Repel Features

Affect your points near a chosen collection of objects

Repel Feature

The "Repel" feature will procedurally influence your scatter density or instances scales and rotations when located near objects from a chosen collection.


Proximity Contact

By default, the proximity contact will be the faces of the chosen object's mesh. If your assets are too high poly it might be a good idea to change the proximity contact option on the drop-down menu located on the right, next to the collection pointer.

Consider Volume Option

If some of your repel objects in your collection have volumes, you can use the "Consider Volume" option if you'd like to also cull instances located inside or outside the volume area.


Reminder

Note that if you only care about culling points located inside a volume, a more simplistic Culling Masks > Boolean feature is available. It is advised to first overview if your need can be filled with Culling masks features before using the repel functionality.



Clean Grass Border Example

If you are working with a grass clump model to cover large areas and a tinier grass model to fill the gaps between small areas, you can use the repel feature for the trick demonstrated here, here's the idea:


  • Scatter the clumps model on a dedicated scatter system, then enable the Proximity > Repel feature and choose your pavement collection.
  • Do the same with a new system dedicated to the tiny grass models, but this time reverse the influence by clicking on the double arrow button, then use the "Consider Volume" option to also cull points located inside pavements volumes.


Influence Rotation

You have the option to influence your scattered instances' normal and tangent axes toward the selected objects.


Fake Collision

The ability to tilt instances when near objects is useful if you'd like to fake a collision interaction without doing expensive simulations. If more precise simulations are needed, you'll need to export your scatters as real blender instances, then run a blender simulation method of your choice.


Previous Name

Note that the repel functionalities used to be named "Cull Near" and "Lean Near" in older versions of our plugin.



Imprint Simulation

You have the option to simulate an imprint being left behind the moving objects in your collection when running an animation. Please note that this feature will require you to run the timeline playback with animated objects.


Fade Away Effect

When using the fade away option, the imprints will slowly restore themselves to their initial shape during a timing of your choice.

Outskirt Effects

Procedurally detect the edge of your scatter

Outskirt Feature

The "Outskirt" feature will procedurally find the delimitation of your scatter from the given threshold value, very useful if you'd like to create a transition effect on your scatter boundaries.

Note

  • This feature is heavy to compute.
  • All procedural features will still work as expected, individually per surface local space, or in your scene global space.
  • This feature works best with a contrasted distribution.
  • If you'd like to create clump transition effects with this feature, please consider the dedicated clump distribution method with influences on scale and orientation available.

Use Cases

Useful for many scenarios, such as creating rugs, or imitating nature behaviors! Plants/trees located on the outskirts of a densely populated area will always have a lower size, and are slightly tilted in the outward direction of the distribution.