Creating "clouds" of objects (leaves, insects etc)?

[Monkeybrother]

Hi. Like the title says, what's the fastest and easiest way to create clouds of objects? I've tried the pcloud object in Max, but it's very slow and seems buggy, it slows down/freezes max. Also, I couldn't get it to use several meshes randomly. I have access to max/corona scatter/forest pack.

[romullus]

For static shots any scatterer would do - Corona, forest, etc. For animations i would use pflow instead of obsolete max particle systems.

[Monkeybrother]

But how do you scatter in the air? I tried using particle systems as scatter "surfaces", but nothing worked in corona scatter or forest pack. I also tried mesh particles, but no luck.

[TomG]

Change Corona Scatter from "2D - on surfaces" to "3D - in bounding box" (edit and then scatter on something that isn't a plane, of course :) )

[Monkeybrother]

Change Corona Scatter from "2D - on surfaces" to "3D - in bounding box" (edit and then scatter on something that isn't a plane, of course :) )

Of course. So RTFM, basically, should have been able to figure that out. Thanks.

[Monkeybrother]

Another problem though. Corona scatter doesn't work with motion blur? (Trying to do blowing leaves)

[TomG]

Correct (from a quick test just now), you'd likely have to bake the scatter to geometry and then animate.

[Monkeybrother]

Correct (from a quick test just now), you'd likely have to bake the scatter to geometry and then animate.

Ok, thanks. PFlow was easy enough to figure out once I knew it existed, so I'll go with that for now.

[romullus]

You can't go wrong with pflow... almost :] It has some issues with Corona, but it's so much more powerful tool than simple scatterer.

Change Corona Scatter from "2D - on surfaces" to "3D - in bounding box" (edit and then scatter on something that isn't a plane, of course :) )

Since 3D method uses only distribution object's bounding box, i prefer to use 2D (on surface) plus translation in z direction - that way i maintain full control in x and y directions. I wish 3D method would use true volume of distribution object instead of bounding box.

[Ondra]

Good news, we will do the tight 3D distribution in foreseeable future ;)

[romullus]

Haha, brilliant! Any small improvement in CScatter, is very welcomed! :]