Falling Leaves

Falling Leaves sends leaves drifting down around an object. Some flutter from side to side, gliding and swinging back like a dropped sheet of paper; others tumble end over end and slide away sideways. A slow breeze pushes them around without blowing them out of the scene.

How it works

Each leaf is treated as a thin plate falling through air, using the equations researchers use to study falling cards and leaves. The air resists the leaf differently along and across its blade, and that difference is what makes a leaf rock, glide and flip instead of dropping straight down. Light leaves flutter and heavy ones tumble, and the Tumble setting decides the mix. Leaves circle the object rather than leaving it, slide off it instead of passing through, and fade in at the top and out just above the ground. Each blade has a serrated edge, a midrib and veins, and glows warmly when light comes through it from behind.

Settings

• Leaf Count and Leaf Size.
• Fall Height and Spread: the size of the column the leaves fall through.
• Tumble: the share of tumbling leaves versus fluttering ones.
• Wind: the strength of the sideways breeze.
• Color and Autumn Color: each leaf is a mix between the green and the turned colour.

Use it for

Autumn campaigns, seasonal product shots, calm nature scenes, title sequences. The Leaf fall object effect makes the object itself fall away like a leaf.