I'm trying to achieve an effect similar to this image:
However it's looking more like this:
No halo; the material ends where the mesh ends.
How can I set a material to look like the first image?
Thanks in advance.
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Sign up to join this communityI'm trying to achieve an effect similar to this image:
However it's looking more like this:
No halo; the material ends where the mesh ends.
How can I set a material to look like the first image?
Thanks in advance.
This kind of effect is usually created in post processing. In Blender's compositor I found that the Filter > Blur node gives a result quite close to what you are looking for, though the Glare node may also work.
Just go the the Node Editor view, switch to compositing nodes, and drop a Blur node in between the Render Layers and Composite nodes. I found that using Fast Gaussian seems to produce the best looking effect.
To get that even wider glow you can add a second blur node with a much larger blur and mix it with the smaller blur. Set the mix mode to Add and adjust the Fac slider to suit your tastes.
For the actual mesh I just used the IvyGen technique outlined here with a very strong volumetric emission shader (and no surface shader).
You can accomplish this in cycles. But you have to add a little bit more geometry.
The easiest way for me to imagine you starting to experiment with this method is:
APPENDING RESULTS OF COMMENTS BELOW:
The results are obviously a starting point to tweak for the look you want. However this is a pretty decent one, considering it needs no post-processing in the compositor, unless you really need to pull off the blurred effect.
@MrZak Thanks for the input.