Hi. Thank you very much for all you posts in earlier posts. They have been very helpful. Two more questions for you. Can Carrara create, simulate falling snow over a wide area and up close? The project I'm working now requires snow falling. Any idea how to create this? My other question. Can the tree lab generate tree stumps. In this one scene the tree is supposed to be cut diagonally and fall over. This is for a series of prints not animation. I have played around with the tree lab a bit, but have come up with know ideas. Is it posible to select the section of the tree you want and to shatter that section? Thanks you for all you time and effort. It is making my transition from Bryce easier, and hopefully I will be able to post some of my work in the near future. Sincerely, David

Hi Pedrith, Yes, snow is pretty easy. The image above was created for a recent project using the Particle Generator. This scene contains 12 generators duplicated using the Snow Preset. I added a custom alpha mask to the particle shader to soften the edges. Then, just a little motion blur over time and there you have it. For the tree stump, try converting the Carrara tree into a vertex object and then edit the trunk in the vertex modeler. That should get you what you want. You'll probably want to duplicate the trunk to create a bottom and top. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. :) Mark

Such an interesting thread. I must reply and hope it is of some help.

You can use the particle generator--also see the browser---for the snow..  If you have actual images of snow crystals they can be the objects for the particles for the close ups. ( My imagination boggles at the beautiful effects you could attain)

For the second question, you could create your own "stump" in the Carrara vertex modeller to "match" the tree. (locate it accurately over the tree) then --?-- can you take the tree into the vertex modeller and delete the polygons at the bottom as requred???

Then, because you have two objects, you can do your "falling" to just the one, leaving the other.

Now I just have to try my wild first thoughts out for myself.

And Mark replied first with a similar answer which makes this old bloke verry happy!

I would imagine particles could work very well for falling, or blowing snow. A tree-stump, unless it has a lot of roots, is a pretty easy object to model using either the vertex or spline modeler. Converting a tree model from Carrara's plant modeler to a vertex model, (so you can edit the mesh) seems like a lot more work than just using the modelers.

Lol, looks like we all Cross-posted.

I've edited a tree-generator created mesh at least once. I think I was making some logs for a simple fire. Took a short tree, hacked the remaining branches down to stubs and broke up the top and bottom. It is an okay mesh to work with (the tree generator mesh). Not too bizarre and messy -- and with careful tweaking of settings doesn't have to be too big, either.

If you have Hexigon, it's great for making tree stumps and roots. I just played around this morning on a tree, took it to Carrara and put leaves on with surface replicator. It's not winter in this setting. Please post what you come up with.

Thanks for all your help.  I have Hexagon (bought it when Daz had that great deal).  Yeah, I'll post something when I have time.  Work is really busy right now, so it might be a while.

David

Quote - If you have Hexigon, it's great for making tree stumps and roots. I just played around this morning on a tree, took it to Carrara and put leaves on with surface replicator. It's not winter in this setting. Please post what you come up with.

Beautiful tree!

Thank you. Now if I could spell "Hexagon" I'd be set. I've tried out Silo recently. The free 30 day download is small to load and seems to be complete. Nice - needs a 3 button mouse to get the full effect. The only thing I had trouble with was exporting the model. It came out rough, even after subdivision in Carrara.

I can't let something go once I get started - a bad habit I guess. Here is some more work on the tree pic. I enjoy playing with the surface replication. What a powerful tool!

Actually if one of you could give me a step by step walkthrough of making snow with the partical generator I would really appreciate it, as I can't get the partical generator to actually do anything, let alone create snow. I really am a newbie. Thank you all so much. Sorry it took so long to reply. David

This is VERY simplified but may help some. ONE

TWO

Nice one bwtr! I haven't tried this application of particles yet, but this seems easy enough to follow.

 

Bwtr thanks for the pictures.  Unfortunately I am still having problems getting the particles to work.  If somebody would be kind enough to post a scene with particles working so that I can compare it to my scene to try and figure out what is wrong, I would really really apreciate it.

Sincerely,

David

Very slow to render, but this may help you see the setups.Dont forget to look at the modelling setups for the particles (the spanner)

Very slow to render, but this may help you see the setups.Dont forget to look at the modelling setups for the particles (the spanner)

Very slow to render, but this may help you see the setups.Dont forget to look at the modelling setups for the particles (the spanner)

The site wont accept the zip file containg the .car---getting fed up with these problems on this site.

Have you gone through the Help manual?  This is what comes up if you do a "particles" search function. of it.  Hope it helps. Also, look at the tutes at polyloop.net