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hello this is vessel from Kos in this
tutorial we're going to take a look at
how we can create a snowy scene and a
snow Shader we'll also look at shaping
the ground to look like it's covered
with snow first we'll start by modifying
the ground geometry in a way that looks
like it has actual snow covering it
after that we'll create a snow Shader
which we can eventually use on all of
the objects covered with snow in the
scene with all that being said let's get
started here in 3ds Max we have a scene
to work with we have a few houses and
the main characters in The foreground
but mainly the environment is made of
Hills which we need to make appear snowy
the first thing we need to do before we
get to the shading part is to add more
details in the geometry on the ground
I'll go ahead and hide the little boy
and the SLE from the foreground so we
can focus our attention on the ground
the geometry is fairly simple just a
hill with an indented path coming
towards the camera we can add a little
bit of noise to make the Surface not so
uniform and to make it look more like
snow but before we do that we need to
mask off the pathway part of the surface
because in that area we need to make it
look like rough snow maybe people
Vehicles animals and whatnot have been
walking through the snow I've already
masked off the pathway using the vertex
pained modifier in 3ds Max I simply
painted the actual path using the brush
tool in white and made sure the channel
section was set to map Channel this way
I can reference this mask later on when
I do the shading we'll get to that part
in a little bit so now we can add a
little bit of large surface detail to
establish the general shape of our heel
here let me add a turbo smooth modifier
first because we'll need more polygons
and a noise modifier after that for the
noise modifier we need to have more
polygons that's why we can increase the
turbo smooth subd iterations to let's
say three in the noise modifier we
usually need to experiment little bit
until we get something we can work with
we can start by adding some strength in
all X Y and Z
directions we can also increase the size
quite a bit because the default value of
100 is just not appropriate as you can
see this way we can easily achieve a
fluffy type of ground which looks like a
fresh snowfall we can also add even more
detail by enabling the fractal noise
checkbox at this point I'll increase the
size even further to make it look more
subtle very well let's start the
interactive rendering so we can take a
look at the result not bad this is going
to be our main shape of the
for the final image we use a night
lighting setup but to see better while
we are working on the ground geometry I
have temporarily set it to daytime
lighting now we can add the rough snow
only in the pathway area to achieve that
we can use displacement let's add a v
displacement modifier to the stack
nothing changes so far because we need
to add a texture to be displaced we can
combine multiple noise textures together
to achieve a more interesting result
let's start by creating a composite
map as you can notice the whole surface
shifted downwards I'll add a v color
note with a value of 50% gray this way
we can establish a mid level for the
displacement to start
from next I'll create another layer and
plug in another composite map into it we
can use the composite map to mix several
noise textures you can create your noise
textures using the noise note within 3ds
Max and play with the settings or you
can use some external noise textures
files I have several noise textures that
will work nicely this is a cloud looking
type of
noise it is a little big so let me plug
in a V uvw randomizer node to adjust the
tiling I'll set the tiling a little
higher to the value of seven for both u
and v directions
I also enable stochastic tiling so there
will be no visible repetitive pattern I
can also add a little randomization to
the scaling ranging from let's say 80%
to 100 nice now let's mask off the hill
left and right of the pathway using the
vertex paint mask I've showed you
earlier I'll create a Vertex color node
make sure its map Channel matches the
one we set with the vortex paint node
and plug it into the layer to mask slot
right away you can notice that
displacement is now applied only to the
pathway let's add a second layer to our
composite map I'll use another VR Beat
Map node with another noise map loaded
into it this one has a little more high
frequency detail currently there isn't
much happening because the texture map
is too big let me add a v uvw randomizer
note again and tile the texture quite a
bit again I'll turn on the stochastic
tiling and add little variation in the
scaling parameter now the second layer
in our composite map has completely
overridden the first one what we want is
to have the first layer and add the
details from the second layer on top of
it this is easily done by switching the
blending mode from normal to addition
great now it starts to look more like it
has been walked on the pathway over the
snow cover let's go ahead and add one
more layer of detail once again in the
composite map I'll create a new layer
and plug in one of the Vay bit map nodes
containing another noise texture again
the texture needs to be tiled several
times I'll bring in a V uvw randomizer
note and tile the texture like five
times same as before I'll use the
stochastic tiling option and randomize
the scale size this noise texture
creates an interesting effect however I
don't want it all over the place but
instead only have it in certain places
I've used the noise node to create a
rather contrasty noise map which I used
as a mask let me go ahead and plug it
into the layer three mask
slot great just by combining several
noise Maps we've managed to create an
interesting displacement effect on the
pathway there are few artifacts that I
noticed in the very front we can try to
get rid of those by going to our first
composite note and reduce the opacity of
our main layer so it can blend with the
50% gray color that we've used as our
base that certainly help now we can
finally build the Shader for the snow
but before we do that let me switch to
the nighttime lighting setup as I
mentioned earlier that will be the
lighting for the final render I can
easily switch between the daytime and
nighttime lighting using the light
Lister tool and switch between the dome
lights for the day and night good
the sky is still a little brighter and
that is mainly because of the atmosphere
scattering too much light we can adjust
that by opening the environmental
effects window then we can choose V
aerial perspective and reduce the ins
scattered light intensity to let's say a
value of one this way we reduce the
overall light intensity of the
atmosphere fog which would make it less
bright all right currently all of the
snow geometry objects have a standard V
material material applied it is almost
Pure White which already makes it appear
like snow but snow should have somewhat
of a softer look and feel snow is also a
translucent material so we need to
account for that as well first we'll
need a material that can handle
subsurface scattering we can use the
very fast SSS material so let me create
one and assign
it let's start tweaking the material
until it looks more like snow first
thing I noticed is that the Shader is
very reflective very shiny usually snow
is relatively matte looking in terms of
specularity so under the specular layer
let me darken the specular
color also I have created simple texture
map to control the glossiness parameter
it's just a bunch of random dots which
would give our snow Shader a relatively
D reflection overall with some sparkling
Dots here and
there we could also disable the trace
refle ctions option as an optimization
in this particular case since it doesn't
really make much of a difference great I
also have a normal map here which would
make the fine detail on the
surface I'll plug it into the bump map
slot and set its value to
100 now let's adjust the subsurface
scattering settings the first thing to
adjust is the scattering radius I'll
increase it significantly even
exaggerated it so we can see better
while we are setting up the material you
can notice right away the material
became a little softer looking next
let's set the subsurface color and the
scatter color the subsurface color
specifies the general color for the
subsurface layer of the material we can
use a very light blue color almost white
great our Shader looks more and more
like snow now let's set the scatter
color which specifies the internal
scattering color for for the material
that is visible in the thin backlit
parts of the object we can go for a more
saturated shade of blue here which would
make it look like there is some ice in
the thin part finally we can tone down
the scatter radius to let's say 50
cm all right with several easy
adjustments we've managed to create a
distant snow Shader let me unhide the
boy character and render out the final
image in this video we went over the
process of creating a snow environment
and a snow Shader we've started with
building the ground geometry using
displacement and a combination of
different noise textures after that
we've proceeded to setting up a
subsurface scattering Shader and
adjusting it to look like snow I hope
you've enjoyed this tutorial and found
it useful and helpful thank you for
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watching
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