashtag frame, again a driver. 0:12:11.056,0:12:15.126 And then depending on how fast we want it[br]to blink, we can divide it by some number. 0:12:15.296,0:12:18.766 I will leave it at divided by 2[br]because I want it to blink quite fast. 0:12:18.766,0:12:23.216 And now, a disclaimer for those of you that[br]may have problem with fast blinking images 0:12:23.216,0:12:27.866 or epilepsy, just maybe skip this part because[br]I'm going to preview it and it's just going 0:12:27.866,0:12:29.976 to blink black and white, so be prepared. 0:12:30.086,0:12:32.136 So, as you can see, it's blinking right now. 0:12:32.416,0:12:35.466 And if it's too fast, too slow,[br]again, you can adjust the driver. 0:12:35.466,0:12:39.476 And one more thing we can do is right now as[br]you can see as we scroll through the animation, 0:12:39.476,0:12:44.176 it goes from black to gray and only then through[br]white, and we want to skip the gray values. 0:12:44.176,0:12:47.716 We only want zero and one, so[br]like invisible and visible. 0:12:47.716,0:12:51.216 And for that, we will need another math[br]node connected right after ping-pong 0:12:51.216,0:12:56.286 and this time change the add to snap, and this[br]will snap to whatever value we have in here. 0:12:56.286,0:13:01.666 So, I will put in one so it snaps to every[br]round number without anything after comma. 0:13:01.756,0:13:03.646 Again, disclaimer, flashing images. 0:13:03.696,0:13:08.386 As you preview this, you have a[br]clear zero to one mask flashing. 0:13:08.386,0:13:11.466 So, we move this a little bit[br]further, get another math node. 0:13:11.626,0:13:16.616 And this time, it's going to be a multiply,[br]and we want to multiply the result of the snap 0:13:16.796,0:13:19.156 with the color ramp going from our wave texture. 0:13:19.306,0:13:22.046 So, if we preview that, we[br]have the same blinking thing, 0:13:22.156,0:13:25.366 but this time it's the waves[br]that are blinking upwards. 0:13:25.416,0:13:27.846 And this goes into the mix RGB factor. 0:13:28.026,0:13:32.786 Now, as we preview everything, you should have[br]these really blue sparks only visible every now 0:13:32.786,0:13:34.726 and then depending on how fast it's blinking. 0:13:34.726,0:13:37.946 And I just feel like it looks so much[br]better than when it's always visible. 0:13:38.076,0:13:41.666 You can of course adjust the size of[br]the waves and the scale of it all, 0:13:41.666,0:13:44.726 so like the scale of the wave[br]texture, in order to have less 0:13:44.846,0:13:47.356 or more of the sparks going at the same time. 0:13:47.446,0:13:48.576 Again, all up to you. 0:13:48.856,0:13:50.736 I'll maybe change it to like 0.4. 0:13:50.826,0:13:54.676 And yeah, now is the time to sort of[br]adjust all the values that you want. 0:13:54.676,0:13:55.776 And just small tip. 0:13:55.906,0:13:59.966 It's better if your background is much,[br]much darker than this grayish value. 0:14:00.166,0:14:02.716 Then, everything that's happening[br]is just more visible. 0:14:02.716,0:14:06.656 So, I would recommend just go into the world[br]settings, change the color to something -- 0:14:06.656,0:14:09.536 I don't know -- maybe bluish and[br]then get the value all the way 0:14:09.536,0:14:12.196 down to almost like black, but not quite. 0:14:12.196,0:14:14.006 And then, you see what's really going on. 0:14:14.066,0:14:16.816 So, again, all the values that we[br]went through, all the color ramps, 0:14:16.876,0:14:18.896 just feel free to adjust them as you wish. 0:14:18.896,0:14:20.386 I think I will leave it as it is. 0:14:20.426,0:14:23.846 Now, as you can see, the difference[br]is that my frame rate here is much, 0:14:23.846,0:14:26.086 much higher than in the presentation video. 0:14:26.086,0:14:32.136 And that is because I just like this 12 FPS[br]sort of look that I have had in this scene, 0:14:32.136,0:14:36.176 and you can easily have that as well[br]just going into the render settings 0:14:36.176,0:14:40.176 and change the frame rate from 24[br]to custom and then just type in 12. 0:14:40.236,0:14:45.286 But then again, the whole speed of your[br]animation, speed of your displace controller, 0:14:45.506,0:14:48.776 everything has to be adjusted based on[br]the frame rate that you choose to have. 0:14:48.876,0:14:52.246 So, for this tutorial, I will just[br]use 30 to have smooth-looking thing, 0:14:52.366,0:14:54.686 but just know that it's a possibility in order 0:14:54.686,0:14:57.026 to achieve a totally different[br]look to the whole thing. 0:14:57.026,0:15:00.086 So, now, the last thing to do[br]is the stones, the particles, 0:15:00.126,0:15:01.806 and that is done with the particle system. 0:15:01.896,0:15:04.446 So, we can just shift a mesh plane 0:15:04.446,0:15:08.026 to have a particle emitter on[br]the bottom of the whole aura. 0:15:08.106,0:15:09.906 And we can also name it "emitter." 0:15:09.906,0:15:11.886 And then, we need just a couple of stones. 0:15:11.886,0:15:14.976 And I just simply took mesh rock generator. 0:15:14.976,0:15:18.116 I believe you need to have an[br]add-on enabled for that as well, 0:15:18.116,0:15:21.556 which is I think extra object,[br]add mesh extra object. 0:15:21.616,0:15:24.546 So, make sure it's enabled or you can[br]just create any rock that you want. 0:15:24.546,0:15:27.116 I just found that this method is so much faster. 0:15:27.116,0:15:30.956 You just generate a rock, you go into[br]the modifier stack, apply all of them, 0:15:30.956,0:15:34.106 and then add a decimate modifier[br]and just go all the way 0:15:34.106,0:15:36.286 down until you have like a low poly version. 0:15:36.286,0:15:39.396 In order to see the faces better,[br]you just right-click shade flat 0:15:39.396,0:15:42.226 and then bring it all the way[br]down and then apply the decimate. 0:15:42.226,0:15:47.526 And you can just generate a few rocks like that,[br]decimate all the way down shade flat and done. 0:15:47.606,0:15:51.596 So, when you have your rock collection, I don't[br]know how many different variations you want, 0:15:51.596,0:15:54.846 just select both of them, click[br]"M" and choose "new collection." 0:15:54.926,0:15:58.816 Name them "rocks" or something like that and[br]this should create a new collection for you. 0:15:58.816,0:16:03.156 And now in our particle emitter in this[br]plane, we can create a particle system 0:16:03.156,0:16:06.876 and under render change the[br]render as from halo to collection 0:16:06.956,0:16:09.206 and the collection being[br]rocks that we just created. 0:16:09.276,0:16:12.576 We can change the scale also to[br]one so we see what's going on. 0:16:12.576,0:16:14.976 And as you click "play," you[br]can see we have our rocks. 0:16:15.216,0:16:18.506 Now, first of all, of course,[br]let's increase the scale randomness 0:16:18.616,0:16:20.816 so we have a variation with the scale. 0:16:20.896,0:16:24.956 Let's choose the frame start to be[br]like minus 50 so we have a little bit 0:16:24.956,0:16:27.436 of pre-warn before the whole animation starts. 0:16:27.496,0:16:32.446 The end also 250 so it encompasses the whole[br]animation frame that we have right here. 0:16:32.446,0:16:34.836 And now, first of all, obviously,[br]the rocks are falling. 0:16:34.836,0:16:35.936 We don't want them to fall. 0:16:35.936,0:16:39.986 All the way down into field weights and[br]turn down the gravity all the way to zero. 0:16:40.036,0:16:44.356 This will make our particles go up, but[br]in very uniform and not pleasing way. 0:16:44.356,0:16:48.896 So, first of all, let's decrease the number[br]to like something more sensible, maybe 100. 0:16:48.896,0:16:55.116 And then under the velocity tab, let's add an[br]object aligned z velocity 1 meter per second. 0:16:55.116,0:16:59.646 And then under randomize, let's increase[br]it to something like one so we can see 0:16:59.646,0:17:04.306 that the rocks are not going straight up,[br]but have a little bit of random velocity. 0:17:04.376,0:17:08.446 We can also increase the lifetime[br]randomness to like 0.5 so not all 0:17:08.446,0:17:10.516 of them will disappear at the same height. 0:17:10.516,0:17:13.266 Next thing, as you can see, they[br]are all rotated the same way. 0:17:13.486,0:17:15.326 So, under rotation, let's enable it. 0:17:15.326,0:17:19.926 Crank the randomize all the way up, randomize[br]space all the way up, enable dynamic. 0:17:19.926,0:17:25.236 And under angular velocity, we can increase[br]the amount so that they will rotate as they fly 0:17:25.236,0:17:28.976 up as well, which I think gives a little[br]bit more dynamism to the whole scene. 0:17:29.136,0:17:33.856 Now, if they are a little bit too big, you can[br]either scale your models down or scale them 0:17:33.856,0:17:37.796 under the render tab to scale a little[br]bit lower so they are not as big. 0:17:37.886,0:17:41.186 And now, I think the last thing to[br]do is as you can see they just fly 0:17:41.186,0:17:43.096 up and disappear sort of abruptly. 0:17:43.176,0:17:46.596 In order to make this transition[br]much smoother, we scroll all the way 0:17:46.596,0:17:51.566 down until we find the textures tab, then[br]open it up, click "new" to create new texture, 0:17:51.566,0:17:55.036 go into the textures tab again, change[br]type from image or movie to blend, 0:17:55.036,0:17:57.046 and we will use this texture in order 0:17:57.046,0:18:01.566 to tell the particle system how big the[br]particles should be at given moment of life. 0:18:01.686,0:18:04.536 So, first of all, open influence[br]and we want this texture only 0:18:04.576,0:18:07.466 to influence the size of our particle. 0:18:07.466,0:18:12.766 And then under mapping, the coordinates we want[br]to be not generated, but per strand and particle 0:18:12.856,0:18:17.436 so each of these particles will be affected[br]by this texture as its own entity basically. 0:18:17.436,0:18:20.696 Now, let's open colors, enable[br]color ramp and open it up. 0:18:20.696,0:18:24.856 And here, first of all, let's increase the alpha[br]of this to like one so we see what we're doing. 0:18:24.976,0:18:28.386 This basically represents the scale[br]of our object throughout its life. 0:18:28.386,0:18:30.646 So, black is zero obviously, white is one. 0:18:30.736,0:18:32.816 So, we want it to start with the size one. 0:18:33.206,0:18:37.206 And then as it grows old, we want it[br]to be zero by the time it disappears. 0:18:37.246,0:18:41.476 We can also change the interpolation to[br]B-spline to have much smoother transition 0:18:41.476,0:18:43.106 and just bring it a little bit closer. 0:18:43.206,0:18:46.856 So, as you can see, the particles[br]now start with their normal size 0:18:46.856,0:18:49.976 and then they just gradually[br]scale down until they disappear. 0:18:50.046,0:18:53.406 We can increase the render scale now[br]because they are a little bit too small. 0:18:53.516,0:18:57.566 And when you're happy with your particles[br]going up, the last thing to do is take them 0:18:57.726,0:19:00.636 and create the material for them[br]because right now in the render preview 0:19:00.636,0:19:03.856 as you can see we have this emissive[br]color and then we have those stones. 0:19:03.946,0:19:05.786 And then, it depends what you want to go for. 0:19:05.906,0:19:10.016 I in my previous scene had a[br]simple setup of area light shining 0:19:10.196,0:19:12.856 from the top quite big and quite strong. 0:19:12.946,0:19:18.246 And based on this light information, I had the[br]stones cell shaded, and I will show you how. 0:19:18.346,0:19:20.346 So, first of all, let's select the stone. 0:19:20.346,0:19:23.886 And in the material editor, click[br]"new" to create new material. 0:19:23.886,0:19:27.696 And we can delete the principled[br]BDSF and instead have a diffuse. 0:19:27.696,0:19:32.026 And now right after the diffuse,[br]we want a shader to RGB node, 0:19:32.076,0:19:35.946 which is going to take the shader[br]information and turn it into an RGB color, 0:19:36.006,0:19:38.386 which we can further connect to a color ramp. 0:19:38.386,0:19:39.666 And let me show you what it does. 0:19:39.786,0:19:44.576 So, it takes this information of how this[br]object looks like being lit by the light. 0:19:44.576,0:19:47.166 And based on that, we can just[br]give it some different color. 0:19:47.276,0:19:50.636 So, because it's stone, I went[br]with like the basic brown setup. 0:19:50.636,0:19:51.846 Let's do it again as well. 0:19:51.956,0:19:55.436 Change the interpolation to constant[br]again to have the cell shaded look. 0:19:55.436,0:19:58.626 Now, the second one's going to be[br]much brighter, but not too bright. 0:19:58.626,0:20:00.286 And a highlight on top. 0:20:00.596,0:20:02.856 So, you can spend much more time adjusting it. 0:20:02.856,0:20:04.506 I'm just hungry, so I'm going to wrap it up. 0:20:04.506,0:20:08.136 So, simply select the second rock,[br]go in here and choose the material 0:20:08.136,0:20:09.756 that we just created for our rocks. 0:20:09.826,0:20:14.726 And now, as you see, as they fly upwards[br]as the light changes, the material reflects 0:20:14.806,0:20:16.616 that as well and changes with it. 0:20:16.616,0:20:18.866 If the lighting is too strong for you, 0:20:18.866,0:20:22.086 then you can always just decrease[br]the strength of the light. 0:20:22.086,0:20:24.176 And as you can see, it affects the color 0:20:24.406,0:20:28.496 because again it's taking the diffuse[br]shader and then turning it into color. 0:20:28.606,0:20:31.736 So, depending on how the diffuse[br]shader looks in the first place, 0:20:31.906,0:20:33.566 that's how the result is going to look like. 0:20:33.566,0:20:35.856 And yeah, because it's aura, one last thing. 0:20:36.256,0:20:37.056 You can select it. 0:20:37.106,0:20:38.666 You can see we have a shadow right now. 0:20:38.756,0:20:40.086 Go into the material properties. 0:20:40.256,0:20:44.126 And under the shadow mode, just click[br]"none" so that it doesn't cast any shadow 0:20:44.126,0:20:45.986 because I just believe it shouldn't. 0:20:45.986,0:20:48.096 And this would be it for the tutorial. 0:20:48.136,0:20:52.536 I hope that you learned something, that you[br]enjoyed it and you will be able to use it 0:20:52.536,0:20:55.436 in your personal project, which[br]I would love to see if you do so. 0:20:55.436,0:20:57.036 Please share with me on Twitter. 0:20:57.036,0:20:58.346 Link for that in the description. 0:20:58.346,0:21:01.776 And if you have any requests for the future[br]tutorials, comment section is for you, 0:21:01.776,0:21:03.136 and I will see you in the next one. 0:21:03.346,0:21:03.646 Bye-bye. 0:00:00.066,0:00:02.456 >> Hello and welcome everyone to another video. 0:00:02.626,0:00:07.546 Recently I have created this Dragon Ball Z aura[br]type effect in Blender, and today I'm going 0:00:07.546,0:00:08.996 to show you how you can make it yourself. 0:00:09.136,0:00:12.316 Of course as most of my videos[br]this effect is fully procedural. 0:00:12.316,0:00:15.656 So if you don't like something about[br]it or you just have your own vision, 0:00:15.726,0:00:19.826 then chances are you can just adjust the values[br]that I will show you later and make it your own. 0:00:20.136,0:00:23.876 So again, as in every video, if you manage[br]to make something out of it or use it 0:00:23.876,0:00:26.246 in some scene, I would really[br]love to see your creation. 0:00:26.246,0:00:29.766 So make sure to share with me on Twitter,[br]link for that is in the description. 0:00:29.766,0:00:31.926 And now let's just jump right into Blender. 0:00:32.096,0:00:36.016 So first of all, we will delete everything[br]and we'll start with a mesh sphere. 0:00:36.016,0:00:40.156 And for those of you that watched my[br]recent tutorial about the fire effect, 0:00:40.156,0:00:42.506 the beginning is going to be very, very similar. 0:00:42.506,0:00:44.816 So you may just skip to the[br]shader creation part. 0:00:44.816,0:00:48.106 And for those of you that are new,[br]we will start by going into modifiers 0:00:48.106,0:00:53.386 and add a subdivision surface modifier as[br]first one, then a normal edit modifier, 0:00:53.386,0:00:55.766 and as last, we will add a displace modifier. 0:00:55.846,0:00:57.976 So your stack should look something like this. 0:00:58.006,0:01:02.026 The next step, we'll create an[br]empty and put it below our sphere. 0:01:02.136,0:01:05.386 Let's also name it normal[br]controller because we will use it 0:01:05.386,0:01:07.746 to control the normals of our sphere. 0:01:07.836,0:01:11.156 It may not make a lot of sense[br]right now but just bear with me 0:01:11.156,0:01:14.106 and you should soon see visually[br]what I'm talking about. 0:01:14.166,0:01:18.346 So now let's go into the displace[br]modifier and click new to get a new texture 0:01:18.346,0:01:21.656 and go down to the texture tab[br]and change the type to clouds. 0:01:21.766,0:01:25.536 Now back in the modifier stack in[br]the normal edit, the target is going 0:01:25.536,0:01:28.466 to be the normal controller,[br]so the empty we created. 0:01:28.466,0:01:32.196 And then open up mix and change[br]the mix mode from copy to add. 0:01:32.196,0:01:35.966 You may also notice that we have this[br]warning that tells us to enable auto smooth 0:01:35.966,0:01:38.416 for this modifier to work,[br]so we'll do just that. 0:01:38.416,0:01:42.076 Go to the object data properties,[br]normals, and enable auto smooth. 0:01:42.076,0:01:45.246 Now as you can see not much happened,[br]but as you move this empty around, 0:01:45.246,0:01:47.806 it may look like we are moving[br]a light source and that is 0:01:47.806,0:01:50.866 because we are actually editing[br]the normals of our mesh, 0:01:50.936,0:01:54.776 which also means we can use this[br]custom normals in our displace modifier 0:01:54.776,0:01:56.496 to displace it only where we want to. 0:01:56.496,0:01:59.686 So in the displace modifier,[br]change the direction from normal 0:01:59.686,0:02:01.766 to custom normal, so the one we edit. 0:02:01.766,0:02:05.566 And now as you move the empty, you can see[br]that the mesh is being displaced according 0:02:05.566,0:02:08.266 to the custom normal that we[br]are editing in the real time. 0:02:08.356,0:02:09.376 So let's keep it under. 0:02:09.376,0:02:11.446 And now in order to have further control 0:02:11.446,0:02:14.156 over the displacement itself,[br]we will create another empty. 0:02:14.206,0:02:18.496 So again, empty plane axis is fine[br]or any other will do just fine. 0:02:18.496,0:02:21.626 And this one we will call a displace controller. 0:02:21.626,0:02:25.916 Now back in our sphere, in the displace[br]modifier, change coordinates from local 0:02:25.916,0:02:29.756 to object, and the object is going to be[br]the displace controller that we created. 0:02:29.756,0:02:34.356 This way we can easily control the displace[br]texture by simply scaling our empty. 0:02:34.436,0:02:38.416 Also moving it around is going to phase[br]through the three-dimensional texture. 0:02:38.516,0:02:43.976 Now with this basic set up, let's make our aura[br]look like an aura, so sort of an egg shape. 0:02:44.096,0:02:49.296 We can just pick the top vertice, and with the[br]proportional editing enabled we can simply move 0:02:49.296,0:02:50.706 it up and just adjust it. 0:02:50.706,0:02:55.086 Just make it look like a sort of egg or[br]a droplet of water, and then when you get 0:02:55.086,0:02:58.546 out of the edit mode you can see that[br]it resembles aura a little bit more. 0:02:58.696,0:03:02.006 Now one thing to pay attention to is[br]when you go back into the edit mode, 0:03:02.006,0:03:06.476 you can see that the density of the vertices[br]is much higher down here than it is up here. 0:03:06.476,0:03:09.226 So it is a good practice to sort of even it out. 0:03:09.226,0:03:13.776 So feel free to just add some loop cuts[br]in the middle to sort of have a uniform -- 0:03:13.926,0:03:17.116 or at least around a uniform[br]across the whole surface. 0:03:17.196,0:03:21.806 So with that done, right click shade[br]smooth so we have a nice smooth sort 0:03:21.806,0:03:24.616 of bush-looking mesh which is perfectly fine. 0:03:24.796,0:03:27.796 Don't worry too much about[br]displacement and the value so far 0:03:27.796,0:03:30.256 yet because we can always[br]adjust it later down the road. 0:03:30.256,0:03:32.516 And now let's just focus on the material itself. 0:03:32.516,0:03:37.246 So let's get a new window, change it to shader[br]editor, and click new to create a new material. 0:03:37.246,0:03:41.026 We can delete the principled BDSF and[br]get a emission shader node as well 0:03:41.026,0:03:46.636 as transparent BSDF, and also a mix shader[br]connected like so, the transparent on top 0:03:46.636,0:03:52.736 and emission on the bottom, and now let's add[br]a fernel node as well as layer weight node. 0:03:52.736,0:03:55.686 Now let's also go into the render[br]preview so we see what we're doing. 0:03:55.746,0:04:00.296 And as we preview the fernel node -- the[br]preview is ctrl shift left mouse button, 0:04:00.336,0:04:02.386 but you have to have a node wrangler enabled. 0:04:02.386,0:04:05.566 For those of you wondering it's[br]under edit, preferences, add-ons. 0:04:05.626,0:04:09.186 And by default it should be in Blender[br]already, so just make sure it's enabled. 0:04:09.266,0:04:14.486 So the fernel node as you see gives us this[br]really, really nice effect where only the edges 0:04:14.486,0:04:18.946 of the mesh is highlighted which is going to[br]play perfectly into what we are trying to do. 0:04:18.946,0:04:21.816 So right after fernel node[br]let's add a color ramp, 0:04:22.016,0:04:24.306 and here we can already start[br]laying in some colors. 0:04:24.406,0:04:27.306 First of all, let's change the[br]interpolation from linear to constant 0:04:27.306,0:04:31.476 so that we don't have any gradient but rather[br]sharp, contrasty look between the colors. 0:04:31.476,0:04:36.506 And now let's start with the darkest being[br]sort of reddish, maybe something like this. 0:04:36.596,0:04:41.726 Then the next one it will go through orange,[br]then to yellow, and the last one sort 0:04:41.726,0:04:44.316 of washed out yellow going into the white. 0:04:44.316,0:04:46.916 Now we can adjust it as it is[br]right now or you can do it later. 0:04:46.916,0:04:49.136 Just make sure it looks something like that. 0:04:49.136,0:04:54.436 It gradually goes from darkest to the[br]lightest in the edges poking out of the mesh. 0:04:54.436,0:04:56.936 But don't worry about it too much,[br]we can always come back to it later. 0:04:57.066,0:05:00.016 And this color ramp is going[br]straight into the emission node. 0:05:00.016,0:05:03.046 Now as we preview the mix shader,[br]you can see that we have just that 0:05:03.046,0:05:06.846 and we don't have any transparency yet, and[br]that is because first of all we need to go 0:05:06.846,0:05:11.226 into the material properties and in blend[br]mode enable alpha blend instead of opaque. 0:05:11.226,0:05:13.756 And the second thing, let's[br]also enable back face culling. 0:05:13.756,0:05:18.046 Now as you see everything is sort of half[br]transparent because this mix shader is now set 0:05:18.046,0:05:21.206 to being half transparent[br]BSDF and half emission. 0:05:21.266,0:05:23.986 So what we need to do is we[br]need to get an alpha mask, 0:05:23.986,0:05:25.906 and for this we will use this layer weight node. 0:05:25.906,0:05:29.086 So let's get another color[br]ramp and connect the facing 0:05:29.146,0:05:30.936 into the color ramp, and let's preview this. 0:05:31.046,0:05:33.836 Here we can change the interpolation[br]from linear to B-spline 0:05:33.836,0:05:36.626 to get a much softer gradient than with linear. 0:05:36.626,0:05:39.626 And also, let's bring in[br]the black value quite high 0:05:39.746,0:05:44.366 and the white one just slightly[br]move it from the edge to like 0.9. 0:05:44.436,0:05:49.266 Now let's duplicate this color ramp, and this[br]time connect it with fernel from layer weight. 0:05:49.266,0:05:52.296 And as you preview this one it[br]has slightly different result. 0:05:52.696,0:05:57.486 You can see that the facing has more[br]of that gradient going into our aura, 0:05:57.486,0:06:00.666 and fernel only really highlights[br]the very edges. 0:06:00.716,0:06:05.226 So here we can actually dial back this black[br]value a little bit to have that gradient 0:06:05.226,0:06:08.046 as well, and now we just need to[br]combine these two color ramps. 0:06:08.136,0:06:12.666 So let's get a math node, connect both of them[br]together; leave it at add; let's preview that. 0:06:12.926,0:06:16.456 And the only thing you need to do[br]is enable clamp just to make sure 0:06:16.456,0:06:20.046 that the white values do not exceed[br]one because this will go directly 0:06:20.046,0:06:24.806 into the mix shader factor, and so everything[br]of value one is going to be fully opaque, 0:06:24.806,0:06:26.866 and the black values are[br]going to be transparent. 0:06:26.866,0:06:31.056 So as we preview this, we can see that we[br]already have something going on in here. 0:06:31.166,0:06:34.486 Now make sure that the back face calling is[br]on because if you turn it off then you see 0:06:34.486,0:06:36.016 that we have some sort of artifact. 0:06:36.486,0:06:40.136 Not sure why it happens, but it does,[br]so just make sure it's checked in. 0:06:40.476,0:06:44.866 And here we can adjust the color ramp values[br]just to make sure that our colors are popping 0:06:44.866,0:06:48.826 in nicely and they are not too faded but[br]also that we still have this nice gradient. 0:06:48.956,0:06:51.636 Also if this mesh is pretty spiky, remember 0:06:51.636,0:06:54.556 that in the modifier stack we[br]added a subdivision modifier, 0:06:54.556,0:06:57.836 at the beginning so you can[br]up the levels of subdivision. 0:06:57.936,0:07:00.696 And this should give you a[br]lot more geometry to work 0:07:00.696,0:07:03.316 with which should also make the[br]gradient a little bit smooth. 0:07:03.316,0:07:07.596 And then as you see in my case, I have[br]very noisy displacement going on right now 0:07:07.666,0:07:11.636 and that is why we have this displace controller[br]in here so we can easily just scale it 0:07:11.636,0:07:14.706 up a little bit in order to[br]get much, much softer results. 0:07:14.766,0:07:19.376 Now because it's an aura and it's supposed to[br]be glowing, we can up the emission strength 0:07:19.376,0:07:21.236 in here to something like maybe ten. 0:07:21.786,0:07:26.096 And if you don't have this glow going[br]around your mesh, just make sure that you go 0:07:26.096,0:07:28.486 into the render settings[br]and you have a bloom enabled 0:07:28.486,0:07:31.786 because that's the setting that's[br]allowing your emissive areas to glow. 0:07:31.956,0:07:35.616 Now as you can see, we have [inaudible][br]shaded, sort of stylized look of the aura. 0:07:35.616,0:07:39.036 And if you want to have it more[br]gradual, I would say blurry or smooth, 0:07:39.156,0:07:42.526 you can go into this color ramp that[br]is dealing with the color of your aura 0:07:42.776,0:07:45.886 and just change the interpolation[br]from constant to whatever you like. 0:07:46.116,0:07:48.226 I would recommend the B-spline[br]because it gives this really, 0:07:48.226,0:07:51.276 really nice soft gradient[br]between the values that we have. 0:07:51.476,0:07:56.136 So as I said, just a -- So as I said,[br]just an artistic choice for you to make. 0:07:56.366,0:07:59.176 And now to put a little bit more[br]life into this whole effect, 0:07:59.236,0:08:02.876 we can take the displace controller[br]and just animate it going up. 0:08:02.876,0:08:04.866 Because as you see with this[br]displace controller, 0:08:04.866,0:08:07.526 the texture that is displacing[br]the mesh is going up as well. 0:08:07.646,0:08:11.676 So on the frame one, in his[br]base position, I'll just click I 0:08:11.876,0:08:14.546 and add a location keyframe to the first frame. 0:08:14.546,0:08:19.406 And then on, let's say, frame 20th, I will[br]move it upwards, and then click I again 0:08:19.406,0:08:21.126 and add another keyframe location. 0:08:21.126,0:08:24.806 And now if you play this you can[br]see that it's moving from 1 to 20. 0:08:24.806,0:08:29.366 But what we can also do is change the[br]interpolation to linear by clicking T 0:08:29.366,0:08:34.266 on the keyboard and choosing linear, and[br]then shift E and choose linear extrapolation. 0:08:34.386,0:08:37.216 And this will take these two[br]keyframes and based on them, 0:08:37.346,0:08:40.536 it will extrapolate this animation[br]further so that we don't need 0:08:40.536,0:08:45.126 to have the keyframe all the way up there in[br]order to have this animation going infinitely. 0:08:45.126,0:08:47.176 And then if you want this[br]to go faster or slower, 0:08:47.256,0:08:51.816 you just move this second keyframe further[br]or crunch it in closer to the first keyframe 0:08:51.816,0:08:53.886 to have it really, really frantic. 0:08:53.886,0:08:56.316 I like the slower one, so I'll[br]put it somewhere around here. 0:08:56.446,0:09:00.776 So with this flamey color done, the[br]next step is to add those bluish sparks 0:09:00.776,0:09:02.746 that are moving through the whole aura. 0:09:02.806,0:09:06.516 I'm talking about those blue sparks that[br]you can see appearing and disappearing. 0:09:06.516,0:09:10.026 So for that, first of all, we will[br]duplicate this color ramp with the colors 0:09:10.026,0:09:13.236 and connect the fernel node to it[br]as well; and let's preview that. 0:09:13.236,0:09:18.256 And here we want to change the color scheme[br]from this orangey, yellowy, flamey looking one 0:09:18.256,0:09:20.736 into the bluish sort of sparky colors. 0:09:20.766,0:09:25.196 So we will just go through all those color[br]stops and just move it into the blue areas. 0:09:25.396,0:09:29.746 So this one here, this one may be a little[br]bit like this, this one much, much brighter, 0:09:29.876,0:09:36.206 and then the last one going into almost whitish[br]just to have that little oomph at the very edge. 0:09:36.236,0:09:39.646 Now if you preview this blue spark[br]color by plugging it into the emission, 0:09:39.646,0:09:44.816 you can see that it looks nice, but it looks[br]much better if its interpolation is changed 0:09:44.816,0:09:48.606 to constant because electricity[br]usually is quite harsh and jagged. 0:09:48.766,0:09:51.306 So I would recommend this,[br]but again your choice. 0:09:51.356,0:09:55.136 So let's move back the flamey[br][inaudible] to emission as a default, 0:09:55.136,0:09:57.976 and then we want this blue[br]one only to appear in waves. 0:09:58.236,0:10:00.736 So let's by adding a wave texture. 0:10:00.776,0:10:04.186 And then again if you have the node[br]wrangler enabled with the node selected, 0:10:04.186,0:10:07.456 click CTRL T. To get a mapping[br]and texture coordinates node, 0:10:07.526,0:10:09.636 change it from generated to object. 0:10:09.636,0:10:13.096 And then as you preview this you can see[br]that now the waves are going vertically, 0:10:13.276,0:10:16.606 so we will need to rotate it[br]on the y-axis by 90 degrees, 0:10:16.606,0:10:20.296 and also change the scale all the[br]way down to something like 0.7. 0:10:20.406,0:10:21.996 So we have those waves quite big. 0:10:22.086,0:10:24.786 The next step is to animate the phase offset. 0:10:24.786,0:10:28.266 As you can see we have the single value[br]that can control the waves going up. 0:10:28.456,0:10:33.116 So we'll simply type in here hashtag frame[br]which is going to change it into a driver, 0:10:33.116,0:10:35.256 and then we can divide it by let's say 2. 0:10:35.256,0:10:38.966 And as we play the animation you can see[br]that these waves are moving downwards. 0:10:39.026,0:10:42.896 So in order to change the direction, we[br]just need to put a minus sign before. 0:10:43.006,0:10:44.016 Now it's moving upwards. 0:10:44.016,0:10:48.126 And if it's moving too slow, you can[br]just change the frame divided by 2 to -- 0:10:48.246,0:10:51.226 like frame divided by 0.5 whatever you like. 0:10:51.226,0:10:55.326 I will have it at 0.8 because I found[br]this value to work great for me. 0:10:55.326,0:10:57.406 And then in order to refine this gradient, 0:10:57.406,0:11:00.686 we will get another color ramp[br]right after the wave texture. 0:11:00.766,0:11:05.226 And this time we will change it to B-spline[br]again so we have much, much softer gradient. 0:11:05.226,0:11:09.016 And move the black value all the way in[br]and the white value just a little bit 0:11:09.016,0:11:13.516 so that we have this really, really[br]white value in here, then the gradient, 0:11:13.516,0:11:16.606 and then the black values in here,[br]which is exactly what we're looking for. 0:11:16.686,0:11:20.826 Now in order to give a little bit more variation[br]to this, we can increase the distortion, 0:11:20.856,0:11:24.626 the detail scale in order to just give[br]it a little bit of irregularities. 0:11:24.776,0:11:30.086 Now that we have this wave texture already[br]done, we will need a mix RGB in order to change 0:11:30.086,0:11:33.146 between the yellow and the[br]blue based on this mask. 0:11:33.246,0:11:38.646 So this mask goes into the factor and then[br]the yellow one goes into the color one input 0:11:38.646,0:11:40.516 and the blue into the color two input. 0:11:40.516,0:11:43.696 And the output of the mix RGB[br]goes straight into the emission. 0:11:43.786,0:11:46.796 Now as we preview the mix[br]shader, so our final material, 0:11:46.796,0:11:50.786 you can see that we have this[br]nice sort of sparky wave going 0:11:50.786,0:11:52.986 from the bottom to the top of the whole effect. 0:11:52.986,0:11:54.636 But right now it's visible all the time, 0:11:54.856,0:11:57.726 and I just feel like it's much[br]better when it's blinking. 0:11:57.726,0:12:00.596 So we will need a couple more[br]nodes in order to achieve that. 0:12:00.656,0:12:05.046 The first one will be a math node[br]changed from add to ping pong. 0:12:05.376,0:12:11.056 So in order for us to have a blinking mask, we[br]need to type in hashtag frame, again, a driver, 0:12:11.056,0:12:15.126 and then depending on how fast we want it[br]to blink we can divide it by some number. 0:12:15.296,0:12:18.766 I will leave it at divided by 2[br]because I want it to blink quite fast. 0:12:18.766,0:12:23.216 And now a disclaimer, for those of you that[br]may have problem with fast-blinking images 0:12:23.216,0:12:27.866 or epilepsy just maybe skip this part because[br]I'm going to preview it and it's just going 0:12:27.866,0:12:30.156 to blink black and white, so be prepared. 0:12:30.156,0:12:32.136 So as you can see, it's blinking right now. 0:12:32.416,0:12:35.466 And if it's too fast, too slow,[br]again, you can adjust the driver. 0:12:35.466,0:12:39.476 And one more thing we can do is -- right now as[br]you can see as we scroll through the animation, 0:12:39.476,0:12:42.586 it goes from black to gray[br]and only then through white. 0:12:42.586,0:12:45.386 And we want to skip the gray[br]values; we only want zero 0:12:45.386,0:12:47.716 and one, so like invisible and visible. 0:12:47.716,0:12:51.216 And for that we will need another math[br]node, connected right after ping pong, 0:12:51.216,0:12:53.886 and this time change the add to snap. 0:12:53.886,0:12:56.286 And this will snap to whatever[br]value we have in here. 0:12:56.286,0:13:01.666 So I will put in one so it snaps to every[br]round number without anything after comma. 0:13:01.756,0:13:03.646 Again disclaimer, flashing images. 0:13:03.696,0:13:08.386 As you preview this, you have a[br]clear zero to one mask flashing. 0:13:08.386,0:13:12.766 So we move this a little bit further, get[br]another math node, and this time it's going 0:13:12.766,0:13:16.616 to be multiplying, and we want to[br]multiply the result of the snap 0:13:16.796,0:13:19.156 with the color ramp going from our wave texture. 0:13:19.306,0:13:22.046 So if we preview that we[br]have the same blinking thing, 0:13:22.156,0:13:25.366 but this time it's the waves[br]that are blinking upwards. 0:13:25.416,0:13:27.846 And this goes into the mix RGB factor. 0:13:28.026,0:13:32.786 Now as we preview everything, you should have[br]this really blue sparks only visible every now 0:13:32.786,0:13:34.726 and then depending on how fast it's blinking. 0:13:34.726,0:13:37.946 And I just feel like it looks so much[br]better than when it's always visible. 0:13:38.076,0:13:41.666 You can, of course, adjust the size[br]of the waves and the scale of it all, 0:13:41.666,0:13:44.726 so like the scale of the wave[br]texture in order to have less 0:13:44.846,0:13:47.356 or more of the sparks going at the same time. 0:13:47.446,0:13:48.576 Again, all up to you. 0:13:48.856,0:13:50.736 I will maybe change it to like 0.4. 0:13:50.826,0:13:54.676 And here now is the time to sort of[br]adjust all the values that you want. 0:13:54.676,0:13:57.886 And just small tip, it's better[br]if your background is much, 0:13:57.886,0:14:02.136 much darker than this grayish value[br]then everything that's happening is just 0:14:02.136,0:14:02.716 more visible. 0:14:02.716,0:14:06.656 So I would recommend just go into the world[br]settings, change the color to something, 0:14:06.656,0:14:11.256 I don't know maybe bluish, and then get the[br]value all the way down to almost like black 0:14:11.256,0:14:14.006 but not quite, and then you[br]see what's really going on. 0:14:14.066,0:14:16.816 So again, all the values that we[br]went through, all the color ramps, 0:14:16.876,0:14:18.896 just feel free to adjust them as you wish. 0:14:18.896,0:14:20.386 I think I will leave it as it is. 0:14:20.426,0:14:23.846 Now as you can see the difference[br]is that my frame rate here is much, 0:14:23.846,0:14:29.596 much higher than in the presentation video and[br]that is because I just like this 12 FPS sort 0:14:29.596,0:14:34.546 of look that I have had in this scene, and[br]you can easily have that as well just going 0:14:34.546,0:14:40.176 into the render settings, and change the frame[br]rate from 24 to custom and then just type in 12. 0:14:40.236,0:14:45.286 But then again, the whole like speed of your[br]animation, speed of your displace controller, 0:14:45.506,0:14:48.776 everything has to be adjusted based on[br]the frame rate that you choose to have. 0:14:48.876,0:14:52.246 So for this tutorial I will just[br]use 30 to have smooth-looking thing, 0:14:52.366,0:14:54.686 but just know that it's a possibility in order 0:14:54.686,0:14:57.026 to achieve a totally different[br]look to the whole thing. 0:14:57.026,0:14:59.996 So now the last thing to do[br]is the stones, the particles 0:14:59.996,0:15:00.976 and that is done with the particle system. 0:15:01.356,0:15:06.916 So we can just shift a mesh plane to[br]have a particle emitter on the bottom 0:15:06.916,0:15:09.906 of the whole aura, and we[br]can also name it emitter. 0:15:09.906,0:15:11.886 And then we need just couple of stones. 0:15:11.886,0:15:14.976 And I just simply took mesh, rock generator. 0:15:14.976,0:15:19.296 I believe you need to have an add-on[br]enabled for that as well which is, I think, 0:15:19.296,0:15:21.556 extra object add mesh extra object. 0:15:21.616,0:15:22.676 So make sure it's enabled. 0:15:22.676,0:15:24.546 Or you can just create any rock that you want. 0:15:24.546,0:15:27.116 I just found that this method is so much faster. 0:15:27.116,0:15:28.376 You just generate a rock. 0:15:28.376,0:15:32.686 You go into the modifier stack, apply all[br]of them, and then add a decimate modifier, 0:15:32.826,0:15:36.286 and just go all the way down until[br]you have like a low-poly version. 0:15:36.286,0:15:40.596 In order to see the faces better, you just right[br]click, shade flat, and then bring it all the way 0:15:40.596,0:15:42.226 down and then apply the decimate. 0:15:42.226,0:15:44.726 And you can just generate a few rocks like that. 0:15:44.726,0:15:47.526 Decimate all the way down, shade flat, and done. 0:15:47.606,0:15:51.596 So when you have your rock collection, I don't[br]know how many different variations you want, 0:15:51.596,0:15:54.846 just select both of them, click[br]M and choose new collection. 0:15:54.926,0:15:58.816 Name them rocks or something like that, and[br]this should create a new collection for you. 0:15:58.816,0:16:03.156 And now in our particle emitter, in this[br]plane, we can create a particle system, 0:16:03.156,0:16:06.876 and under render, change the[br]render as from halo to collection, 0:16:06.956,0:16:09.206 and the collection being[br]rocks that we just created. 0:16:09.276,0:16:12.576 We can change the scale also to[br]one, so we see what's going on. 0:16:12.576,0:16:15.116 And as you click play you[br]can see we have our rocks. 0:16:15.216,0:16:18.506 Now first of all, of course let's[br]increase the scale randomness 0:16:18.616,0:16:20.816 so we have a variation with the scale. 0:16:20.896,0:16:24.956 Let's choose the frame, start to be[br]like minus 50, so we have a little bit 0:16:24.956,0:16:27.436 of pre-warm before the whole animation starts. 0:16:27.496,0:16:32.446 The end also 250 so it encompasses the whole[br]animation frame that we have right here. 0:16:32.446,0:16:34.836 And now first of all, obviously[br]the rocks are falling. 0:16:34.836,0:16:37.656 We don't want them to fall -- all[br]the way down into field weights, 0:16:37.736,0:16:39.986 and turn down the gravity all the way to zero. 0:16:40.036,0:16:44.356 This will make our particles go up but[br]in very uniform and not pleasing way. 0:16:44.356,0:16:48.896 So first of all, let's decrease the number[br]to, like, something more sensible maybe 100. 0:16:48.896,0:16:55.116 And then under the velocity tab, let's add a[br]object aligned Z velocity, one meter per second, 0:16:55.116,0:16:58.876 and then under randomize let's[br]increase it to something like one. 0:16:58.986,0:17:01.776 So we can see that the rocks[br]are not going straight up 0:17:01.876,0:17:04.306 but have a little bit of random velocity. 0:17:04.376,0:17:07.576 We can also increase the[br]lifetime randomness to like 0.5. 0:17:07.686,0:17:10.516 So not all of them will disappear[br]at the same height. 0:17:10.516,0:17:13.266 Next thing, as you can see,[br]they're all rotated the same way. 0:17:13.486,0:17:15.326 So under rotation, let's enable it. 0:17:15.326,0:17:19.926 Crank the randomize all the way up, the[br]randomized phase all the way up, enable dynamic. 0:17:19.926,0:17:25.236 And under angular velocity we can increase the[br]amount so that they will rotate as they fly 0:17:25.236,0:17:29.056 up as well, which I think gives a little[br]bit more dynamism to the whole scene. 0:17:29.136,0:17:32.926 Now if they are a little bit too big,[br]you can either scale your models down, 0:17:32.996,0:17:37.796 or scale them under the render tab to scale[br]a little bit lower so they are not as big. 0:17:37.886,0:17:39.756 And now I think the last thing to do is -- 0:17:39.756,0:17:43.096 as you can see they just fly up[br]and disappear sort of abruptly. 0:17:43.176,0:17:46.596 In order to make this transition much,[br]much smoother, we scroll all the way 0:17:46.596,0:17:50.286 down until we find the textures[br]tab, then open it up, click new. 0:17:50.426,0:17:55.036 To create new texture, go into the textures tab[br]again, change type from image or movie to blend, 0:17:55.036,0:17:57.046 and we will use this texture in order 0:17:57.046,0:18:01.566 to tell the particle system how big the[br]particles should be at given moment of life. 0:18:01.686,0:18:04.536 So first of all, open influence,[br]and we want this texture only 0:18:04.576,0:18:07.466 to influence the size of our particle. 0:18:07.466,0:18:09.626 And then under mapping --[br]the coordinates we want 0:18:09.666,0:18:12.766 to be not generated but per strand and particle. 0:18:12.856,0:18:17.436 So each of this particle will be affected[br]by this texture as its own entity basically. 0:18:17.436,0:18:18.616 Now let's open colors. 0:18:18.706,0:18:20.696 Enable color ramp and open it up. 0:18:20.696,0:18:24.856 And here, first of all, let's increase the alpha[br]of this to like one so we see what we're doing. 0:18:24.976,0:18:28.386 This basically represents the scale[br]of our object throughout its life. 0:18:28.386,0:18:30.646 So black is zero, obviously; white is one. 0:18:30.746,0:18:34.866 So we want it to start with the[br]size one, and then as it grows old, 0:18:34.866,0:18:37.206 we want it to be zero by the time it disappears. 0:18:37.246,0:18:41.476 We can also change the interpolation to[br]B-spline to have much smoother transition 0:18:41.476,0:18:43.146 and just bring it a little bit closer. 0:18:43.146,0:18:46.856 So as you can see the particles[br]now start with their normal size 0:18:46.856,0:18:49.976 and then they just gradually[br]scale down until they disappear. 0:18:50.046,0:18:53.406 We can increase the render scale now[br]because they are a little bit small. 0:18:53.516,0:18:57.566 And when you're happy with your particles[br]going up, the last thing to do is take them 0:18:57.726,0:19:01.096 and create a material for them because right[br]now in the render preview as you can see, 0:19:01.096,0:19:03.856 we have this emissive color,[br]and then we have those stones, 0:19:03.946,0:19:05.786 and then it depends what you want to go for. 0:19:05.906,0:19:11.016 I, in my previous scene, had a simple[br]setup of area light shining from the top, 0:19:11.046,0:19:13.446 quite big and quite strong, and based 0:19:13.446,0:19:18.246 on this light information I had the stones[br]cell shaded, and I will show you how. 0:19:18.366,0:19:20.346 So first of all let's select the stone, 0:19:20.346,0:19:23.886 and in the material editor click[br]new to create new material. 0:19:23.886,0:19:27.696 And we can delete the principled[br]BSDF and instead have a diffuse. 0:19:27.696,0:19:32.026 And now right after the diffuse,[br]we want a shader to RGB node, 0:19:32.076,0:19:35.946 which is going to take the shader[br]information and turn it into an RGB color, 0:19:36.006,0:19:38.216 which we can further connect to a color ramp. 0:19:38.336,0:19:39.666 And let me show you what it does. 0:19:39.786,0:19:44.576 So it takes this information of how this[br]object looks like being lit by the light, 0:19:44.576,0:19:47.166 and based on that we can just[br]give it some different color. 0:19:47.276,0:19:50.566 So because it's stone, I went[br]with like the basic brown set up. 0:19:50.566,0:19:51.846 Oh, let's do it again as well. 0:19:51.956,0:19:55.436 Change the interpolation to constant[br]again to have the cell-shaded look. 0:19:55.436,0:19:57.976 Now the second one's going to be[br]much brighter but not too bright. 0:19:58.046,0:20:00.286 Add a highlight, highlight on top. 0:20:00.596,0:20:02.856 So yeah, you can spend much[br]more time adjusting it. 0:20:02.856,0:20:04.506 I'm just hungry so I'm going to wrap it up. 0:20:04.506,0:20:08.136 So simply select the second rock[br]going in here and choose the material 0:20:08.136,0:20:09.756 that we just created for our rocks. 0:20:09.826,0:20:14.726 And now as you see as they fly upwards, as[br]the light changes, the material reflects 0:20:14.806,0:20:16.616 that as well and changes with it. 0:20:16.616,0:20:21.366 If the lighting is too strong for you, then[br]you can always just decrease the strength 0:20:21.696,0:20:25.236 of the light, and as you can see it[br]affects the color because, again, 0:20:25.356,0:20:28.496 it's taking the diffuse shader[br]and then turning it into color. 0:20:28.606,0:20:31.736 So depending on the how the diffuse[br]shader looks in the first place, 0:20:31.906,0:20:33.566 that's how the result is going to look like. 0:20:33.566,0:20:37.056 And yeah, because it's aura, one[br]last thing, you can select it. 0:20:37.106,0:20:38.666 You can see we have a shadow right now -- 0:20:38.756,0:20:42.376 go into the material properties and[br]under the shadow mode just click none 0:20:42.726,0:20:45.986 so that it doesn't cast any shadow[br]because I just believe it shouldn't. 0:20:45.986,0:20:48.096 And this would be it for the tutorial. 0:20:48.136,0:20:52.536 I hope that you learned something, that you[br]enjoyed it, and you will be able to use it 0:20:52.536,0:20:54.646 in your personal project,[br]which I would love to see. 0:20:54.736,0:20:56.846 If you do so, please share with me on Twitter. 0:20:56.966,0:20:58.346 Link for that in the description. 0:20:58.346,0:21:01.776 And if you have any requests for the future[br]tutorials, comment section is for you. 0:21:01.776,0:21:03.136 And I will see you in the next one. 0:21:03.346,0:21:03.646 Bye bye.