Tutorials - Clarisse

This section contains a tutorial about Atoms Clarrise workflow. Please refer to the reference guide to know more about the atoms proxy parameters.

Import an atoms cache

In order to render an Atoms cache in Clarisse, you should use the atoms proxy node. First create an atoms cache in Maya or Houdini.

Create an "AtomsProxy" node via the menu Create > Atoms > Atoms Proxy Bundle.
With the new Atoms Proxy selected, scroll down to the bottom of the attribute editor.
In the cachePath parameter of the AtomsProxy node pick the cache file (the file named youCacheName.atoms).
In the variationsPath parameter pick the variation json file (if you have one) and change the draw_mode to "Variation". if you don't have a variation json you can keep the draw_mode to "Skin".

The proxy node will create all the relevant geometries for the cache agents and they will be accesible in the material linker where you will be able to connect them to any scene material.
Depending on the draw_mode different geometries will be created for each agent.

Filter agents

To filter agents set the agentIds parameter with the syntax: "2-10" or "!(2-10)".

Override agent variations

To change the agent variations, you can use the following syntax: agentId@variationName.
For instance: 1@casualAutumn_1 (if you want to provide multiple variation overrides use "," as separator).

Exposing Metadatas as mesh properties

Set the "metadata" attribute to "Mesh + Agent".

Create a new standard material, apply it to all agents in the proxy.

Open the material:

Create three constant colors; red, blue and green
Create an extract property node and set the property to "agent_groupId"
Create a switch and set its mode to "Value"
Connect the extract property node to the input attribute of the switch, then connect all constant colors to the textures attribute.

Your agents should now change color depending on their groupId.

Clarisse scripts

It is possible to connect automatically Clarisse materials via the menu Atoms > Assign Atoms Proxy Shading Groups.

Before you can run this action you must have an Atoms Proxy selected in the scene. Your scene materials must be named correctly in order to be applied to each agent shape.

In skin mode the materials should follow this naming convention "$(agentTypeName)_$(shape_name)" (i.e. man_body_GEO)
In variation mode the materials should be named as the materials in the variation json assigned to your atoms proxy (you can use the variation manager in Maya or Houdini to check the names).

Another menu action is available Atoms > Create Shading Layer And Materials.

Please follow these steps:

Select your Atoms Proxy and click on the new action in the Atoms menu.
Depending on the selected draw mode in the atoms proxy you will get one of the two following message boxes.
Skin mode

Variation mode

By pressing cancel you will abort the operation, if you press No in both cases one material per shading group will be generated. This might mean you will end up with a lot of materials, as you might have a lot of agents and meshes.
If you press Yes, the following behaviour will happen.
Skin mode: one material per agent type mesh will be created and assigned to the shading group. This means very few materials will be created (mainly because in skin mode there is always the same set of meshes for each agent type) and they will be shared between your agents. The material name is build in this way:
(AGENT_TYPE)_(GEOMETRY_NAME)_MAT

Variation mode: one material per Variation material will be created and assigned to the shading group. This would actually be the best thing to do if you have variations as in fact it would exactly reproduce the same setup you had in your source DCC (maya or houdini). The material name is build in this way:
(AGENT_TYPE)_(MATERIAL_NAME)