Price: £309 / $495 / €342 | Developer: Thinkbox Software Platform: Windows

Frost is able to get quick and great-looking mesh results out of any particle data

Main features:
• Choice of meshing algorithms
• Multi-threaded support
• Integrates with Krakatoa
• Imports external particle data

Frost is a plug-in for 3ds Max designed for the purpose of creating solid meshes fromparticle simulations.

These can be generated inside 3ds Max itself, or from external programs such as RealFlow.

Frost can handle more than just particle data, though, and you have the option of meshing spline and object vertices as well as any kind of point cloud, including older particle systems, from Max.

The core strength of the software lies in its speed and the flexibility of control it offers. It also integrates well with Krakatoa,

Frost can also be used to meld vertex data from other meshes

rrrrrrThinkbox’s volumetric particle toolkit, making use of some aspects to push the boundaries of what’s possible.

For example, one tutorial on the Thinkbox website shows how you can use the pair to create a model of any geometry that looks like it’s constructed from Lego.

The user interface is well laid out, and the speed of the meshing enables you to get quick feedback when tweaking values.

Frost uses the same preset system found in the Krakatoa PRT Loader, allowing the user to load and set presets globally or on a per-parameter basis.

There are four main meshing options: Union of Spheres, Metaballs, Zhu/Bridson and Anisotropic.

Each can be useful depending on the situation, and they all
behave differently, but the key algorithms are Zhu/Bridson and Anisotropic.

The former is good for general smooth fluids and sand, since that’s what it was originally developed to do.

Anisotropic has great controls to allow one particle to stretch to another, but is more computationally expensive.

Fine mesh control means you can create realistic fluids from Particle Flow

Frost can also be used to replace each point with primitives of custom geometry.

What’s more, it gives you the ability to have particles facing the camera and the custom geometry animated, plus there’s also the option to output a vertex cloud that can be used by other programs.

By keeping the meshing as a separate action to simulation, the speed of the latter can be greatly increased.

This enables you to focus on particle motion and refinement in the first instance, and then address the issues of meshing using a second pass inside of Frost.

One of the difficulties of meshing is keeping the mesh intact while animating: Frost performs very well in this respect compared to other products.

Jittering and disappearing particles are greatly reduced by using the software.

Frost also has internal support for motion blur, integrating well with popular engines.

It takes into account the changing topology of the mesh during sub-frame sampling for accurate results.

Frost is a robust and feature-rich alternative to standard meshing tools, with hidden depths that are yet to be fully explored.

Its speed alone makes it valuable: add this to quality mesh results, and it becomes a must-have tool for anyone who’s serious about meshing.

Verdict:

PROS
• Fast, multi-threaded meshing
• Plethora of options
• Solid meshing with reduced jitter

CONS
• Frost really shines when used with additional software
• Solid core, but still early in development

A powerful meshing tool that’s able to get quality results quickly, Frost is a valuable addition to any fluid artisan’s toolkit