User Manual

There are five items you should be aware of when dealing with normals.
#1 The FBX importer recomputes the normals if they don’t exist, but you can get a
higher-quality result from the Replace Normals node.
#2 Bump maps can sometimes depend on the model’s normals. Specifically, when you
simplify a complex high polygon model to a low polygon model + bump map, the
normals and bump map can become “linked.” Recomputing the normals in this case can
make the model look funny. The bump map was intended to be used with the
original normals.
#3 Most primitives in Fusion are not generated with tangents; when needed, they are
generated on the fly by a Renderer 3D and cached.
#4 Tangents currently are only needed for bump mapping. If a material needs bump
mapping, then tangents are created. These tangents are created with some default
settings (e.g., Smoothing Angle, and so on). If you don’t want Fusion automatically
creating tangents, you can use the Replace Normals node to create them manually.
#5 All computations are done in the local coordinates of the geometries instead of in
the coordinate system of the Replace Normals 3D node. This can cause problems
when there is a non-uniform scale applied to the geometry before Replace Normals 3D
is applied.
Common Controls
Settings Tab
The Settings tab is common to many 3D nodes. The description of these controls can be found
in “The Common Controls” section at the end of this chapter.
Replicate 3D [3REP]
The Replicate3D node
Replicate 3D Node Introduction
The Replicate 3D node replicates input geometry at positions of destination vertices. The
vertices can be mesh vertices as well as particle positions. For each copy of the replicated
input geometry, various transformations can be applied. The options in the Jitter tab allow
non-uniform transformations, such as random positioning or sizes.
Inputs
There are two inputs on the Replicate 3D node: one for the destination geometry that contains
the vertices, and one for the 3D geometry you want to replicate.
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Destination: The orange destination input accepts a 3D scene or geometry with
vertex positions, either from the mesh or 3D particle animations.
Chapter – 80 3D Nodes 1704