hello everyone,since september i have a winter scene in my mind but i really dont know how to make a realistic snow shader,if you know how then please let me know,thank you.

merry christmas and a happy new year to everyone!!

Message edited on: 12/21/2004 14:33

Hi ,
that reallly depends of the scale of your scene. In close ups a snow-terrain works really good. That means, like ocean, you build a terrain, very soft and that is the snow in your scene.
On large scales, the snow distribution on terrains works really good.
On objects, you also can use the terraindistribution to lay snow on trees, cars or houses.
I mean the terraindistribution of C4.
But it would be better, if you give us more details of the scene, you have in your mind.
Johannes

hallo Johannes,it will be a real close up scene with a evil snowman in a dark landscape.the inspiration for this scene came after i visited a christmas market and after i watched the movie nightmare before christmas again(saw it 80 times).im not sure if i should make my snow textures with photoshop or make a shader in carrara.
i will make the complete scene in carrara but at the moment im thinking about modeling some stuff for the scene in amapi pro 7.5(i always integrate amapi in everything i do:)).i dont want to use the terrain modeler(not needed for this small scene),i want to model this in the vertex modeler or in amapi pro.

see you over at 3dps Johannes:)

Message edited on: 12/22/2004 05:26

A grid in the Vertex Modeller will make a nice smooth snowy landscape. Deform it up and down a bit with the Magnet tool. Then for the shader you might try the terrain bump in the bump channel. There's a lot of variation possible for different effects. Use a slightly bluish off-white for the colour. My example uses a blue-grey bulb with shadows off to colour the shadows blue. Just a few more ideas.

Mark

Message edited on: 12/22/2004 08:38

Hi Mark,thanks for the help,the modeling is no prob but i wasnt sure about the snow shader,thanks a lot,this looks very cool and i will test your technique.i was thinking about to make footprints via anything grooves.i hope that i can show my scene soon in the gallery.:)

I look forward to seeing what you do! Mark

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=754937&Start=1&Artist=HK&ByArtist=Yes

I'd add some sparkling to the snow. In real world snow seems to sparkle when temperature is well below zero degrees (Celsius). For stills you could use spots in the glow channel. The image shows my settings for it. For animation the place of the sparkles should change according to camera position but I haven't been able to figure out how it should be done. If you have any ideas I would be glad to hear them. The link shows an image where I've used the snow-shader shown here. -HK

thanks HK,i dont want to make a animation but i will test this and let you know when i have found a way,but it will take a while cause i cant start my scene,i have to do other things that were not planned(grrr). your image is awesome,i like it a lot.:) thanks again for your help.

How about using an elevation shader and then having the glow only in one part so that the sparkles would only happen at certain places... OR... Using 'fake fresnel' from the Shader Pak would allow for mixing in the 'sprkle' glow only from certain angles of the terrain. Just a couple thoughts!

great thoughts!i thought about the fake fresenel too,could be the solution.:)

Fake fresnel? Excellent idea! Perhaps one could also mix two different spot-components with the fake fresnel so there wouldn't be areas where the snow didn't sparkle. There is quite a lot of snow here and according to the ample reference material it seems to me that the sparkle is visible throughout the snow covered area. The fake fresnel is still a superb idea for it enables the sparkles to change place according to viewing angle. -HK

If you mixed Shoestring shaders iridescent with spot and fake fresnel you could have mutli-spectral colored sparkles.

Say THAT 5 times fast!! ;)