Author Topic: Making clusters of vegetation with Chaos Scatter in C4D  (Read 2745 times)

2022-07-06, 06:26:45

eschac

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I'd like to create randomized clusters of vegetation on a landscape, while also having some areas that have no vegetation. Coming from Redshift, I would scatter with a matrix object, then add shader effector with a noise map to create clusters of certain plants/trees. You can get an idea in the reference image attached.

Using chaos scatter, would the best way to do this be setting the scale from 0% to 100% and adding a noise shader, so that anything that approaches 0% scale basically gets culled? I tried a quick test like this but so far haven't been able to get as good of results.

I watched the chaos scatter videos on Youtube, but they only go over very basic setups. Would be great if there could be a a more in depth scatter tutorial with a more realistic looking result.

2022-07-06, 10:07:26
Reply #1

romullus

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Did you try to map density instead of scale? I think it should bring you closer to desired result.
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2022-07-06, 18:46:08
Reply #2

eschac

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That would be ideal, but I didn't see any options for mapping density. Did I miss it somewhere?

2022-07-06, 19:07:21
Reply #3

romullus

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I'm a 3ds Max user, so i can't give you exact location, but try to search for it somewhere next to surface scattering.
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2022-07-06, 20:49:43
Reply #4

eschac

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I can't find any option to map the density - only translation, rotation, and scale.
There must be some differences between the Max and C4D versions.
« Last Edit: 2022-07-06, 21:21:43 by eschac »

2022-07-06, 21:56:27
Reply #5

romullus

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I think it's called distribution, or something like that. I'm pretty sure it has to be in C4D version too, since it's pretty much essential feature. Maybe someone from C4D user will chime in and reveals its exact location.
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2022-07-06, 23:25:46
Reply #6

eschac

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I don't think its possible, I've searched all through the options in C4D. Very strange because I would think this would be one of the most basic features that a scatter system would have...
« Last Edit: 2022-07-07, 17:29:42 by eschac »

2022-07-06, 23:34:43
Reply #7

eschac

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Tried using scale to map the distribution by creating a scale range from 0% to 100%, then adding a noise map, but it works poorly. I have to increase the count to absurdly high numbers, and then when I hit render, the objects appear very sparse and do not match the viewport density for some reason (see attached).
« Last Edit: 2022-07-07, 17:30:05 by eschac »

2022-07-07, 16:54:09
Reply #8

bnji

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Hi there,
A workaround for this would be using a Noise shader for the Scale as mentioned above.
I'm including a sample file and screenshot of the result.
I hope this helps.
The Chaos Scatter will be improved in future versions.
In the meantime, I hope this helps.
Kind regards.

Benjamin Rosas | chaos-corona.com
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2022-07-07, 17:36:31
Reply #9

eschac

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Yes that is the method that I'm showing above. It simply doesn't work well; its seems fussy and difficult to control, as I can't seem to get the areas with the plants to be particularly dense. Even though I have the count set to something like 500000, only a fraction of those are showing up in the render. Also the bounding boxes seem like the correct scale in the viewport preview, but it seems like all of the objects are considerably smaller in the render.
« Last Edit: 2022-07-18, 19:28:09 by eschac »

2022-07-11, 17:26:50
Reply #10

Philw

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Have you checked your normals are correct? Just asking as I've been there before and my scatter was actually on the other side of the geometry.

2022-07-12, 18:42:20
Reply #11

eschac

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Thanks for the suggestion, but the normals are correct. None of the scattered objects are on the other side of the geometry.

2022-07-22, 18:25:30
Reply #12

mike288

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Hi, FYI missing density map slot in C4D will be addressed.
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2022-07-22, 18:55:03
Reply #13

eschac

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Hi, FYI missing density map slot in C4D will be addressed.

That's great to hear, thanks for the update.