1. Let's create a petal to be used as a cherry blossom falling in the wind. The petal is created by applying a texture on a simple polygon. See R0.lwo. r50.lwo is that object cloned many times and piled up on itself to be used for a more detailed cherry blossom scene.
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2. Determine the surface settings first by
using the petal r0.lwo in LW_MotionDesigner.
Select r0.lwo from the Object panel, and switch the Target setting to ON.
3. Set the parameters required for the surface
on the Surface panel. Set a value of 1000 for Spring Sub-Structure
and the values of 0.1 and +-0.05 for Weight. Resistance (air resistance)
is set to a very large value (10), and the air resistance in a
parallel direction, Parallel-resistance, is set to a small value
of 5%. This reproduces the petals falling down irregularly by
changing the air resistance when the petal changes its direction.
By changing the above values, a big change in the falling of the
petals will take place. Please refer to the picture about the other
settings. Make fine adjustments by trial and error.
4. Set the values for wind and gravity as per the picture. Enter a small value (almost the same as the
size of the petal) for the wavelength (m) of the turbulence. This
allows the petal to make complicated motions like rotation by giving
different forces to each edge of the petal object.
5. Now it is time to create a more complicated wind setup. We will make an eddy wind current and control it with a NULL object. Add the NULL object first in Layout, and make it do 20 rotations in 20 seconds.
6. Go back to MD. Select the NULL object
from the Object panel, and turn Wind Generator
ON. On the parameter list below, set a value of 10% for the wind
strength power, a value of 10 m for the effective range falloff
and a value of -0.1 m/s for the "blow". This prevents all
the petals from scattering away from the rotation.
7. After setting these parameters, go back to Layout and replace the petal object with the one piled up to make the shower of cherry blossoms. The scene file that the settings from 2 to 6 above is mdc11.lws.
8. Let's execute the calculation. All the petals need to go
out of the screen for the loop animation explained later. If you
are satisfied with the result, save the data in a file. Name
the file using the 
button and save
the data.
9. Go back to Layout. Select MD_Plug as the displacement-map plug-in of the object, and verify that the saved MDD file is loaded . Now the animation of petals falling is created. However, it is a little thin with only 50 petals. Let's create a loop animation.
10. Load the object r50.lwo of 50 petals about 10 times, and set MD_Plug. At this time, set Action Start (s) with shifting by certain time (the sample is 2 seconds) so the same 10 petals fall. Apply rendering for only the specified period of time (2 seconds) on the random section of this scene. Since the first frame and the last frame become the same status, the material for the loop animation of 500 petals scattering is created.
11. Now the animation is completed. By changing the texture, it can be falling leaves, and by making the control of the wind more complicated, more dramatic scenes can be made.
