Grease Scatter (Addon)
Grease scatter was used for sintel to place objects around the ally, using grease pencil lines as a guide as to where to scatter objects - r2125
i saw in the release log of 2.59 a new addon Grease Scatter.
How does it work ?
Hi, not full docs but this text + example blend is enough to start with (linked to from the addons wiki page)
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.5/Py/Scripts/Object/Grease_Scatter
… Grease Scatter works for the dirt that collects in corners. Like Rocks at the foot of mountain.
qp
thanks qp, still i don’t get it how to work with my version http://graphicall.org/93 . Yours seems to be different.
i have modeled the surface object and i have the group. for some reason i cannot get it to scatter the group on the grease lines.
is there an indepth tutorial about that. i don’t know where i do wrong 
… I have used the 2.59 RC1 from http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.59rc/. But I don’t think, that there are a different in the script.
The script do not scatter objects on every Grease Pencil stroke. It only works in the Corners of a Mesh. If you want to scatter objects all over a Face, you could use a particle system with object duplication and Weightpaint.
Sorry, I don’t know any tutorial about the Grease Scatter in the moment.
qp
it would be so cool to scatter objects according to grease pencil. Why doesn’t apply that feature ? 
aww, it only works for corners not wherever i draw the lines 
I watched this video:
I assigned the canyon to group: canyon, and the objects to scatter to group canyon, as in the video. After drawing grease lines on the canyon mesh, and shift a - mesh - grease scatter, it scatters the canyon itself.
How should I scatter my group of objects?
Solved:
Do not give place the canyon in the canyon group. The group of objects to scatter should have the same name as the canyon object.
So, if your object name is “Alley”, make a group of objects and assign them to a new group called “Alley”. Then use grease scatter on the alley object, and it will look for a group named “Alley”, then scatter them.
By the way, I assume you could get over the scripts need for corners by creating corners, scattering objects, then delete the mesh, but keep the scatters…experimenting.
Yes, that works.
High rez available (720p)
I made a video tutorial. Stand by, uploading to youtube. It’s not perfect - I learned a few things while doing it, and discovered that itturned my objects black, but it will tell you how to do it.
By the way, for falt surfaces, do your scatter, then simply remove the “canyon” object. The objects will stay put. Then you can add a plane landscape or whatever you like.
Anyone want to tell me why the objects turn black?
The Grease Pencil Scatter doesn’t work for me as well.
Is it possible to scatter objects along the grease line by using the particle system ?
Kind regards
Have you watched my quick and dirty tutorial? It’s not perfect, but if you pay attention to the exact steps it should work. If not, you may have a bug to report.
This method suggests that it would work on a simple plane as well but other users did mention yet it works only near corners which is not what I expected.
I need a method to distribute objects just along a path.
I saw this workaround which could be interesting: http://blendersushi.blogspot.com/2011/08/grease-scatter-objects-alternative-way.html
Kind regards
Alain
does it scatter each group with some reandom locations or all the copied version are the same?
and is there a way to get some random distribution of the different elements in each copied group ?
thanks
happy 2.5
I think this is in its infancy. There are some sliders to play with, but right now, it wants angles to work off of. You can of course always remove the angles later. I expect some developments here, and the removal of the angle requirement. This was developed specifically to clutter an alley in Sintel. It’s a really nice start in my opinion.
Hi, can someone tell me if it’s possible to distribute the objects along the path/curve equally and in alignment to the normals of a parent object surface? Sort of paint objects along a path. What I’d like to achieve is the following: Draw lines on the surface of an object, perhaps parallel to the edges of a metal water tank. Then I would like to control the distribution of the objects, lets say rivets along those lines at regular intervals. Is this possible or is there a technique that can achieve this? On something large like a ship hull it would be very useful. 
I’ve had a look at the technique and I can’t see a way to control the distribution.
You want an array modifier. The scatter add on is specifically for making random piles of objects, not neatly lined up pieces, like rivets.
Ah right, thanks.
I guess it’s this what you (and me) want:
Kind regards
Alain
Very good.