Archive notice: This article was originally published on April 13, 2011. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Frost is a particle-mesher plugin for Autodesk 3ds Max that can generate a single mesh from particles, vertex clouds, object positions and point data files using several iso-surfaces or geometry-cloning techniques. Frost draws on current multicore hardware and can generate millions of polygon meshes from points within seconds without placing excessive strain on processing memory.
Frost works closely with Krakatoa, Thinkbox’s volumetric-particle-rendering and management toolkit. According to the manufacturer, the combination of the two enables a new, highly efficient particle-postproduction pipeline.
A beta version of Frost was already tested successfully in a shot for "Sucker Punch", specifically for the title logo made from raindrops collecting on a windscreen.
Frost 1.0 is available immediately for 32 and 64 bit, 3ds Max 9, 3ds Max 2008, 3ds Max 2009, 3ds Max 2010 and 3ds Max 2011. 3ds Max 2012 will be supported with an update later in April.
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