Smooth refraction with material applied to a sphere?

Development Rendering
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1

Hi, I’ve been working towards creating a sort of shockwave effect. Currently I have a mesh emitter emitting a sphere every 3 seconds or so and that sphere grows in size over its lifetime then disappears. The sphere’s material is entirely transparent and simply refracts light. However the the true geometry of the “sphere” becomes way to clear as the refraction clearly defines the faces of the sphere to the viewer. I’m looking for a way to make the refraction smooth so the shockwave effect appears to actually be round. How is this done?

Thanks.

2

You could use a fresnel (node) in the material editor and hook it up with you transparency.

3

Turns out I just needed to go back into blender and smooth it out there. I am interested in using fresnel on this effect after checking it out. Thanks for the tip.

4

You want to use a sphere gradient. Bill Kladis shows exactly what you’re trying to do in this livestream: Particles with Bill Kladis | Feature Highlight | Unreal Engine - YouTube

The linked time is where you want to start