Tutorial 5: AfterBurn Daemon Link Map

In this tutorial you will learn how to use the AfterBurn Void Daemon to affect an AfterBurn Daemon Link-based material, depending on the source object's relative position to the Void gizmo.

 

  1. In 3ds Max, select File->Open, and from your /Scenes/AfterBurn/Tutorials folder, select the file AB-Tut5.max.

 

When the file loads, you'll see a Sphere primitive, and an AfterBurn Daemon called Void01.  If you scroll the Time Slider, you'll see the Sphere move towards you in the Perspective viewport.

 

The Void Daemon does pretty much what you might expect - it creates a void in the AfterBurn effects. This can be used to literally punch holes in your volumetric effects and much more. In this tutorial, you're going to use it in concert with the AfterBurn Daemon Link Map type to change the color of the material assigned to the sphere in your scene as it moves away from the gizmo.

 

  1. Open the Material editor and select Material#1 in Slot 1.
  2. Open the Maps rollout and click the map slot of the Diffuse Color channel.
  3. From the Material/Map Browser, choose Mix for the map type.


  1. Click the Mix Amount map slot and choose the AfterBurn Daemon link map for the map type.

 

 

The AfterBurn Daemon link map lets you pick one or more AfterBurn daemons within your scene to use to affect a map beneath it. Since it is being used in this tutorial within the Mix Amount slot, it will be responsible for blending between two other materials based on the proximity to the Void daemon gizmo.

 

  1. Within the Daemon link map, select Pick, then click Void01 for the Source Daemon.
  2. Click the Map slot beneath the Source Daemons group of controls and choose Noise.

 

 

  1. Under the Noise Parameters, change both Noise colors to White (RGB: 255, 255, 255).

 

Changing both colors within the Noise map is done so that the AB Daemon link map's influence is uniform over the entire sphere as it moves away. Any parts of the underlying map that are white will affect the change from Color #1 to Color #2 in the Mix map. If you'd left the noise colors at their defaults, only the white areas would change colors as the sphere moved away from the Void daemon.

 

Now you'll set the colors to blend between.

 

  1. Click the Go to Parent button twice to return to the root of the Diffuse Color Mix Map.
  2. Then, change the Mix colors to the following:
  • Color #1 - Red Orange (RGB: 255, 117, 15)
  • Color #2 - Teal (RGB: 0, 222, 255)

 

 

  1. Now, assign this material to the Sphere01 object.

 

  1. Finally render out several frames from the animation.

 

Sphere rendered at frame 0, 30 and 60

 

You can see how the sphere color changes based on the Void01's influence. You could now play with the Void daemon's Falloff setting in order to tweak the range of influence of the Void gizmo.

 

In the next tutorial you'll learn about the HyperSolids rendering method and how it can be used to create blobby, fluid volumetric effects.