Proxy Materials

Table of contents
  1. Proxy
    1. Color Tint
    2. Feathering
    3. Cookie Mask
    4. Invert Cookie
  2. Proxy Settings
    1. Animated
    2. Proxy
    3. VertexFX
    4. NoiseFX
    5. Offsets
      1. Depth Threshold Offset
      2. Flow Threshold Offset
      3. Color Threshold Offset
      4. Depth Bias
    6. Wobble
      1. Wobble Frequency
      2. Wobble Amplitude
      3. Wobble Phase
      4. Wobble Blur
      5. Wobble Blur Layers
      6. Wobble Motion
    7. Culling

Proxy materials are invisible materials that only render effect control maps within Flair, thereby not rendering any color but only modifying effects on the final image, instead.

Any mesh assigned to a proxy material becomes an art-direction tool to stylize elements in the scene. This makes them extremely versatile as they can change effects at all levels of control. For example, they can affect the entire image by being placed in front of the camera as a proxy card, or affect only a specific part of the scene in 3D space by being placed in front of it. The tutorial below showcases this versatility.

Any flairShader material can become a proxy material by toggling the proxy setting, but proxies can also easily be created or assigned from the material presets tool using the proxy preset.

As flairShader materials, proxies are divided into optional Proxy Settings and Proxy attributes. The proxy attributes are always present no matter what settings are enabled, so let’s introduce them first.

Flair proxy material node
The proxy attributes in the Attribute Editor.

Proxy

Proxies show few parameters by default, as effect control is achieved mostly through the VertexFX and NoiseFX tools being applied onto the material.

Color Tint

Color Tint darkens pixels with a specified color. This attribute is especially useful for materials like tinted windows.

Color Tint with a light red color.

Feathering

Feathering softens the hard edges of the proxy materials. This effect works as a fresnel, so it shows best when the material is applied to round objects.

Feathering the Color Tint (0...3.0).

When proxies clip with other objects, a hard edge might be visible due to the compenetration of meshes. Use the Wobble Blur effect to achieve a smoother transition and feathering when compenetration becomes an issue.

Cookie Mask specifies an image containing a mask of the proxy. It is especially useful if you place a proxy plane (card) in front of the camera to create effect vignettes.

Cookie mask applied on a proxy material.

Invert Cookie inverts the applied Cookie Mask values.

Cookie mask inverted on a proxy material.

Proxy Settings

The first section provides the Proxy Settings that allow to customize what optional features the proxy material should have.

Animated

The Animated setting bakes the current position of vertices so that effects that rely on the 3D positions can stay in place when proxies are deformed/animated. If this setting is not enabled, features like NoiseFX or Wobble would float around in 3D space and not move with the proxies.

Proxy

The Proxy setting enables the proxy material behavior. When disabled, the proxy material will become a normal flairShader material.

VertexFX

The VertexFX setting toggles the control of effects through vertex colors. The attribute is automatically enabled by Flair and is toggled as soon as you start painting with the VertexFX tool.

NoiseFX

The NoiseFX setting toggles the use of NoiseFX in the material and enables the NoiseFX section at the bottom of the Attribute Editor. NoiseFX is generally toggled automatically when the NoiseFX tool is used and allows you to key and animate NoiseFX attributes when needed.

NoiseFX attributes
The beginning of the NoiseFX attributes

Offsets

Flair 1.2

The Offsets setting toggles the available offsets and the respective section within the Attribute Editor. The effects of these attributes will only be visible on effects and styles that work with thresholds and depth i.e., lines.

For example, with the right thresholding offsets, you can have only outlines (silhouette) appear behind a proxy plane, thereby changing how lines draw at a certain depth.

Offset attributes
The available Offset attributes

Depth Threshold Offset

Depth Threshold Offset modifies the global depth threshold on everything inside or behind the proxy material

Flow Threshold Offset

Flow Threshold Offset modifies the global flow (normals) threshold on everything inside or behind the proxy material

Color Threshold Offset

Color Threshold Offset modifies the global color threshold on everything inside or behind the proxy material

Depth Bias

Depth Bias offsets the depth of the proxy material to help fix potential depth-based artifacts with overlapping geometries.

Wobble

Flair 1.2

The Wobble setting activates the use of wobble offsets within the proxy and toggles its attributes in the Attribute Editor. These material attributes offset the global wobble values set in the globals node, so make sure to enable and set the wobble effect globally first.

Different types of wobble noise can be specified for different results

  • None - No wobble is applied
  • Simple - Default simplex wobble noise
  • Cloud - More detailed fractalized wobble noise resembling the “cloud” noise in Photoshop (better appreciated at a higher polygon count).
  • Custom - Custom noise, which can be written in glsl flair/maya/shaders/material/include/noise.glsl [customNoise3(vec4 v)].
Wobble offsets section
The Wobble Offsets section in the Attribute Editor.

Once the wobble attribute has been enabled globally, material presets will default as wobbled (Simple).

It is difficult to clearly visualize the wobble on a proxy, so the examples below feature the normal flairShader material. However, the exact same deformation and diffusion applies to proxy materials, as well.

Wobble Frequency

Offsets the regularity of the wobble. A higher frequency will make the wobble more “irregular”, whereas a lower frequency will make it more “regular”. The frequency is directly linked to the global World Scale.

Wobble Frequency (0...5) - Visualized in a normal flairShader material.

Wobble Amplitude

Defines the amount of wobble. A higher amplitude will deform more than a lower amplitude. The amplitude is directly linked to the global World Scale.

Wobble Amplitude (0...2.5) - Visualized in a normal flairShader material.

Wobble Phase

Defines the form of the wobble. Useful when you want a different wobble deformation or want to vary the wobble on a frame-by-frame basis.

Wobble Phase (0...3) - Visualized in a normal flairShader material.

As wobble is generated from noise in 3D, make sure to toggle the deformed attribute in materials if they are animated/deformed so that the wobble is baked in place.

Wobble Blur

Defines the amount of wobble blur for TAA samples, generating a soft edge by averaging different wobble positions as layers.

Wobble Blur (0...1) - Visualized in a normal flairShader material.

Wobble Blur Layers

Defines the amount of wobble blur layers i.e., the amount of wobbled positions to use during the wobble blur.

Wobble Blur Layers (32...1) - Visualized in a normal flairShader material.

With a low layer amount, you can use Wobble Blur to achieve a layered watercolor look!

Wobble Motion

Defines the amount of motion offset of the wobble, generating streaks of motion under animation. For this attribute to show its effect, make sure that velocity is enabled in the Globals node and in the material.

Wobble motion at 0.5 and 2.5 - Visualized in a normal flairShader material.

Culling

The Culling setting defines which faces should be culled within the proxy.

  • None - No culling, all objects with the material are rendered as double sided.
  • Front - The front-facing faces are going to be culled, only rendering the back faces.
  • Back - The back-facing faces are going to be culled, only rendering front-faces. This can help performance on objects with many polygons.