What's the most fun way to make a Snowman in Blender? ❄︎❄︎❄︎

Question

^{Previous challenge: What's the most fun way to create a fork in Blender??}

Winter is here, and I'm trying to build a snowman.
But my Blender freezes after the first snowball! (is it because of the ice?)

There's gotta be a better way!
How would YOU build a snowman?

Use shaders, particles, python, geometry nodes, simulations or even your very own kitchen blender.
And please make it fun, I'm a millenial and have a really short attention span :))

Answer 1

Here's another just for the Geometry Nodes. :)

The main part of the body is here:

^{click to enlarge}

The idea for the body is to scatter points on the input mesh, and then remesh using the points to volume node. From there, it is simply assembly from instances and curve primitive nodes.

Here is the hat:

^{click to enlarge}

In 3.1 the curve parameter seems to have been replaced by spline parameter.

Here are the rest of the frames that complete the node tree:

^{click to enlarge}

^{click to enlarge}

^{click to enlarge}

^{click to enlarge}

^{click to enlarge}

And this is the complete tree. ^{click to enlarge}

Here's the file to play with:

Answer 2

Let's use collision and cloth (hard I know, but please try to follow!)

Let's make this random thing:

Add your settings like pressure, friction, stickiness, and eureka!

Now you have a base for a snowman that only works at frame 58... Oh wait...

Oh no, he is depressed :(((

Maybe add some snow and he will be happy again ... too much work for me

Answer 3

The Abomitaball Snowman

A glowing abomination straight from Chernobyl.

Made from a series of metaballs plus a particle system emitting metaballs from a hidden mesh

1. Shape the static part of your snowman with a few metaballs
2. Add a mesh emitter object roughly shaped like your snowman body. You can optionally make it from a copy of your metaball base and convert it to mesh to use as emitter.
3. Add a simple particle system with Newtonian Physics, pointing to an additional smaller sized Metaball object.
4. Under Velocity turn off Normal and increase Object Z slightly.
5. In the Field Weights disable gravity so they "float up", then add a texture to it.

6. Make the texture is Blend type, and turn off all influences except Size.
7. Switch Mapping to Strand/Particle so it maps out "through time" rather than any spatial coordinate.
8. Under the Color panel enable the Color Ramp and flip the default result direction so they shrink with age rather than grow.

Answer 4

Lately I find myself tired with all those mouse clicks to add a sphere, and duplicate it 2 times, it's just so much work... So I just type some code, like this instead:

C.area.type='VIEW_3D';o=bpy.ops.object;a=D.objects;c=a[1];c.select_set(1);o.shade_smooth();d=o.duplicate;m=c.modifiers.new('','SUBSURF');m.levels=3;d();b=a[2];b.location.z=-1.6;b.scale*=1.5;d();b=a[3];b.location.z-=2;b.scale*=1.5;d();b=a[4];m=b.modifiers.new('','MIRROR');m.mirror_object=c;m.use_axis=0>1,1>0,1<0;m=D.materials[1];m.diffuse_color=[2]*4;m=m.copy();b.active_material=m;b.location=[.5]*3;m.diffuse_color=0,0,0,1;b.scale/=10;[exec('d();b=a[i+5];b.scale=[.1]*3;b.location=Vector((2,sin(i/2),-cos(i/2))).normalized()*.8')for i in range(5)]

Ctrl + C Copy it, in Blender in a new project (with default cube) press Shift + F4, then Ctrl + V to paste, Enter, done.

As requested by Jachym Michal on behalf of phone users and exceptionally lazy people, an image (click to reveal; please, instead just copy-paste the code once at home):

it's also a more readable and interactive version:

Answer 5

you've got to pump it up...cloth simulation with pressure

Answer 6

Go to pixabay.com -> search for snowman -> download image

Then use this node setup:

Is this the cheapest and worst solution ever? Yeah

Was this the fastest answer? Yeah

Answer 7

Let's make it hyper realistic

Start with 2 cubes

Switch to front view and change the studio light

Add relistic arms and hand

This is the tricky part (face and belly) be careful

And don't forget the scarf and hat

Not even ILM can handle this level of detail

Happy Holidays to all :)

Answer 8

Softbody solution with collision:

Answer 9

_________Under pressure !!!!!!

Answer 10

Here's my lazy way with a few modifiers from the default cube.

Answer 11

Minimalistic Animation nodes solution:

If you can use less nodes, let me know. I am happy to learn ...!!

Answer 12

Geometry nodes solution:

I am sure, it is possible with less nodes. Robin will show us ;)

Answer 13

Maybe... a quote approach... I don't remember if it is from Ton or someone else?

Answer 14

Like many things Blender related, the "man" portion of this has already been built and released to the internet under a CC0 license.

Thanks to lsmft - https://www.blendswap.com/blend/8395

It is then trivial to craft a snow.

And apply a coat of snow to the base mesh with a Particle System.

Answer 15

I decided to make mine with a python script and using the real_snow addon that comes with blender, turned out really well I think.

I'm planning to make this into my first blender addon called "Snowman Generator". I'm just learning to make blender addons right now.

Fun contest, thanks!