A Challenge
 

I have a project that Ted and I were working on but so far we haven't been able to come up with a solution so I decided to make it a challenge to all animators.

The Challenge:

To successfully make a CD on 3DS max. This CD must have the Rainbow of colors radiating out from the middle like a normal CD does. Also the Rainbow of colors must be able to react to any lighting conditions. (This is extremely difficult because if there is more than one light source, then there is more than one rainbow on the CD.) The rainbow of Colors must point toward the light source and get thinner as the light source becomes more parallel, Just like a normal CD. I must see a video of the CD rotating so the CD can radiate in it beautifulness. This all has to be done in materials, no texture maps. Caustics are fine (I don't know how they work).

The animator who completes this must provide a explanation of how they did it and will be deemed God of all animators who animate Cd's. good luck to all of you!

Re: A Challenge
 

After several tries ending up in spectacular failure I think the best thing to do until an answer surfaces is scan a CD, I did and it looks rather real. Yet I will most likely try, try, and try again until I pass out on my keyboard, then wake up for school tomorrow with imprints of keys in my face, again...
Here was my only success.
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/7452/cd6iv.jpg A simple 12 faced model using a scanned image of an AOL CD and a OCA map.

If anyone is wondering "How did you try so many times if he just posted this!?" I was talking to him before today. Got a little bit of a head start, but do not worry I don't plan to win this.
Another picture.

Here is a second picture.
http://img486.imageshack.us/img486/5536/cd28ya.jpg

Re: A Challenge
 

Here's an idea to try (I don't have 3ds max installed on this machine nor the time lol, but maybe it'll give you something to work with):

Make a spline that is just very jagged and very thin and long. Then revolve that the 360 degrees. If you think about how a cd works, that's why you have those "rainbows". You can make this revolution a glass-like texture and if you use a renderer that will take into fact the way light splits through a prism (which is why the jagged edges will give you a rainbow) it should naturally create the effect you want and will react like a real cd would (since in practicallity your making one, including the surface texture). Good luck.

A Challenge Indeed
 

Let me tell you right now that this is really hard and/or tricky.

I had this discussion before, with a guy named Andy Rak. We eventually came up with something that links the camera's axis with the CD material's coordinates, resulting in some spinning colors when the CD was turned a certain way. It was mostly gradient ramps. You can find it here:

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPrevie....cfm/ID/244497

I know that finalRender, as part of its finalShaders package, has a specific shader for this:
http://www.finalrender.com/products/...PID=45&FID=390

Now, the tricky part is that I found one for sale that claimed to do it without any special renderers and stuff, just with normal max stuff. It looks pretty legit - maybe if we pool $39 we can find out.

http://www.turbosquid.com/FullPrevie....cfm/ID/237227