It's a plugin specialized on the creation of landscape scenes in CINEMA 4D. The plugin has already been demonstrated on some images, including my works Lagoon and Autumn Road (3D World Magazine's Image of the Month, July 2009).
SurfaceSPREAD contains several componente which I will introduce now...
This is only a quick overview, it does not cover all features.
SurfaceSPREAD Website
SurfaceSpread DemoSurfaceSPREAD ObjectThis object distributes object clones on surfaces and was specifically designed for natural distribution. It goes into a whole different direction than all other cloner objects you know.
Using a special weighting system, the distribution of clones is influenced with an array of filters, which can all be combined with each other. There are geological filters that control the distribution according to the surface's topology like altitude and slope. Other filters manipulate the distribution by means of fractal functions, producing a natural looking variance of the clones' density; or they prevent clones from appearing too near to each other, effectively avoiding unwanted intersections of clones. Others use control objects to influence the distribution on a local basis, making it easy to create clearances in forests. Of course, there are also filters for standard functionalities like constraining clones to a polygon selection or controlling their density using vertex maps or materials.
In addition to this there are filters called Performance Filters, which reduce memory usage and render preparation times or a scene. For example you can eliminate clones that are located behind mountains, or outside the camera's view cone, or you can decrease the distributin density with increasing distance from the camera.
Of course, clones can be aligned using versatile funtions. Apart from static alignment and target alignment, you can also align the clones to polygon or phong normals while being able to mix that alignment seamlessly with any direction you want.
Last but not least there are several effects to change the way the created clones look like, e.g. random alignment or random scaling (optionally with hard random values or using a scalable noise field). Clones can even be scaled depending from the filter system.
SPREADscape ObjectThis object is an alternative landscape object which offers a lot more possibilities than the standard landscape object of CINEMA 4D.
A terrain is build from up to 7 layers. Each layer can consist of one of several fractal functions (create cool looking terrains with lightning-speed), a spline (allowing you to interactively sculpt river beds, road fundaments or mountain chains), or a material (making it possible to use almost any channel shader or bitmap textures, as well as combinations of both). All these layers can be combined with each other using different mix functions (e.g. Add, Multiply, Highest, Lowest).
A shaping curve makes it easy to apply a shaping to the generated landscape. The curve can be manually edited, but there are also several preset curves available (including glacialization, canonization, dunes, plateau, terraces, etc).
SPREADscape is very fast and generates impressive terrains with several layers and a million polygons in mostly less then 10 seconds.
SPREADrock ObjectA simple parametric rock object, utilizing different fractal functions to generate a rock or stone. With animated parameters, it can also be used for other nice effects.
SurfaceSPREAD ShaderThis channel shader applies a color to each clone, depending from data calculated by the SurfaceSPREAD Object, or using a random or noise function. The available colors are simply defined in a gradient. This way, even a single cloned tree can be used for a colorful autumn forest. Of course, the shader also works with Vray Proxy objects!
Distribution Override TagThis tag can be attached to the objects that you want to clone and is able to override any distribution setting defined in the SurfaceSPREAD Object. This way you can apply different distribution to e.g. rocks and trees while still using only one SurfaceSPREAD Object. Not only a time-saver but also a good workflow improvement.
Wire ObjectA simple but helpful object that creates a spline along any number of child objects. Can be utilized for easy-to-use spline sculpting in the SPREADscape Object. You can also use it in conjunction with the SurfaceSPREAD Object and have instant spaghetti, hair balls or cable tangle. Of course, you can also just use it in your everyday modelling and animation work, e.g. to create a spline that can be animated without the restrictions of PLA animation.
SurfaceSPREAD LibraryThanks to the partnership of www.c4d-jack.de and 3dplants.com, all SurfaceSPREAD customers get access to the SurfaceSPREAD library. This is a library for the CINEMA 4D Content Browser and contains a multitude of flowers, bushes, cacti, palm trees and other plants. All UVW textured and ready to use. License includes private and commercial usage rights.
(c) C4D-Jack
