LK Lightning 2.0 is just about ready to be released and to show off some more of the functionality I made this tutorial, showing how to grow a forest with it.
The forest grows, sways in the wind and changes seasons, it's a fun project.
You can check it out here: http://leonardkoch.com/blog/2013/3/12/e ... salcjyh2jp
Please let me know if posts like this are becoming a nuisance. You've always responded very well, but I don't want to be the guy spamming the list.
Breakdown: (click on the time indices to jump to the respective segment)
00:00 - Introduction.
01:20 - Creating and examining the nodes in the basic strand setup.
03:47 - Setting up the emitter options.
05:39 - Adding the branches aka setting Splitter properties.
08:15 - Changing the trunk thickness.
09:13 - Using thickness propagation for thinner and thinner branches.
09:54 - Using Modulate Size over Length to make the branches thin out at the end.
11:27 - Adding more branches & Split Limits explanation.
16:35 - Examining the tree and adding a direction controller.
18:48 - Using the controller to make the trees sway in the wind.
20:00 - Adding the leaves.
23:00 - Designing the look of the leaves.
25:07 - Using a gradient to design the summer look for the trees. (With a brief tree-design on acid moment.)
26:27 - Pulling the color from ICE into the render tree.
28:15 - Fixing the trunk&branch color.
29:08 - Adjusting the growth of the leaves.
30:14 - Designing the fall look for the trees.
31:41 - Creating the transition from summer to fall.
36:35 - Examining the result.
37:40 - Playing with the wind and final thoughts.
The tutorial is also up on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/61581786
Thoughts and suggestions are always welcome.
Have fun.
