The Plant Factory Discussion - share your experience and workflow etc. :)

Started by Tangled-Universe, June 11, 2013, 05:37:05 AM

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Antoine

I tried to add fractal noise to a trunk following the video demonstration on the TPF blog. The problem is that I don't see (in the displacement material window) the little arrow allowing to click on "connect parameter". Perhaps I am doing something wrong, or is there an another way to make it work, I don't know, could someone give it a try ?

Antoine

I just saw there are some video tutorials at geekatplay.com

TheBadger

Hi guys,

I just want to say that I think in terms of TPF output, we should only (or mostly), discuss it in terms of using the models in TG2, on these forums.
You know what I mean?
It has been eaten.

Tangled-Universe



Tangled-Universe

What do you mean Mick?

Tips and tricks should be expected any moment.
Everybody's having this toy for just a week :)

TheBadger

Yes tips and tricks!  :)
Just nothing about other terrain software. So output in terms of tg2 only.  ;)
It has been eaten.

ADE

plant factory is easy once you know how to draw a tree, add the branches etc, the trickiest part is.....when it comes to the leaves, they are bilboards......

but what happens when they are exported to tg2...they look like deformed candles on a xmas tree

ADE

sorry i have missed out on some comments on this thread, martin forgot to send me the link......tut ;)

mhall

@Terrade

The leaves don't have to be billboards. They can be real geometry.

This is a simple tree I've been playing with to get a feel for the controls/options. The leaf geometry is controlled via the "Blades" options for the Segment you are editing. It allows you to custom control the leaf profile, warping, etc.

[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=1]

I'm still getting a feel for things, but so far it's pretty cool stuff.

~Micheal

~Micheal

TheBadger

Are you guys finding that its easy to make the leaves the correct size, relative to the rest of the tree? Is it completely manual based on appearance, or some automation?
It has been eaten.

mhall

Hi Badger,

Each "Segment" added to the tree allows you to control it's length and radius. Radius can controlled via specific values or can be inherited as a percentage of it's parent in the graph. You can edit segment profiles for adding custom shapes (e.g. knots, tapering, etc.) to the segment or you can drive displacement with a fractal.

When you activate "blades" on a segment for making leaves with actual geometry, their size is fully controllable in the same fashion and is relative to the segment they are a part of. There is a "Start" offset that allow you to start a blade either right at the beginning of the segment or some point inset into it (essentially allowing for a stem). Similarly, there is an "End" offset which allows you to end the blade prior to the end of the segment.

You can control segment/leaf population via a maximum number and an editable curve which provides for some variation in that number. Alternatively, you can attach random number generators to those inputs and give a maximum number (this is also possible for many other parameters, e.g. length and rotation, etc.).

Hope that helps.

~Micheal

ADE

Quote from: mhall on June 12, 2013, 06:24:04 PM
@Terrade

The leaves don't have to be billboards. They can be real geometry.

This is a simple tree I've been playing with to get a feel for the controls/options. The leaf geometry is controlled via the "Blades" options for the Segment you are editing. It allows you to custom control the leaf profile, warping, etc.

[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=1]

I'm still getting a feel for things, but so far it's pretty cool stuff.

~Micheal

~Micheal

yeah i know, i worked that out last week...click the bilboards and then add object.....search in pc for the mesh, reconnect readd the texture....I did a little tutorial for TU yesterday concerning that....
as for drawing trees. shift click the crayon icon and draw away a tree.

ADE


ADE

i always learn ass backwards.....rather than learning how to draw a tree and then finish on the leaves.
what I did I loaded a preset tree and then zoomed in on the billboard nodes and changed them for meshes as shown in the following images.
I already had leaf meshes as objects so i substituted them for the billboards

after all of this I exported the preset tree to tg2 and all was fine.....so as for setting up your own tree from scratch should be a dawdle