Use the Light Linker, but switch the Link Type to Shadow Mask.
Now select your light sources and remove the shadow catcher from the Shadow Casters list.
This will prevent complex objects with detail from casting unwanted shadows on themselves (even though you've unticked self-casting on their object!)
like this-
some mark fancher youtube vex tidbits-
//in a rig attrib wrangle, to rotate joints - take into account parenting!-
vector axis={1,0,0};
prerotate(4@localtransform, chf("angle"),axis);
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//in a rig attrib wrangle,to scale joints - take into account parenting-
prescale(4@localtransform, chf("scale"));
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
//point wrangle, after a distance along geometry - nice rampable normalised mask
float map=f@map;
float p=chf("position");
float t=chf("transition");
t=max(t,0.0001); //clamps down value
p=fit01(p,-t,1); //makes mask zero when t at low values and p at zero
float mask=fit(map,p,p+t,1,0);
mask=chramp("ramp",mask);
f@mask=mask;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
how to store activation frame based on a threshold of something
in a point wrangle
if(@value>chf("threshold")){
i@group_active=1;
}
inside a solver...connect prev_frame to input 2 and input 1 to 1 of a point wrangle..
int prev_active=inpointgroup(1,"active",@ptnum); //check if previous frame was active
//if group active and NOT previously active then give active_frame value of current frame
if(i@group_active==1 && prev_active==0){
f@active_frame=@Frame;
}
float activationFramePrevious=point(1,"active_frame",@ptnum);
f@active_frame=max(activationFramePrevious, @active_frame);
simple spring solver - prev frame into input 1, input 1 into 2nd input of wrangle
based on F=-kx -bv
where F is force, k is the spring coefficient (stiffness), x is the distance, b is the damping and v is velocity. We also use F=ma to calculate acceleration (and use that for velocity, which ultimately gets added to Position)
float m=chf("mass");
float k=chf("stiffness");//stiffness coefficient
float b=chf("damping");//damping coefficient
vector p2=point(1,"P",@ptnum);//position of point on "current" frame
vector x=@P-p2; //distance between previous and current
vector f=-k*x -b*v@_v;//calculate force using damped harmonic motion equation
vector a =f/m; //get acceleration from f=ma to then find...
v@_v+=a;//velocity
v@P+=v@_v;//new position is calculated by adding velocity vector to current pos
