I've been working to create a spruce tree laden with snow. This is what I came up with after half and hour, then spent some time playing with adding a bone rig. Each tree is several groups. I went that way first, but I wonder if it was all one vertex object, it it would be easier to use... I did make one all one mesh but the object was 11000 verticies and counting. Suggestions for the branches? I have these trees all around here, and we just had a nice snow dump. I want to make 5-8 variations - some very covered, etc. It is not for up close - no needles..it is also very dense. Let me know if anyone has an idea for how to improve on this approach. R

And here is it duplicated with duplicated birds. Kinda hard to see the birds..

Not that we have snow in South Australia, but could yours be made to look a bit fluffier with say, some noise maybe?

Thanks bwtr, spots maybe? I wanted to play with SSS, since snow can be translucent in light, but it is too expensive for an object so far away in the scene. I'm trying for a birch tree next - with snow.. R

Here is a birch with some snow on the branches. The tree is a Carrara with duplicated branches, raised on y axis, with snow shader applied. But, I hate the way the branches stick down... you can see it on the close tree. The branch does not come out from the limb, but drops down - ugly! Any ideas on how to stop this? PLus, all the trees look identical : ) I need 4-6 varieties for a more diverse forest.

Hi. What I did was select the shader for the branches and apply a gradient colour, with white on top and the branch colour underneath. It worked rather well for the conifer type trees. Unfortunately the image and Carrara file is on a different computer that I do not have access to at the moment. It is late here (after midnight) but if you are still having problems tomorrow night I can try and recreate it on this computer and upload it to you. David

I added 2 more trees, one is not duplicated. I'm afraid I can't go too far with this. It is taxing on the computer. Two more varieties would help... dead, yellow/pale grass, a fox hiding behind a tree - this scene need something more... I don't like the crisp shadows - there is only sun light in the scene. R

Nice work ominous, Branches - have you played with the propagation options in the tree generator to move the branches? Sameness - a great way to hide duplicates is to allow a 360 degree random rotation when you use the surface replicator. The option is towards the bottom of the replicator window. Shadows - a distant light with soft shadows set to 2000 or better will fix that. Looking forward to seeing more. We just got 18 more inches of snow where I live last night. :D Mark

That's a good little dump of snow. We had 5-8 inches for 5 days in a row. It made for tired muscles after five days of shoveling the drive and deck with no break. I'll give the distant light an option... then I'd switch off the "sun" light? Thanks for the tips. Robert

I played with AG and was able to make a passable grass animation, but I'm still not happy. I'll see if I can upload here. R

Oops, I posted this to the wrong thread. Anyway - one question I had was how to animate the AnythingGrows, so I've spent part of the morning on this.

Here is a different take on the same test. It's almost lunch time here. : ) I think the shading domain needs to be shaped in circles... What I did was cut the plane into a strip of 4 zones, each with an AnythingGrows patch that I animate as the ship passes over. The shading zones are squares and the grass also a square of movement. Does anyone know a better way to do this? Thanks, Robert

Well, I've introduced a pair of wolves from Poser7... what's with the skinny, way-too-many bones tails? Is e-frontier trying to get us to use hair on the animals? The Poser7 lion needs hair, the wolf's tail needs hair... but, I don't know an easy way to add hair to a tail with 10 individual zones - unless I add ten hair pieces for just the tail alone... otherwise, its got one skinny tail. No self-respecting wolf would prowl around with a tail that looks like it belongs on a grayhound. Too much snow? Any ideas to improve this image? The wolves are lame, I know. Was thinking about a few deer in the background. R

Can the snow on the ground be a little more white ?

I added more white to the shader - thank you. Good idea. Here is an attempt to make a mountain ash tree in winter with berries still on. A similar one is outside my livingroom window. The trees in Carrara from plant gen. - leaves can be replaced, but can they be replaced with something invisible or so small... I want to use replicator to place berries on only the leaf shader zone - in this pic the berries are on the branch 2. Ideas... R Happy New Year!

I can't seem to create a tree from Carrara's plants that I like to use for this mountain ash model. The branches are very straight, not crooked like a real tree. I might have to model a tree in Hex with crooked branches - any ideas?

http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/freestuff/tutorials/autumnchallenge/raindrops/index.html 

Try this tute. Making the limbs in Hexagon or Carrara is NOT as easy as I would have hoped. And, getting a really good bumped texture is beyond me.(I have several great textures but could not get any to result in realistic looks)

Look forward to seeing your efforts.

You will probably want to start playing with the expert controls, specifically the Start and End angle Evolution plus increase the curve settings for the Generation 2 and 3. You can start to add Gen 4 and 5 but expect a speed hit while it generates the tree. Following that, you can go and readjust the Gravity for the tree in the tree shape window. (A great way to bend the trunk and have the branches still reach skyward)

Excellent tutorial bwtr, and the site is full of great work. I was able to get bends Mark, thanks. I'm much happier now. I"ll post a pic soon. We are just getting covered in snow here. I cleaned the drive this morning so my wife could get to work, and I"ll have to shovel again this evening. I bet we get 1 foot today. This will be a record year for Anchorage. I need to take pictures - could be we are entering the "little" iceage and this snow just might not stop...

Here is a pic and a thank you to Lyne for her wonderful models! I love working with the rabbits and the coyote. Can't wait to get the wolves and the cats - wow! Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!

If they get tired of running away all the time, they might take a tip from this guy: http://wolfire.com/lugaru.html Nice progress on the snow thing. Sounds like this might be a method for dealing with moss on boulders or similar as well.

I think I saw this in development - GameCreators - maybe, DarkBasic software - didn't know it could be ported to Mac... for a while I wanted to make games but wanted a way to port to the Mac - Flash is another option - so much to do.

Not to get off the subject, but Lugaru is a fantastic piece of work. Shareware, multi-platform, full-function demo (the only difference is that you have to register to get above level 4 in the game)...and most astonishing, was designed to put gameplay first; it doesn't require you get the latest video card, download special plug-ins, reconfigure your system -- just load it up and play. Been playing no problem on an elderly G4 400, myself. Sure, I have to dial down the settings a bit, but it runs nice and smooth (and is very addictive.) Well, while I'm posting -- what method was used for the snowy branches in the rabbit pic? Is that a texture with displacement, or is it something else?

I'll have to download it and give it a whirl. Nothing like a kung-fu bunny to raise the spirits. The trees are still a work-in-progress. I'll post what I've been trying to do for Poser. I've been on a Poser kick lately... since P7 came out. anyway, I like the displacement in Poser - learned how to add displaced "fur" a couple weeks back - would love to do it in Carrara. For the trees in the bunny pic I just duplicated the branch mesh and raised up, one green, one white, maybe too simple. It leads to a more conplex model, but I can then edit the snow when I want - less here, more there. I really like the displacement in Poser - I just don't - haven't tried in Carrara yet... do you think this can be done in Carrara - the pic I've included?

Can this displacement be done in Carrara?

Most definately.

Then I'm going to give it a try. I played with the math functions - but couldn't get the thin points like in Poser. I did get a ball to spike out. I keep at it.