Trees

[efflux]

Here's some more experiments using Arbaro and Wings. I'm expanding on trying to build bigger trunk trees. The branches need to be separate geometry. I've realised that now. Anything else it too much geometry. Looking at the trees people are using in TG2, that's how they are done but I've now got much better ways to create the joins, unlike this picture where the joins aren't too good and the upper parts too fluted.



Then I've got some more experimental stuff done 100% in Wings3d. I don't want to just do realistic trees. I want to form the trees any way I like.



Maybe the reason that E-on can charge such huge prices is that nobody is experimenting with how to build trees themselves. It's time consuming and will probably be in Plant Factory as well unless you just use a preset. Creating the software will also be time consuming.

Next will be coming work on leaves. I might try hanging fruit and such like.

[efflux]

Ha ha, I've found an even more awesome way. I can map out extremely complex branches in Inkscapes as svg then Wings extrudes it out on import into fully blown polys as branches. I can even photograph real trees and trace bitmap them into svg   

[efflux]

Over two million tris Arbaro tree. Some geometry wasted here. Thousands of smaller thin twigs. I've got cool procedural bark textures in Blender now. Not much good elsewhere but I'll replicate that. A bit more colour work on leaves but I need to do more with leaves. I can make my own now.

I'll stop using Blender soon and bring into TG2 but First I need to sort out more stuff. I've got other various plants and Wings things. I want to start simple in TG2 to begin with.

[TheBadger]

I think your probably quite brilliant Efflux.

On the images. I would like to see a detailed break down of the construction on the thorny looking bush/tree. Its quite inspiring.
Your last tree is also very good I think.

The most impressive part is that you are building these (apparently) completely manually. But you haven't indicated how long its taking you to do each one. I would like to know that.

The real question is are you going to share how to's on your process or keep it for your self. I would understand keeping the finer points to your self. being that everything is so competitive. But Im definitely reading your posts on all of this.

About TPF and the things you are saying. For me, and I said this pretty much from the start, the real selling point is the apparent speed and ease the soft provides. I suspect you will probably get very tired of making lots and lots of trees with lots of variations the way you are making the trees your posting. It would probably kill me.

I have given up my resistance and am going to buy the PF soft now. Cant afford it. Wont be able to use it until the OSX is out. But cant resist it anymore. I take solace in the fact that we got them to change their minds on some stuff though.

[TheBadger]

K got it now. The buying process was surprisingly fast.

Cant do anything with the soft though. I don't have access to a windows system. Could run it on my mac, but would have to buy windows too. Ah well. I guess this is one more reason to do it. HAve held out for so long though. I think I will feel dirty if I give in now.

Anyone know if I have to activate this soft in order to get my mac copy? Could not find anything other than what T-U told me a few posts ago. Im also curious as to how Im going to get the upgrade on monday. Will it be a new download, or does it update from an internal "check for updates"?

[Tangled-Universe]

I haven't installed it yet myself Michael, so I can't answer your activation question nor confirm whether it checks for updates by itself...

[Dune]

That's the trouble with some software, you have to be online to activate. I work offline!

@efflux; you're incredible, man. Fast progress and the trees are getting better and better. Is there a way to more or less randomize the placement of branches, as that's often a give-away of fake plants/trees? As Michael subtly stated; will you be doing a tutorial?

[Bluestorm]

@ efflux


Wow, this weeping willow looks incredible  And you modeled it directly in Wings 3D without any sort of special plugin? That's absolutely stunning.

@ Badger

You can activate the software online which takes about 10 seconds. You just enter your account information (e-mail + password) and it's done. You can also activate by phone, as far as I know, but I've never tried that before.

When there's an update available, you will receive an e-mail from e-on with a download link for a new setup file. Since some providers have trouble with e-on's mails (they don't pass their spam filters), e-on also created a list  in your account of all the e-mails that were sent to you. If you login at the e-on website and click onto "My account", you will get a list of all your purchases, invoices and updates for your products and can download the update from there, too.

[j meyer]

...

@ efflux


Wow, this weeping willow looks incredible  And you modeled it directly in Wings 3D without any sort of special plugin? That's absolutely stunning.
...

@efflux; you're incredible, man. Fast progress and the trees are getting better and better. Is there a way to more or less randomize the placement of branches, as that's often a give-away of fake plants/trees? As Michael subtly stated; will you be doing a tutorial?

He uses Arbaro,which is free and a portable app,so you can try without any installation,
even from a memory stick.It is pretty easy to use.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/arbaro/

Edit: sorry the quotes got mixed up somehow.

[TheBadger]

@ bluestorm
Thank you for the info!
Hope you will continue to post after things quite down again. Especially in image sharing!

J meyer.
Ah yes!
Hope I did not infer that I thought efflux was manually extruding and connecting every stem and leaf. Still, I expect it is much more manual than Speed/PF/Frog, or I just wasted 400 dollars.

[Bluestorm]

@j meyer

Oh, somehow I forgot that efflux mentioned Arbaro. I knew about this program, but had never tried it before. The results are indeed quite stunning.

@TheBadger

I'd LOVE to create some good Terragen 2 renders, but I've yet to manage a good one. All my attempts so far have been ugly, to say the least, because I have troubles achieving exactly what I want. It's like hit and miss for me with all the different nodes After a day or two of following tutorials and still not getting closer to producing anything worthwhile all by myself, I keep getting back to Vue because I know my way around the software very well, sigh. I wish I was on the same level of skill both with TG2 and Vue. Besides this, I've never been an active forum poster anyways, no matter which community we are talking about I like reading a lot more than participating, it's just not my thing .

Btw, I can't check your UV issue at the moment. Every tree that I export right now is exported without materials, even though I managed to do it once for the leaves render that I've shown before.  It appears to be a bug in the pre-release. Sadly, I overwrote the originally exported tree. I will try it again with next week's pre- release phase 2, though.

[TheBadger]

Btw, I can't check your UV issue at the moment. Every tree that I export right now is exported without materials, even though I managed to do it once for the leaves render that I've shown before.  It appears to be a bug in the pre-release.

Im getting nervous again

[Tangled-Universe]

No need to become nervous yet Michael...it's a beta version, still.

[mhaze]

Had my first crash trying to assign materials. The modeler part seems stable haven't tried exporting yet.

[efflux]

There are three basic methods I've used to create the trees. One is straight Arbaro. That Weeping willow type tree is one of those with a few small tweaks in Arbaro to give it more leaves and obviously textured in Blender. That was a test to take things to more geometry. The next method involves using Arbaro to generate mesh and tweaking in Wings3d. The last method is pure Wings3d. The thorny bush was done that way (even athough the file name of the picture suggests otherwise) but as I use Wings more I'm getting more advanced results. For example, Wings can place objects on a model like an array except it's new geometry. Because of Wings advanced selections you can select an object and replicate it all over another object at specific selected faces.

The most fum way is pure Wings but Arbaro obviously creates a mass of geometry in particuilar leaves. I think Arbaros initial fall down was that when it was first deveoped,there wasn't the computer power to really handle the kind of detail on say that weeping tree.

Another point is that looking into how Arbaro creates the trees gives you a perfect model of how to do it yourself. I think Arbaro does the job extremely well. There are some fluke outcomes from the trees which enables easier editing in Wings. Each branch level can have a cross section of faces one less than the previous level. In Wings this means you can auto select all the levels but it feeds back into realising this is the way to do it straight in Wings as well.

Wings is one of my favourite programs now. It's a very powerful modeler with masses of hidden features. I can tell you that learning this program is worth every minute spent. At first you may think it's a simpler little box modeler but you will quickly find this is not the case at all.