Getting Started
with WCS 6 Part 5C.
Fields & Forest
69. Go back up to the Ecosystems
category in the Scene-At-A-Glance, and Add Component of this type.
70. Name it Pine Burn
.
71. On the Rules page,
change the Maximum Slope to 50°. We're only
going to use one Material so we won't need the Material Gradient
page.
72. On the Material &
Foliage page, change the Material name to Fire
Regrowth.
73. The Overstory Ecotype will
be pine snags and stumps from the old burned forest and the Understory
Ecotype will be the young lodgepole pine from the new forest.
Select Overstory Ecosystem Operations and Create Ecotype.
74. On the General page,
change the Absolute Height to Foliage Group and
Absolute Density to Foliage Group. By default,
Density is per Polygon. This minimizes render time
as fewer polygons are rendered as distance from the camera increases.
The down side is that the density of trees will vary with changes
in Fractal Depth and distance. Not good if you're using low Fractal
Depth preview renders to evaluate a high Fractal Depth forest.
To make density independent of Fractal Depth and distance, change
Density to per Unit Area and leave the Area
Units at Hectare.
75. An Ecotype is made
up of one or more Foliage Groups of Foliage Objects.
This Ecotype will only have two groups, so Create a new Foliage
Group  .
76. Name it Pine Snags.
77. Create another Foliage Group
and name it Pine Stumps.
78. Select Pine Snags
and set the Group Height to 30 meters, Group
Minimum Height to 20 meters, and the Group Density
to 30 stems per area.
79. On the Objects page,
Add Foliage Object to
insert an object placeholder, which will default to Image
Object. We can populate our Foliage Group with Image Objects,
3D Objects, or both.
80. We'll use Image Objects,
so choose New Image Object from the Image Object
dropdown box.
81. Make your way to the Components\Image\Foliage\StumpAndSnag folder. Select PineSnag1.iff
and Ctrl+click to multiple select PineSnag2.iff
and PineSnag4.iff. Unfortunately, the Mac file requester
does not allow multiple file selection, so Mac users will have
to load one at a time.
82. Open the Image Object Library and you'll see the other pine snag images.
While we're here, let's also add the stump images we'll use shortly.
83. Add Image Object to Library
and multi-select PineStump1.iff,
Stump2.iff, and Stump4.iff.
84. We've added new Image Objects,
so Load Fast and Apply to All. Close out the Image Object Library.
85. Back on the Ecotype Editor Objects page, Add 2 more Foliage Objects and
load the other pine snag images.
86. On the Groups page,
the Pine Snag group now has a + in front of it
showing it's populated with objects.
87. Save the project and render
a preview.
88. We'll use this Group later,
so save it as a Component. Save Foliage Group to disk  .
89. Load the WCSLastRender.iff
thumbnail from the WCSFrames
folder.
90. Add a description in the
Comments section and Save to Disk.
91. Select the Pine Stumps
Group and set the Group Height to 2 meters, Group
Minimum Height to 1 meter, and the Group Density
to 5 stems per area.
92. On the Objects page,
Add 3 Foliage
Objects and load the 3 stump images. Save the project.
93. Open the YNP Environment
to the Ecosystems page and Grab All. The Ecosystems
list determines the render order.
94. As WCS renders polygons,
it will first look at the Grassland rules and see if the
polygon meets all the criteria. If polygon slope is between 0°
and 30°, Grassland is rendered.
95. If not, the renderer will
go to the next Ecosystem on the list, Pine Burn. The Pine
Burn won't render on any slopes less than 30° because
that's Grassland territory.
96. Save the project and render
a preview.
97. So far, so good. We've got
snags on the slopes with an occasional one out on the valley
floor. This render shows bright green Ground Overlay;
your's will likely be different as it's randomly generated when
an empty Ecosystem is created.
98. Let's replace it with a texture.
A good place to start is the Ground Overlay of the adjoining
Ecosystem, so go to the Grassland Ecosystem, click the
Diffuse Color Texture button, and Copy Texture.
99. Go back to Pine Burn,
click its Diffuse Color Texture button and Paste Texture.
100. When the Copy Diffuse
Color window pops up, select the Diffuse Color as
the target and Apply.
101. Edit the new Diffuse
Color texture to open the Texture Editor.
102. The Fractal Noise
is a mix of dark green and lighter green, which is too green
for the ground under a dense growth of pine trees. Let's change
the lighter green to a dark brown. Select the right color pin
and click its color well to open the Color Editor.
103. Select the RockTones
Swatch, pick a dark brown, and Keep.
104. Save the project and render
a preview.
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