Get your science in Shape
Overview
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The mesh objects serve as containers of density and limit the volume where the density of an object is placed in space. The density modifier controls the density distribution within the volume fixed by the mesh container.
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Several other modifiers work in exactly the same way as the density modifier and are therefore not treated separately. These include the temperature and the pressure modifiers.
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In addition to the common parameters for naming and enabling modifiers, the density modifier has the following parameters:
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f0:
factor that scales the density that is otherwise controlled by the 3-D distribution defined in the Magnitude graph (see below). It is actually part of the Magnitude graph, but because of its frequency of use it is also exposed at this level of the panel.
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Sigma: currently not in use
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Operation:
This is a drop-down list with the options: Replace, Add and Scale.
These are the operations that will be used to determine how this density modifier affects a possibly existing sequence of density modifiers further up in the modifier stack.
Replace mode: The first density modifier should be used in Replace mode. If there is a density modifier further down in the stack in Replace mode, then all previous density modifiers have no effect and only this one and those further down in the stack are used.
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Add mode: the density of this modifier is added to whatever is the result of the previous density modifiers in the stack.
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Scale mode: the density of this modifier is added to whatever is the result of the previous density modifiers in the stack.
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In the example on the right there are three renderings of the same geometrical object with density modifiers as shown in the stack above the rendered images. The first image has a density with a point graph that changes as a function of the z-coordinate in cylindrical coordinates. See the graph below the rendered images and note that the Coordinates have been set to Cylindrical.
This density modifier is label Ladder Strungs. It is located at the top of the modifier stack and is in Replace mode.
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The second density modifier is labeled Global Decay and is in Scale mode retaining the default Spherical Coordinate system (see the second modifier graph under the rendered images). It scales the density that results from the first modifier with a normalized Gaussian as a function of distance.
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In the final example, a Texture was included in the first density modifier. The texture scales this modifiers with the three-dimensional procedural texture of which a slice is shown below. How textures work in more detail is explained in the corresponding section of this manual on Textures.
Modifiers: Density
(Temperature, Pressure)
