Frozen Matter

Melting one patch of an object has consequences for several pieces of geometry. The ice shell, crystals, and icicles all need to respond to the same mark. Frozen Matter gives them a shared mask in the object's coordinate system, combining the overall thaw front with local brush strokes. A melted area stays attached to the surface when the view rotates.

The coating uses a physical material with refraction, roughness, and environment reflections. Scratch textures are projected from three axes and blended across the surface, allowing the same material treatment on models that arrive without a UV map.

A photograph can enter the same system as a solid object. The app builds an extruded slab around the image, with separate controls for thickness, rounded corners, and bevels. The photograph sits on its front face and bypasses the scene's tone mapping, while the ice responds to the environment lighting. Turning the object reveals the thickness and edge treatment created from the flat source.

Crystals and icicles follow different placement rules. Crystals point away from the surface; icicles hang with gravity. On an image slab, shorter drips can begin on the lower side walls and bend downward, while the underside supports hanging icicles. Upward-facing areas are excluded from that placement.