Hi guys, I need your help with something that’s been driving me nuts for ages.
It’s the second time I want to use Cloud Generator for a project, and the problem is I don’t know how to duplicate the clouds. I duplicate the entire hierarchy, make materials and textures unique, change the settings and nothing seems to work, either cloud number one is visible, or number two, depending on the object setting in the Point Density tab of the point density texture.
If you still would rather prefer to copy things around - select Cloud Points, Shift-D duplicate, move, position points around and then join CloudPoints.001 to CloudPoints so that it is one object. It will render then provided that points are inside the domain cube.
Thanks eppo, duplicating points is what i did with the last project, haven’t thought of joining the Cloud Points together though - thanks for the tip. Hovever, what i wanted to do is to rig and animate the clouds, and then duplicate the entire thing. They represent bolls of a cotton plant, and i need many plants, so it wouldn’t make sense to generate, rig and animate each and every one separately. Is there something in the Density Texture or object settings i could adjust to make the copies independent of eachother?
All that is limited indeed. One Domain (at least overlap of domains is a big no-no) and one object to create point density.
Yet there is a way to deal with situation - Hooks. While it wont allow you to create pink and green clouds you can select group of points belonging to one cloud, Ctrl-h hook to new Object and animate created empty. Clouds will happily follow the empties.
Scale Empty and cloud gets scaled too.
There is one thing though - since domain is pre-filled with texture which gets revealed by points traveling through it animation looks a bit unusable… Clouds seem to ‘rotate’. http://www.pasteall.org/pic/76142 - rename file - delete png part, it’s avi.
And this doesn’t answer duplication; have no idea how to duplicate yet keep individual parts of pointcloud.
Thanks, this actually seems to suit my purpose pretty well! Hurray! I would still be interested in finding a way to do proper duplication/instancing of the cloud objects though. I keep wondering if it is a limitation of the script, or blender internal
I can’t wrap my head around this. Since it is possible to use the script multiple times in the same scene, and have independent clouds with their own domains, materials and textures, how come I can’t duplicate the cloud, assign a new material to it, give it new textures and achieve the same effect? I must be missing some setting. Anyone?
Sure you can ;).
Here’s the deal. Generate cloud: you now have 2 things and materials you are interested in - domain and point cloud - CloudBounds and CloudPoints by script names.
Domain has material and textures applied which allow pointcloud object to reveal it. The next step depends on what you want - make domain bigger and copy pointcloud objects; move them around in domain and join them since one domain can have one pointcloud object. This is limiting - it is hard to select individual pointclouds and move them if you do not like how they are positioned; there is only one material for all clouds since there is only one domain. On top of that if you scale domain, pointcloud object also is scaled…We’ve been there…
Domain and pointcloud created by script is parented.
First thing to do is to select pointcloud and Alt-p - Clear Parent, then delete DefinitionObject and CloudMesh. This is where you’re on your own - script wont function properly but you don’t need that now, likely.
Now you can copy domain and pointcloud, what is left is you need to show each domain which pointcloud is in it: domain material, CloudPointDensity texture, Point Density - Object. Sure you need to make CloudPointDensity texture single user - click on 2 (or any number you see instead of “F” if you copied several times).
If you want different color for each cloud - Material for domain ( needs to be single user) CloudMaterial, Reflection color picker.
Woooow so there is a way a way after all I was sure i was missing something! It works I still don’t know what exactly did the trick, since I was changing the Object parameter like crazy before and assigning individual materials and textures as well, but now i that can see it working i will dig deeper. I can use this, hurray! Thanks a million eppo, should you ever be in Warsaw and in need of a beer or ten just give me a call You made my future jobs involving fluffiness much easier.
Hurray! I would still be interested in finding a way to do proper duplication/instancing of the cloud objects though. I keep wondering if it is a limitation of the script, or blender internal
I was sure i was missing something! It works