ProTrees Alpha Preview

[MGebhart]

Xfrog R.I.P.

This is an Alpha preview to show you what's coming available for ProTrees. This sample illustrates the unique and diverse range of the Trunk and Branch components. Each Main Branch and Child Branches are completely modeled individually.

Full from Scratch Modeling
Smooth Trunk to Branch Transition
High Resolution Non-repeating textures 1280 x 1280
High  Resolution Non-repeating Displacement Maps 1280 x 1280
High  Resolution Non-repeating Specular Maps 1280 x 1280


I'm hoping to have a Beta Release by July 2010.

[Oshyan]

That looks quite good. So are you just modeling this by hand in e.g. 3DS Max?

- Oshyan

[Kadri]

Looks promising Marc 
There are some blurring on the texture (ı know it is only a WIP) ?

[MGebhart]

All base mesh modeling is created in MAX 2010. All Sculpting Detail, PolyPainting and Normal Maps created in ZBrush 3.5r2. The Final Map output is run through CrazyBump.

The process is a lot slower doing it this way however, the final results will out shine anything I can produce in Xfrog.

@Kadri:

This is actually normal for this species of tree. I know it seems strange but there is absolute no smearing do to proper UV layout.

NOTE: Oops, you said blurring. This has yet been run through final map output.

Here is an early version in MAX.

[Kadri]

Do you aim for a close render proof object , Marc ?

[MGebhart]

Absolutely. I am a lot further than the last image post however, I will not reveal a preview until I have it to the point where I start adding leaves.

The high def tree used for sculpting will be around 2.5 million polys.

[Kadri]

Thanks ! Good news ! May it be easy , Marc

[domdib]

Fantastic bark. If the leaves are as good...wow!

[Zairyn Arsyn]

Awesomeness
Marc, this looks really good, promising - I'm looking forward to when these are released.

i'm glad your trees have their geometry connected together with the trunk & the branches, Xfrog trees never had that, and it always bothered me a little bit. not realistic.

2.5 million polys......

[Henry Blewer]

The branch detail is really nice. This would be wonderful for close ups.

[domdib]

One question Marc - isn't making all the tiny sub-branches and twigs going to be extremely time consuming? I assume that's the sort of thing that Xfrog handles semi-automatically. Excuse my ignorance if this is a dumb question.

[Walli]

looks nice!
But does it work with displacements?
I have done several such trees (like here Morning Dew) manually and I also tried tools like DPIT, Treesdesigner, Houdini L-Systems and all share the same problem - no matter how the UV´s are laid out, you get seams as soon as you want to make use of displacement. Thats by the way the reason why still many tools don´t offer fillets.

Looking forward to see some more renders, looks promising!

best,
Walli

[MGebhart]

@domdib,

Yes it's very time consuming. The small branches and leaves are created by using an array function and instructing the array function on how many copies you want, location on the xyz plus rotation information. It's a good starting point but there is still some adjusting that takes place.

NOTE: You can also use particle systems and then bake them when your done.