Drone

[fleetwood]

True story : I saw a group of  unusual objects in the sky a long time ago as a kid when on a family trip along the main highway that runs East and West a few miles North of the Grand Canyon. I tried to get my father to stop and get a better look but he was one of those types who was compelled to get on to the next campground planned on the trip and wouldn't stop.
The  objects looked like dozens of miniature classic parachutes. I estimate maybe a yard across and they were falling, but not landing, and seeming be just above tree top level. Always puzzled me, maybe it was a forestry experiment as the area is thick with tall pines. Guess I'll never know what they were. Thanks Dad.

I've tried to recreate closely the Northern Arizona setting I saw back then. The Drone is only an invention, I'm afraid, nothing like the many simple falling mushroom shapes I saw.

vegs - xfrog, Ulco, Mandrake, pineneedles- unknown

[yossam]

Me like...........especially the drone reflections. 

[Kadri]

I like especially the landscape and plants.

[bobbystahr]

Great story and memory...wish it were mine heh heh. Most like your supposition was correct...or someone was hunting for movie shoot sites trying to be inconspicuous...Love that cloud shape and the scene over all is quite compelling...well done.

[archonforest]

Nice one!

[AP]

Interesting short story and a nice mystery object. The depiction of the semi-arid forest looks fantastic. It looks like it can easily be North Arizona. The ground cover is a nice touch for realism.

[Dune]

Thanks for this little tale, and the render. It's very well done.

[DannyG]

excellent populations and sense of scale

[Jo Kariboo]

The trees are beautiful!!! Is it xfrog or a other?

[fleetwood]

The trees are xfog USA Black Spruce (not really an Arizona tree actually it is found mostly in Canada) . The tree needles, cones are good. Sadly the model as is has trunks that render squared off and need to have subdivisions added in a modeller or touched up in post.   

[Mr_Lamppost]

I have had a similar problem with some other Xfrog models, I think some of them are lacking vertex normals.  If I load the .xfr file into Xfrog-3.5  standalone  and export as an .obj the model then imports into Terragen correctly and can then be re-exported as a .tgo object from there. This also has the advantage that any tweaks you make to the shaders are saved as well. 

[fleetwood]

Thanks for that idea. Have to see if I can get the standalone xfrog to run on Windows 10. I use the C4d xfrog plugin normally. I just tried exporting as obj from C4d but the model retains the polygonal trunks.

[DocCharly65]

Very nice render! Cool story and nice landscape!

With some trees of the West America collection I have the same square problem ... The subdivision worked in fact. but sometimes I am to lazy and just change the trees 

[mhaze]

Nicely done.

[Jo Kariboo]

The trees are xfog USA Black Spruce (not really an Arizona tree actually it is found mostly in Canada) . The tree needles, cones are good. Sadly the model as is has trunks that render squared off and need to have subdivisions added in a modeller or touched up in post.

Thank you for your reply. Too bad some trunk is square, you succeeded by the well camouflaged in post-production.