Nodes · Blacksmith

BS_HoloBuild

Blacksmithv1appForge

Overview

BS_HoloBuild: the holodeck — an object drawn as a hologram of lines and panels that then materialises into the real thing, or a hologram that reveals what is behind it, or a transition where A powers down, the void opens and B is built and lands. Built from a 3D scene node or from B's render passes (depth, P, N, uv, cryptomatte), drawn through the project camera, with a floor grid and a room, the subjects kept solid and lit by the hologram's spill, and the instabilities (flicker, shimmer, scan bands, chroma offset) that make it read as projected light. Nine presets. Every beat is on the clock knobs, in frames.

How to

How-to

Pick a preset (Construct cyan, Blueprint, Void to location…); mode is build an object, reveal, or a transition from A to B.
Name the 3D scene node in scene (or wire B's render passes) and the project camera in camera.
Time the beats: start, build_len, draw_time, fill_time, materialize_len; build_order decides what is drawn first.
Tune the line width and halo; the flicker, shimmer and scan bands make it read as projected light.

Inputs

Input	What it takes
A	the foreground, composited over B
B	the background — B decides the format
fg	—
subject_matte	—

Outputs

Output	Type
out	Image

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	What it does
mode	Choice	build object	What the node does. `build object`: a hologram builds into A (the object materialises). `reveal`: the void reveals B behind the hologram. `transition`: A powers down, the void opens, B is built and lands — one node, the whole beat. `build objectrevealtransition`
direction	Choice	build	`build` draws the hologram up; `unbuild` runs the beat backwards (the object comes apart into lines and goes). `buildunbuild`
scene	Text		The 3D scene node the hologram is built from, by name. Empty = build from B's render passes instead (see `geometry`).
targets	Text		Which prim paths this affects — space or comma separated, * matches one segment, ** any run. Empty = everything upstream.
camera	Text		The project camera to draw the hologram through, by name. Empty = the scene framed automatically.
geometry	Choice	auto	Where the geometry comes from: `auto` uses the scene when one is named, else B's passes; `scene` and `passes` force one. The passes are depth / P / N / uv / cryptomatte, named by the `pass_*` knobs. `autoscenepasses`
view	Choice	result	The display transform for viewing only — it never changes the pixels in the graph. `resultelementobjectspacemaskfrontdepth`
start	Float	1.0	The frame the beat starts on.
build_len	Float	36.0	How many frames the hologram takes to draw itself, from the first line to the last.
draw_time	Float	6.0	How many frames each line takes to draw from one end to the other.
fill_delay	Float	4.0	Frames after a panel's edges are drawn before its fill starts.
fill_time	Float	8.0	Frames the fill takes to reach full.
materialize_lag	Float	12.0	Frames after the hologram is drawn before the real object starts to materialise into it.
materialize_len	Float	24.0	Frames the materialise takes to run over the whole object.
materialize_edge	Float	3.0	How wide the materialise front is, in frames — the band where the hologram and the real object cross-fade.
linger	Float	8.0	Frames the hologram lingers after the object has fully materialised, before it fades.
fade	Float	8.0	Frames the hologram takes to fade once it lingers no more.
build_order	Choice	rise	The order the lines draw: `rise` (bottom up), `fall`, `sweep` (along `sweep_x/y/z` from `origin`), `radial` (out from `origin`), `parts` (one part at a time), `panels`. `risefallsweepradialpartspanels`
materialize_order	Choice	emissive first	The order the real object lands: `emissive first` (lights and emissive parts, then the rest `emissive_lead` frames later in the fallback order), or the same choices as `build_order`. `emissive firsttop-downbottom-upsame as buildsweepradialparts`
materialize_fallback	Choice	top-down	The order the non-emissive parts land when `materialize_order` is `emissive first`. `top-downbottom-upsame as buildsweepradialparts`
emissive_lead	Float	6.0	Frames the emissive parts land ahead of the rest under `emissive first`.
sweep_x	Float	1.0	The sweep direction for a `sweep` order, x.
sweep_y	Float	0.0	The sweep direction for a `sweep` order, y.
sweep_z	Float	0.0	The sweep direction for a `sweep` order, z.
origin_x	Float	0.0	The origin a `radial` order grows from and a `sweep` starts at, x (scene units).
origin_y	Float	0.0	The origin for `radial` and `sweep` orders, y.
origin_z	Float	0.0	The origin for `radial` and `sweep` orders, z.
stagger	Float	1.0	How unevenly the parts start in their order: 0 = all together, 1 = fully staggered across the build.
jitter	Float	0.0	Random variation on each line's start time, frames (seeded). 0 = the order exactly.
seed	Int	1	The random pattern's starting point. Change it for a different pattern of the same character; keep it to reproduce a frame exactly.
color	Color	[0.25, 1.0, 0.9, 1.0]	The colour.
intensity	Float	0.0	How strong the added effect is.
width	Float	1.6	The line width, pixels.
halo	Float	0.35	The glow around each line, as a fraction of its brightness.
halo_px	Float	3.0	How far the halo spreads, pixels.
xray	Float	0.0	How much of the far side of the object shows through the near side (0 = hidden lines hidden, 1 = fully see-through).
dot_size	Float	4.0	The size of the dots drawn at vertices and bright features, pixels. 0 = no dots.
fill	Float	0.05	How bright the panel fill is, as a fraction of the line colour.
fill_fresnel	Float	0.25	How much the fill brightens toward glancing angles (a hologram's edge sheen).
crease	Float	30.0	The angle between faces, degrees, above which an edge is drawn as a line. Lower draws more lines.
panel_spacing	Float	0.0	Spacing of the panel grid drawn across each face, scene units. 0 = no panel lines.
pass_depth	Text	depth	B's depth pass, by layer name, when the geometry comes from the passes.
pass_position	Text	P	B's position (P) pass, by layer name.
pass_normal	Text	N	B's normal (N) pass, by layer name.
pass_uv	Text	uv	B's uv pass, by layer name.
pass_crypto	Text	CryptoObject	B's cryptomatte layer, for parts and subjects from the passes.
depth_edge	Float	0.02	How big a step in B's depth pass counts as an edge to draw, as a fraction of the depth range.
emissive_threshold	Float	0.0	Brightness in B above which a feature counts as emissive (lands first, gets a dot). 0 = none.
grid	Bool	true	Draw the holodeck's floor grid.
grid_cell	Float	0.25	The floor grid's cell size, scene units.
grid_major	Float	4.0	Every this many cells the grid draws a brighter line.
grid_in	Float	12.0	Frames the floor grid rises before the build starts.
room	Bool	false	Draw the room: walls and ceiling round the targets, `room_margin` out.
room_margin	Float	0.5	How far the room's walls stand from the targets, scene units.
void_top	Color	[0.0, 0.02, 0.06, 1.0]	The void's colour at the top of frame (a reveal or transition's empty space).
void_bottom	Color	[0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 1.0]	The void's colour at the bottom of frame.
void_haze	Float	0.3	How much haze the void carries, fading the far parts of the room and the grid.
a_out	Choice	power-down	How A leaves in a transition: `power-down` (the lights die, then the image) or `dissolve` over `dissolve_len`. `power-downdissolve`
dissolve_len	Float	12.0	Frames A takes to dissolve when `a_out` is `dissolve`.
flash	Float	1.0	The landing flash when the object materialises, in stops of gain. 0 = none.
flash_len	Float	2.0	Frames the landing flash lasts.
void_grade	Float	0.6	How far the subjects in the void are pushed toward the hologram's colour wash (0 = as they are, 1 = fully graded).
settle	Float	24.0	Frames the void's haze and grade take to settle after the landing.
edge_style	Choice	hot edge	How the materialise front reads: `hot edge` (a bright line), `digital` (blocks), `scanline` (a band of lines), `plain` (a soft cross-fade). `hot edgedigitalscanlineplain`
edge_glow	Float	1.0	How bright the materialise edge glows, as a multiple of the line colour.
subjects	Choice	ask	Who is a subject in A (kept solid, lit by the hologram's spill): `ask` says out loud that the node needs one; `matte` uses the `subject_matte` input; `cryptomatte` picks `subject_ids` from A's layers; `none`. `askmattecryptomattenone`
subject_ids	Text		The cryptomatte objects that are the subjects (names, hashed the spec's way, or hex ids; comma separated).
subject_crypto	Text	CryptoObject	A's cryptomatte layer the subjects are picked from.
spill	Float	0.5	How much of the hologram's light spills onto the subjects, as a fraction.
spill_radius	Float	24.0	How far the spill reaches from the hologram, pixels.
flicker	Float	0.0	Instability: the whole hologram's brightness flickers by this fraction, frame to frame. Off by default; the presets opt in.
shimmer	Float	0.0	Instability: the lines shimmer along their length by this amount.
fill_noise	Float	0.0	Instability: noise in the panel fill, this much of its brightness.
scan_bands	Float	0.0	Instability: horizontal scan bands rolling through the hologram, this much darker.
chroma_offset	Float	0.0	Instability: the colour channels offset sideways by this many pixels, like a projector out of register.
energy	Float	0.0	Energy at the build front: puffs born where the lines are being drawn, this bright. 0 = none.
energy_size	Float	4.0	The energy puffs' size, pixels.
energy_life	Float	8.0	Frames an energy puff lives.
energy_rise	Float	1.5	How fast the energy puffs rise, pixels a frame.
energy_sparks	Float	0.3	How much of the energy is sparks rather than puffs (0 = puffs, 1 = sparks).
format_width	Int	1920	Width in pixels.
format_height	Int	1080	Height in pixels.
slot	Int	0	The live-stream slot this node reads. Slots are process-wide; the same number in two nodes is the same stream.
disabled	Bool	false	Bypass: the node passes its first input through untouched (D in the graph). The knobs keep their values for when it comes back.
label	Text		A note shown under the node in the graph — what this node is FOR. Never affects the render or the cache.
hide_input	Bool	false	Draw the node without its input wire — a tidy graph for a node whose source is obvious (a Dot, a viewer tap).