How to simulate frost?

[it_refplus]

Any idea how to simulate frost, as you see on the image?

[daniel.kapsazov]

Hello it_refplus,

Thank you for contacting us!

As with everything in 3D, there are usually multiple ways to achieve a certain effect, all depending on what the actual use case for it will be. It would be great if you could go into a bit more detail about how you plan on using the frost effect, such as whether it's going to be viewed from close up or just in the background, or if it's going to be used in an animation or a still render.
You might also find the following article useful: How to Create Snow with VRayDecal. Even though 3ds Max was used as an example, the principles are the same for Cinema 4D.

[it_refplus]

Hello Daniel,

Here's the image of the project I'm working on. I need to simulate a very cold place by adding frost at some areas. As you can see on the image, I added frost with Photoshop, but I'm not 100% pleased. It's a still image that won't be zoomed in. It will be viewed online, and the image will be approximately 600X400, so not very big.

[daniel.kapsazov]

Hi it_refplus, Sorry for the late reply.

This is the effect I was able to achieve using only a V-Ray node material, Curvature, and a bunch of noise.

This approach should be sufficient to achieve the effect you are looking for. Just keep in mind that depending on the scale of your scene and objects, you might have to tinker a bit with the settings of the Curvature and noise maps. Additionally, if you are looking to create very detailed snow, you might find this video useful: How to Create Snow with VRayDecal. Using the approach from it with a simple Decal could be an alternative to the material I made.

The material setup is quite straightforward. It consists of a V-Ray Node Material with a white diffuse color. I connected a Curvature node to a Falloff node for additional control, and mixed them with a Maxon Noise Texture set to Turbulence with a global scale of 200%. This combination feeds into the Opacity color of the V-Ray Material, creating a sort of mask. Additionally, another Mix node is plugged into the Bump Map socket, which mixes two Noise nodes—one set to Turbulence with a global scale of 15%, and the other set to Naki at 200%. The node material is then placed inside a V-Ray Blend Material. The base for the Blend material is a V-Ray Material with an adjusted diffuse color; in your case, this base material could be the plastic wrapping around the pallets.

I will include the scene file so you can examine the material yourself. Please note that to make it work for your specific needs, you will need to adjust the parameters of the noise nodes and the Curvature node. I also found it helpful to tweak the Low Clip and High Clip values on the noise to enhance the effect.

You can download the scene file from here: Frost Effect Cinema 4D

I hope this helps. If you have any additional questions, don't hesitate to ask.