Sand in detail

[krisp]

Hi all,
I am trying to create detailed sand material in Cinema4D. I want to use it for a close-up, where you are actually able to see grains of sand. Something like in this picture: https://i.redd.it/7azfkec6sve11.jpg
Could you recommend a good approach?
I tried using bump and displacement maps, but that doesn't look good (unless I am not doing it right).

The only thing I found on google is this tutorial for 3Ds Max: http://www.studioharmony.sk/sand/sand.html

Thanks

[Beanzvision]

Hi, Are you after this sort of detail? I basically searched Google for a high res sand texture (4K), made it seamless, generated a normal and displacement map using ShaderMap. The displacement height in the Corona material was around .3 and the displacement screen size (pixel) was lowered to 1 in the performance/render settings.

Hope that has helped ;)

[krisp]

Thank you, beanzvision. I guess the issue when I was trying to do it was that I didn't have a good displacement map. Would it be possible to share the one you used for this example so I can play around with it?

[Marcus]

Here is a tutorial for quite detailed sand. It's 3ds max specific but I guess there is a similiar scatter option in Cinema.

https://www.itoosoft.com/tutorials/creating-detailed-sand-with-forest-pack

Best,
Marcus

[krisp]

Hi Marcus, thanks for the tip. I also saw similar tutorial for Cinema4D, however, as far as I know, C4D is not very good with large amounts of clones, and looks like my computer can't handle millions of clones easily.

[Gruender]

Have you tried Multi Instance in R20?

[krisp]

Unfortunately, I only have R19, which doesn't have this feature.

[Beanzvision]

Depending on the level of detail you need for the shot, you could probably break it down into sections. The foreground could utilize a form of scatter whilst the middle and background rely on textures. I don't see any point in scattering an entire scene unless it's absolutely needed. ;)

[krisp]

That is a good idea, I will try that.
Could you recommend a good software for generating displacement maps, that works on Mac?

[Beanzvision]

Hmm, not too sure when it comes to Mac. Windows user here. ;) Shadermap is awesome and free but I'm not sure they make a Mac version.

[romullus]

Displacement maps can be authored in many different ways and of course there is different software for each way. If you want make displacement from a single photo, then look at bitmap2material, knald, crazy bump, etc. Displacement from scanning (photogrametry) can be achieved with photoscan, capture reality, meshroom, etc. And finally you can make displacement map directly from 3D objects, like scattered sand particles. That can be easily done with almost any renderer, including Corona.