Generate Strand Data
Overview
The Generate Strand Data operator is a procedural way of creating per-guide values based on some criteria. These per-guide values can then be used to control parameters and groups inside Ornatrix.
Parameters
Strand Groups
Allows you to select a Strand Group created in Edit Guides Edit Guides node which contains the guides from where you want the data to be generated by this node.
Random Seed
Very straight forward: Use this parameter to randomize the way the data is generated.
Target Channel
Similar to Strand Groups, this allows you specify a channel to isolate the area you want the strand data to be generated from.
Create New Channel
This option will create a new channel for the Generate Strand Data node using the name provided in New Channel Name instead of using the default name.
New Channel Name
A blank field to provide a name to the generated channel.
New Channel Type
Here you can choose if the new channel will be generated Per-Strands or Per-Vertex.
Generation Method
In the drop down list select the type of data to be generated.
Examples
Generate Strand Data node for shader scattering
In this example we used the Generate Strand Data node to randomize four shaders on a simple feather setup.
We created four Lambert shaders with different colors, assigned those shaders to the feather object in Mesh From Strands node Mesh From Strands node:
And selected the our Guide Data Channel named "Shader" as scatter channel:
And then used the Generate Strand Data node in "Random" Generation Method to randomize the shaders over the feathers.
In this case, I use the Minimum and Maximum Target Value to change the randomization.
You can download the test scene from here: https://ephere.com:3000/attachments/download/1797/GSDNode.mb
Randomizing thickness and other parameters
In this example we used the Generate Guide Data node to control the thickness, shaders and length of the feathers using one single channel. Then the Minimum Target Value was animated to create this effect:
You can download the test scene from here:
https://ephere.com:3000/attachments/download/1800/GSDNode02.mb