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this could be handy
As for trees/leaves/foliage: I read this tip somewhere in the past courtesy of the brilliant Phil Wilkes use a Shader > Mixer > 2 colors and noise set to Global. Just another option. Happy week end everyone
wow thanks for this, looking forward to digesting it!!!
Thanks, very useful as I was just importing some low poly trees into Carrara and wondering what to do with the shaders !!!
I wish add something I found:
When you use a distribution map, the maximum number of objects (Number 2) cannot be reached even when there would be plenty space. The real upper limit is a fraction. Here is the formula:
Upper limit = Number of objects to be replicated (Number 2) × white area fraction of the distribution map.
For example, this Distribution map.
The white area is 1/4 of the total area. That is a 0.25 fraction.
If you set 5000 objects in (Number 2), you will get, at most, 5000 × 0.25 = 1250 objects. No more.
There is a trick to extend the upper limit in a distribution map.
The Upper limit I mentioned in previous post is per shading domain.
Thus, you could create a shading domain on the source object (in vertex modeler), by selecting the desired facets with paint selection, and use a totally white distribution map (a white color channel in shader), the upper limit will be the intendend in number 2.
just wanted to bump this so I could come back to it, what a terrific thread thanks Ted
Using Procedural Shader - Environment / Slope - to Control Distribution
In some cases, this may be more convenient than painting distribution maps. The replicator places items in white areas of a distribution map. Here is an example of replicating grass on the relatively flat areas of a terrain and avoid the relatively steep places. In the shader, the key is to blend black and white using the Environment / Slope function. Screencaps to accompany these instructions are attached. Click to increase size.
- started with a terrain that had some flat areas and some steep areas. Create one any way you want.
- just to confirm how the slope function works, I created a shader using "Multichannel Mixer," set one channel to blue and the other to red, and in the blender chose Environment / Slope.
- Carrara places blue and red according to relative slope.
- I want to replicate grass where the red is and I want to avoid where the blue is.
- Substitute white for red, and substitute black for blue
- Rename the shader to remember the distribution (save if want to have handy for future use)
- Create a New Shader for the Terrain! Don't edit your black/white shader.
- Set the new terrain shader as desired, in this case I applied a vegetation terrain shader to the flat areas and a rocky shader to the steep using a similar blender as my distribution
- A test render shows that the greenish shader is where the red had been and the brownish shader is where the blue had been
The terrain has its shader, the next post will use the black/white slope shader to place the replicated grass
continued
- In the shader tab of the lower right box, pull up the black/white distribution shader and copy its top multichannel mixer channel
- Back in the Assemble room, insert a surface replicator
- Choose the terrain as the source object and the grass prop as the replicated object
- In the replicator room, check the box in upper right to use the shader to control the distribution
- Paste the Black/White Multichannel Mixer Based on Slope to the Distribution Shader!
- In replicator room (you may have to navigate back to it), notice that there may not be room for all the grass. In this case, only 79 of the 100 objects were placed
continued
- adjust the distribution settings to taste - reduce the distance between objects, inclrease the number of objects to be replicated, uncheck align to norm.
- you can increase the number of objects even though Carrara hasn't found room for all the current objects. For this example, I went well over a thousand.
- note - distribution precision on right side - determines how strictly replicated objects will be placed only on white areas. Too much order may not be your desire, so use to taste. I set to best for this example.
- in the assemble room, the white boxes confirm that the grass is concentrated on relatively flat areas
- and a test render
Adjust settings to taste
Cool concept Diomede, thanks for the tutorial!
Thanks Alberto, I missed this before and it explains a lot. Thanks for the workaround!
Adjustment - Putting Objects on Middle Layer (Sloped)
In the above example, the replicated objects are placed in the relatively flat area.
In this example, I will use a procedural shader to place the replicated objects on a medium sloped area, but not either flat areas or very steep areas.
So, I need a procedural shader that will separate the terrain into 3 areas: flat, mild slope, and steep slope.
- insert a terrain and remove the default filter
- create a fractal filter for the base terrain slopes
- create a mesa filter to get some very steep slopes
- insert a plateau filter to get some very flat slopes
- adjust terrain filters to taste, you can see I sort of have a path/valley between mild slope and a steep slope
- i duplicated the terrain so I could experiment on one but that is not necessary
- SHADER - I created a new shader for the duplicated terrain from which I will be making the distribution procedural
- I used a Complex Shader / Layer List for the procedural intending to create 3 areas using opacity settings of environment / slope to assign the shaders
- Blue / Green / Red, I set the base layer color to blue, created a second layer and set to green, and a third layer and set to red
- For the second green layer I set the opacity channel to environment slope and set a wide distribution with a low number (17 ish)
- For the third red layer I set the opacity channel to environment slope and set a narrow high dsitribution (70 ish)
- a test render shows the blue green and red distributions.
*** I want to replicate on the medium sloped green layer, not either the flat red layer or the steep blue layer
- so I want a procedural opacity distribution shader where the green is white and the red and blue are black
Returning to the original terrain with default shader, I inserted a replicator and a default tree. I reduced the size of the tree for this example.
- in replicator modeler, choose the terrain as the source
- in replicator modeler, add the tree to the list of replicated objects
- check the box for using the shader to control distribution
- copy and paste the white / black shader to the distribution shader in the replicator modeler
- can adjust replicator modeler settings for number of replicated objects, remember to uncheck align to normal
Nice, thanks! I have not seen this thread before.
And Dart has a thread dedicated to the terrain modeler
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37867/building-carrara-terrains-intro/p1
What a cool thread, Diomede!!! Very cool indeed!!!
This is so awesome, thank you