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Effect of car driving through snow
Hello guys,
I need some help recreating the effect of a car driving through snow. I have a car that has a pointy plow (like a widened V shape). I have a separate image of a snowy plane and of the road, so I am masking my road to uncover on the snowy plane as the car moves forward. Now I would like to create the effect of the snow being shoveled/ploughed ( I am not sure of the right expression in English) on the sides of the car as it’s driving from afar towards the camera. I am trying to work it out with trapcode particular, however I don’t seem to get the right effect as shown in the image here screenshot2013-12-09at21.09.42.png
I mean I have cloudlets particles flying from one point and leaving a trail on the sides of the car, however I am having doubts as to how to make them fly respecting the form of the V shape plow. I would appreciate any of your suggestions.
Thank you in advance.
Sasha -
3 Replies
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Sasha – I would use four instances of particles – two for the snow blasting forward off the V blades, then two straight trails, on top, but soft masked slightly into the “forward” particles. If you look at the still, it will be clear. The first foot or so in front of the blade would be snow repelled by the blade on the front of the speeding car. Then gravity, plus the fact that the snow has been pushed at a 45 degree angle, and is no longer in front of the plow blades, creates the trails going off on either side of the car. You might also add a couple more particle instances for where the snow plume from the front hits the snow just to either side of the car, and maybe also small particle plumes coming off the back of the car and the tires. This depends on whether you’re pushing powder snow or wetter snow…
Bear in mind, of course, that the image you provided is entirely fake as well. If you mounted plow blades on the front of a passenger car, it would not only collapse the frame, but the second you hit snow (if you got that far), it would crumple the front end.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Thank you Joseph for such a thorough answer. Since I was on tight schedule had to figure out something by myself since no answer came yesterday. It worked out well, altough I’ve used a different technique than yours. I used two particle systems both of them on a motion path copying the V blade, so at the beginning the particles go from the front to the sides and then straight on along the car, it worked pretty well, though not perfect. I had to add two more particle systems to create a more likely “fog” of snow, so that there would be variation. But your suggestions seem more logical to me now (:
Here’s the render from AE for reference purposes. screen.jpg
Thanks again for taking time to respond. -
That’s not bad at all, Sasha! As long as the visual outcome is what you’re going for, how you get there isn’t as important.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com
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