Hi folks,
    Tonight we've posted a small update to Anything Grows. It adds a new
strand distribution algorithm that plays nicer with high density meshes,
like the ones generated from Ground Control. Also for Carrara 1 and Carrara
2 users, it includes all the fixes for bugs discovered during the Carrara 3
beta. The update is free for all DCG Anything Grows or eovia Power Pack
customers. You can grab the update or download and try Anything Grows from
the following links.

Carrara 3.0
PC
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c3/anythinggrows.zip
Mac OS9
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c3/anythinggrowsos9.sit
Mac OSX
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c3/anythinggrowsosx.sit

Carrara 2.1
PC
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c2/anythinggrows.zip
Mac OS9
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c2/anythinggrowsos9.sit
Mac OSX
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/c2/anythinggrowsosx.sit

Carrara 1.1
PC
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/anythinggrows.zip
Mac
http://digitalcarversguild.com/downloads/anythinggrows.sit

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Thanks for your GREAT plugins! The updates are appreciated.

How do you get the discs to face up from strand tips?

Waldo,

Not sure I understand the question, but I'll babble a little bit about tips and see if that helps. If not, let me know.

Tip objects orient their Z-axis along the strands length. So if you have a bunch of strands and you want a disc that looks like there is a pancake on the top of each strand, draw a disc in the VM that lies in the XY plane. If you want it to look like stop signs, draw a disc in the YZ or XZ plane.

Does that help?

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

I found few problems with Anything Grows. 1. It won't reset tip's hot point after I modified it on the original obj. 2. I can't control its rotation and distribute to the tip of strands. 3. Anything grows won't take one or 2 scaled sides. It only take in original shaped mesh. 4. Anything Grows only have a function for tips to face to the camera or randomly rotate. As I mentioned #2, I would like to be able to control the tip rotation to either face up like dandelions or other complex tip rot. Example of problems with Anything Grows (image attached) Is it possible to animate mesh of tips using the original obj with keyed frame?

Waldo,

1. It will next time Carrara asks it to rebuild its mesh or you can use the Refresh button to force it.

2. You can control the twist using the Tip Twist shader, but the rest of the orientation is control by the direction of the strand. It will place the object's origin at the tip of the strand oriented along the strands direction.

3. Not sure what you're saying here. Can you elaborate?

4. Again you can use tip twist, but the rest of the rotation is determined by the strands direction.

You can animate your original object as a tip. Use the Animate slider on Anything Grows' UI to tell AGro when it needs to refresh. The easiest thing to do is just set it 100% at the end of your animation and it will refresh each frame.

Is this what you were trying to do with the image above?

Here is the Vertex object I'm using for a tip. I created a 512 polyhedron, chopped off the top, and then moved the bottom up so that it was above the origin to keep the tip of the strands from poking through the bottom.

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

I want to add one more thing. #4 value to keep strand or tip distant from other stands or tips

Waldo, I still don't think I understand what you're asking for in #2. The best way to do the flower variety thing is just use several AGro primitives each with different tip objects. We have thought about collision detection and a way to specify a patterned distribution, but I couldn't say when (or if) we'd ever do it. Regards, Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild 3D plug-ins for Carrara http://digitalcarversguild.com