FALLING Snow

[axxis]

Thanks for taking the time to read this.....

I'm new to the forum boards and I have been searching for two hours for a tutorial on falling snow or a snow storm. All I've come across is the same question from others but no replies. Keep in mind please that I'm new to particles in Maya, but.....
could anyone help me out on this by directing me to some source on the web, some replies (that I did not see) or maybe even a good book that covers "snow falling" and/or "snow storms"?
Thanks for your help!
-Axxis

[rivard]

Check the Maya tutorials and helpfiles by pressing F1. Couple of hints are volume emitter and "cloud" particles for real snow, or "sprite" particles for using your own texture.

[xgc]

possibly, you could make a directional particle emitter (and the rate you set will be like setting the intensity of the storm, because rate = particles per speed) and then, adding some gravity fields to the particles, and possibly a wind, and/or turbulence field to the particles to give the effect of wind a a more random scenario (more realistic)

[joaomontenegro]

you could create a partical grid, where the direction is
-1y(down) then the usual gravity, turbulance ect.. with a grid at least you get the snow coming from a wider area of the sky....

[planetxyz]

Jep, I'd do the same as LoneRanger says.

[xgc]

yeah, I think that a grid would be better than an omni emitter, but like we both said...
gravity field, and turbulence field, and probably a wind field...

[thedunadan]

I would create a surface emitter for this one really. Changing the direction of the surface will give you the overall direction of your falling snow. Gravity + Turbulance fields for more control of the particle movement. For really fast moving snow hardware rendered streaks would probally do just fine (on www.pixho.com u can see a bit of the making of a cg-snowstorm"), for more detail on the particle shaps use sprites. For colour, size and alike expressions to randomize the particles might be useful. There are many "PerParticle Attibutes like opacity, colour etc... like "particleShape1.opacityPP = random (.6,.8) (this expression will give each particle an opacity value ranging from 0.6 to 0.8) are likely to improve the overall look.
There is as well a nice tutorial on colouring textures with particle colission, in case u want to have objects receiving a little snow-coat or something: the tutorial is named wetpainting. A bit advanced, but very intresting one for sure. http://www.renderglobal.org/xmb/xmb\_menu.htm

[axxis]

Thankyou very much for your help!!

[xgc]

wanna show us what your making? I'm a bit interested now...

[axxis]

I'm doing a bit of match moving with maya and of some digital video for a Christmas scene- santa, sled, village, snow. I really dont have a web site to display it. Since I'm new to the discussion board I don't even know if there is a place to show it in here. However I really do appreciate everyones input. Its been helping a lot!
-Axxis

[axxis]

Excuse me the site is being moved. Can you tell me the new address it will be at and possibly could you tell me what date it might be up?
Thanks