The Edge Detection subgroup
3Delight for Maya can perform outlining on any desired variable. This can be useful, for ex- ample, when doing toon rendering or illustration. An example scene can be found in ‘$DELIGHT/example/maya/outlines’. It is also possible to render shaded wireframes on polygon meshes; see Polygons Wireframe.
Enable
This attribute enables edge detection for this particular display. it is set to off by default.
Detected Variables
This attribute specifies on what variables the edge detection (outlining) will run. Sev- eral variables can be specified, separated by a coma. For example, setting this attribute to ‘N,z,Oi’ will run edge detection on normals, depth and object contours. By default, this attribute is set to ‘Ci’, which is the color of the light reflected by an object.
Threshold
This attribute controls the sensitivity of the edge detection. The higher the threshold the more sensitive the edge detection is. For example, when detecting variations on ‘z’ (depth), a value of ‘0.1’ means that if there is a gap of ‘0.1’ between two surfaces (in the z direction) then an edge will be generated. This attribute is set to ‘0.1’ by default.
Color
This attribute defines the color of the generated outline. It is set to white by default.
Filter Width
This attribute defines the width of the generated outline. It is set to ‘0.2’ by default. Values between ‘0’ and ‘1’ are allowed, producing very fine outlines. In this case it is recommended to raise the "Pixel Samples" attribute (see[Pixel Samples], page 49) in order to avoid anti-aliasing of the outlines.
Next to this attribute, there is an option menu to determine how this width should be interpreted. The possible values are:
Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Pixels | The filter width is a number of pixels. |
| % of Frame Width | The filter width is taken as a percentage of the image resolution in X. |
| The filter width is taken as a percentage of the image resolution in X. | |
| Min Z / Max Z |
Depth Based Fadeout
This attribute enables the edge thickness fadeout with depth. It is off by default.
Min Z
Max Z
These two attributes specify the depth range on which the fadeout will be performed. By default, "Min Z" is set to ‘0.0’ and ‘Max Z’ is set to ‘1000.0’.
Min Filter Width
The depth based fadeout will keep edges with a minimum width specified by this attribute. Its default value is ‘1.0’.