Ground Control
ANYTHING GROWS
Anything Grows
ANYTHING GROWS
TUTORIALS GALLERY Try Anything Grows
The Anything Grows plug-in adds fur to Carrara. Build a field of flowers, a fuzzy bunny, or hairy beast.
Carrara 8.1 Win 32 Win 64 OSX UB 10.4 OSX UB 10.5+
Carrara 7.2 Win   OSX UB  
Carrara 6.2.1 Win   OSX UB  
buy it: $39.95

Modifier Options

Basic Tab and global options

  1. Enabled turns Anything Grows on and off. Turn Enabled off when you want to change several options at the same time or edit the underlying mesh, that will keep Anything Grows from recalculating after each change.
  2. The Advanced button takes you to a dialog that shows all the Anything Grows options.
  3. The Refresh button will make Anything Grows rebuild it's mesh.
  4. Width and Length control the size of the strands.
  5. Strands controls the number of strands of hair generated by Anything Grows. This option will always be 100 in evaluation mode.
  6. Segments control how detailed the strand is. When Segments is set to 1, Gravity, and Wiggle have no effect. 
  7. The Sides option controls how many sides on each strand.
  8. Use Show Base to either include or hide the Base Object when Anything Grows generates it's mesh.
  9. Use Show Strands to either include or hide the strands when Anything Grows generates it's mesh.
  10. Turning on Bone Mode makes Anything Grows go back to the unmodified mesh to get figure out strand distribution. Bone Mode is only functional on versions of Carrara that support bones.
  11. The Warnings section will display any errors that occur when Anything Grows is build it's mesh.

The Anything Grows dialog and the Basic Tab

  1. The icons along the top left of the window switch the tabs. The tabs are Basic, Gravity, Bend, Tip, and Mapping.
  2. Enabled turns Anything Grows on and off. Turn Enabled off when you want to change several options at the same time or edit the underlying mesh, that will keep Anything Grows from recalculating after each change.
  3. The Refresh button will make Anything Grows rebuild it's mesh.
  4. Width and Length control the size of the strands.
  5. The Width and Length Shaders are used to select a shader to adjust the size of the strands. Where the shader is white, the strands will be full size, where it is black, there will be no strands.
  6. Strands controls the number of strands of hair generated by Anything Grows. This option will always be 100 in evaluation mode.
  7. Allocated By controls what algorithm is used to distribute strands. Total Surface randomly distributes them across the entire surface. Facet assigns strands based on a facet's percentage of the total surface area.
  8. At least 1 strand per facet makes sure there is at least on strand on each facet, even if it doesn't have enough surface area to get one. This option does not work in evaluation mode.
  9. Restrict Strands to Domain will concentrate all the strands on a specific shading domain.
  10. Segments control how detailed the strand is. When Segments is set to 1, Gravity, and Wiggle have no effect. 
  11. The Sides option controls how many sides on each strand.
  12. Seed is the starting point for the random pattern of strands.
  13. Use the Animate option to tell Anything Grows when to refresh. If you are animating the Base Object, Tip Object, or any of the shaders, set keyframes with the Animate option to match the keyframes of your other animations.
  14. Taper controls how the strand narrows as it approaches it's tip. It represents how wide the tip is as a percentage of the Width option. 
  15. Taper Mode offers two options on how Taper is calculated. Possible Length applies the Taper over the full value of Length. Actual Length applies the Taper over the actual length of the strand as modified by the Length Shader.
  16. Use Show Base to either include or hide the Base Object when Anything Grows generates it's mesh.
  17. Use Show Strands to either include or hide the strands when Anything Grows generates it's mesh.
  18. Turning on Bone Mode makes Anything Grows go back to the unmodified mesh to get figure out strand distribution. Bone Mode is only functional on versions of Carrara that support bones.
  19. Use the Reference Object drop down to select a static mesh to base strand distribution off of. It works like Bones Mode for things that aren't animated with Bones, like a TransPoser animation. See the Anything Grows and TransPoser tutorial here for more details.
  20. The Warnings section will display any errors that occur when Anything Grows is build it's mesh.

 

Gravity Tab

  1. Gravity controls how much the Gravity Direction effects the direction of the strand
  2. Gravity Direction X, Y, and Z controls the direction of Gravity on the strands.
  3. Space controls which in which coordinates space Gravity will have it's effect, Global or Local.

Bend Tab

  1. Wiggle adds a little variation to the direction of the strand. Use the X, Y, and Z Wiggle Shader pickers to override the randomness and control the wiggle with a shader.
  2. Custom Start Direction overrides the default start direction which is the surface normal.
  3. Stiffness controls how the strands resist the effects of Wiggle and Gravity. The shader picker below selects a shader to modify Stiffness in the same way the Length Shader modifies Length. White is full Stiffness, black is zero.
  4. Start Bend Effects at Segment controls where Anything Grows starts applying gravity and wiggle.

Tip Tab

  1. Use Tip Object to add an 3D object to the tip of each strand. Tip objects must be 3D objects with geometry, no volumetrics.
  2. Tip Scale is used to size the Tip Object. The shader picker below adds another level of control
  3. Tip Twist is used to add a twist to the Tip Object before it is placed on the end of the strand.
  4. Face Camera twists the tip objects, like Tip Twist, aiming them at the Camera.

Mapping Tab

  1. UV Mapping has two options. UV from strand base assigns the UV coordinates from the strand's base to the entire strand. UV along the strand will give the strand it's own set of UV coordinates. Please note that only any Anything Grows primitive will have a separate shading domain for strands.
  2. V Runs Along controls how far the V coordinates go. They can either run the possible length as set in the Length field or the actual length as limited by the Length shader.

Primitive Options

The Anything Grows primitive has all the options of the modifier's Advanced dialog and adds the options listed below.

  1. Select which object to add strands to with the Base Object option.
  2. Use Preview Size to reduce the number of strands shown in the 3DView window.
  3. Line Up With Base Object will align the Anything Grows primitive with the selected Base Object.
  4. Refresh Master Lists will cause the object and shader lists to refresh if Anything Grows does not detect a change

Please Note: Face Camera, Line Up With Base Object, and the Space popup on the Gravity tab will only work against the first instance of a Anything Grows primitive object.

Billboard Primitive Options

  1. Use Width and Height to control the size of the Billboard primitive.
  2. Panels controls how many billboards rotate around the Z-Axis of the primitive.
  3. Z Start controls where the bottom of the billboard starts.

How do I...

Install Anything Grows?

Extract and copy the files to the extensions or plugins directory.

For Carrara 8.1

On the PC, it is the Carrara8\Extensions directory. If you installed Carrara to the default location, this is C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\Carrara8\Extensions or C:\Program Files (x86)\DAZ 3D\Carrara8\Extensions.

On the Mac, OS X.

  1. Open the Carrara 8 folder.
  2. Ctrl-click on the Carrara application and select Show Package Contents.
  3. In the newly opened Finder window, navigate to Contents\MacOS\Extensions.
  4. Extract the contents of the ZIP and copy them there.

For Carrara 7.2

On the PC, it is the Carrara 7 Pro\Extensions directory. If you installed Carrara to the default location, this is C:\Program Files\DAZ\Carrara 7 Pro\Extensions.

On the Mac, OS X.

  1. Open the Carrara 7 folder.
  2. Ctrl-click on the Carrara application and select Show Package Contents.
  3. In the newly opened Finder window, navigate to Contents\MacOS\Extensions.
  4. Extract the contents of the ZIP and copy them there.

For Carrara 6.2.1

On the PC, it is the Carrara 6 Pro\Extensions directory. If you installed Carrara to the default location, this is C:\Program Files\DAZ\Carrara 6 Pro\Extensions.

On the Mac, OS X.

  1. Open the Carrara 6 folder.
  2. Ctrl-click on the Carrara application and select Show Package Contents.
  3. In the newly opened Finder window, navigate to Contents\MacOS\Extensions.
  4. Extract the contents of the ZIP and copy them there.

Enter my serial number?

After purchasing Anything Grows you will be emailed a serial number. If you open a scene with Anything Grows or use Anything Grows in a scene, the Enter Serial Number window will display. Enter your serial number in the field provided and click OK to continue.

Keep Carrara from deleting my Master Shaders?

Carrara has a function you called Remove Unused Shaders. It's an excellent tool for cleaning up your scenes and getting rid of all those unused "experimental" shaders that inevitably get created. Unfortunately Carrara doesn't know the Master Shaders you are using exclusively for Anything Grows are spoken for. Use the Edit|Lock Anything Grows Master Shaders function. It will create small, invisible objects to hold the shader so Carrara won't delete it.

Know which to use, primitive or modifier?

There a couple of differences between the modifier and the primitive. Generally, the primitive is a better choice, but here are the differences.

  1. The modifier will be attached to the base object and move with it. The primitive will create a new object that duplicates the base object and will not move as you move the base object.
  2. By using a Layers List Shader (manual pg 269, 292-295) on the primitive you can apply a different shader to the strand and tip objects. On the modifier strand and tip objects share the same shader as the base object.
  3. The primitive can be duplicated again and again using only a small amount of additional memory for each copy. The modifier will recalculate and use the full memory for each copy.

Tips and Tricks

  1. Use the Anything Grows primitive whenever you can, it's more versatile and it's Preview Size will save you time.
  2. If you turn off Show Object in 3D View, you will save lots of time and use less memory.
  3. Either apply your shaders first, or keep the number of strands low while working with shaders. It will keep the shader preview window fast and responsive.

System Requirements

Minimum: Carrara's system requirements plus an additional 64meg of RAM for Anything Grows.

Recommended: Carrara's system requirements plus an additional 128meg of RAM for Anything Grows.

Here's a table that shows rough additional memory requirements for Anything Grows when applied to a 240 facet Vertex Modeler sphere with 2 sided strands. 3 sided strands and higher will follow a rough formula of (# of sides + 1) * the value in the table below for memory requirements. You can reduce the memory requirements by keeping Show Object in 3D View turned off or working in Bounding Box mode.

Strands Segments Memory use
1,000 1 160k
10,000 1 1.6meg
100,000 1 17meg
1,000 5 600k
10,000 5 5meg
100,000 5 62meg
1,000 10 1meg
10,000 10 10meg
100,000 10 100meg

Evaluation Mode

Anything Grows supports an evaluation mode which allows you to try out Anything Grows before purchasing it. When the Anything Grows Enter Serial Number window is displayed, just click Cancel to go into evaluation mode. During evaluation mode, Anything Grows will only allow 100 strands, no more, no less.

Release Notes

June 08, 2010

  1. Changed where serial numbers are saved to a more modern OS friendly location. This fixes a problem with saving serial numbers on the 64-bit Windows Carrara when UAC is turned on.

September 27, 2009

  1. Fixed a problem where "allocated by facet" and "restrict strands to domain" would not play well together.

Pricing

$39.95 US dollars for a single user license. The single user license includes the right to use the product with up to 5 render nodes using Carrara 5.0 Pro or better. Pricing is also available for a render node site license for use with Grid.

Ordering

Place your order online here using our secure server. Use the same link for PayPal, credit cards by fax or phone, purchase orders, and checks.

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