Creating grass land using pflow
Hello
friends.. I just love pflow
and have used it in lot of my projects. Here i would
like to share with u a very easy method to create a grass land in 3dsmax using pflow. It is some what similar to scatter but more flexible
than scatter and u can create your own variations easily. I will be using some
operators here
|
Shape instance operator |
Shape
Instance creates particles whose shape is based on a reference geometry
object. The object's animation can be synchronized with particle events. |
|
Position Object |
Position
Object places particles on a set of reference objects. |
|
|
Split Amount checks numerical
particle property, and sends to the next event either a fraction of
particles, or every Nth particle, or the first N particles, or all the particles after the
N first. |
1. First of all lets start with
creating a cone of sides: 6 radius1: .6 radius2: 0 and height: 40. A bend
modifier should be applied to the cones. You can even go lesser on the sides if
it gives u the result u want. U can also
create another cone bend in a different angle. Now we have a Cone01,Cone02 and
a Plane01 U may name these to Grass1,Grass2,Terrain respectively since i strongly would advice u all to use naming conventions
whenever possible, which can save u a lot of time. Using a cone gives u a
3dimension to the grass. rather than using a plane.
Also create a plane with length: 200 Width: 300, Segments 12*12 and apply a
noise modifier with the settings as shown below. Also apply a turbosmooth modifier to it.
2. Create a particle flow source. In the Main menubar - Create>Particle>particle flow source
(Particle flow is an event driven particle system and it gives us more control
over the particles than the ordinary particle systems in max which are
non-event driven) Press 6 or select the pflow icon
and go to the modify panel and click on the particle view button. You will get
a window as shown below
3. These are the default operators that u get in particle
flow. We shall replace some of those with operators from the operators depot to
get our desired result . I have marked in the image
below where all operators have to be replaced with new ones. eg the Position Icon
operator will be replaced with the Position Object operator by left clicking
and dragging the Position Object operator from the operators depot on to
the Position Icon operator in event 01.U will see that a red line appears
on top of the Position Icon operator, release your left mouse button
then. Similarly, change the Shape operator with Shape Instance
operator.
4. First click on the Birth operator and change the
emit stop to 0. Now all 200 particles will be emitted at once rather than one
by one. Also give a particle amount of 1000( Depends
on how much u need and how much area u need to cover).
5. Click on the Position Object operator, on the right
side u can see its properties in the Emitter objects rollout. Click add and select the terrain. U will see that the name of
the plane(Terrain) appears in the dialogue box there. See
to it that the Lock On Emitter option is also ticked
or else the particle will fly off when u play with the animation slider.
6.Change the Shape operator to Shape Instance
operator, after that Click on the Shape Instance operator in the event
and in the properties on the right side, click on the none button under
particle geometry and select the grass1. U can see that lots of ticks get scattered
all over the plane. Click on the Display operator and in the type select
Geometry which will reveal the grass mesh. You can also change the color to
green or apply a material by adding a material dynamic operator.
U can
see that all of the grass blades are bend in different directions and some even
go under the terrain.To rectify this Problem. Click
on the Rotation operator and in its properties change the orientation
matrix to world space. Which aligns the particle according to the world axis
and makes it stay perpendicular to the terrain.
7. This
seems a bit unrealistic cause all grass are standing upright and steady like an
army of soldiers :) so to break the monotony u can first click on event 01 and
right click and select copy and paste it anywhere in the open space nearby,
which will create another event 02. Delete the birth operator of event 02.
8. Add a Split Amount operator to the event 01 below
the birth operator. Create a connection from the Split Amount to the
event02. In Event02 select the shape instance and select grass2. Now u can see
how much the scene as changed. Cool isn't it. U can even copy the Event 02 and
create another Event 03 and add split amount to Event 02 and connect the Split
Amount to Event03 and select another grass3 as object instance.
9. In the shape rollout of both Events u can play with the
size and variation to create your own realistic grass scatter.
10.There is also some specialties about position object operator
select the position object operator change the location from surface to
vertices or edges try it out and see the difference. There is another option
below location called density by material Tick on it. It will be grayscale by
default. Apply a checkered texture to the terrain and see what happens (You
will have to move the animation slider a bit to see the result).
11. Drag a material dynamic operator into Event 01 open the
material editor by pressing M and create a material for the grass select the
material dynamic operator, which will reveal the operator properties on the
right side. From the material editor click on the material slot u created and
drag it on top of the none button in the material
dynamic property. Acommand will pop up which says
instance or copy select instance and click ok cause whatever change u make in
the material editor will bein sync with that of the
material dynamic in the particle view. For the other events do the same. Variate the
color of the grass material a bit, which will give u a more realistic look.
I hope
this has been very much of an interesting and useful tutorial to you all. THAT’S ALL FOLKS
thank you.
Ranjit Menon.K
For any comments related to this
tutorial
You may contact me at
(3D artist/ Production co-ordinator/R&D)
(Auriga
Multimedia)