Fractal Tree Maker for SketchUp - Free add-on

bellwells · 23 Nov 2008, 19:42

Thank you very much, Al. This is a great tool!! I am continually flabbergasted by all the after-market superchargers.

Anssi · 23 Nov 2008, 19:49

Thank you very much AL!

It seems to work as expected. A couple of remarks:

For me the installer did not give any "install complete" message. Is it supposed to?
What kind of render times do others get? For me it used almost 2 hrs for a "medium" image (yes, I have an old 2.8GHz P IV computer

Anssi

solo · 23 Nov 2008, 20:08

Anssi, that's waay too long.

I did about 6 so far all at high setting, the longest one took abot 3 minutes and this is in a dual core Vaio laptop.

Stu · 23 Nov 2008, 20:26

@anssi said:

Thank you very much AL!

It seems to work as expected. A couple of remarks:

For me the installer did not give any "install complete" message. Is it supposed to?

What kind of render times do others get? For me it used almost 2 hrs for a "medium" image (yes, I have an old 2.8GHz P IV computer

Anssi

Anssi,I think the time is somewhat dependent on the branch complexity and leaf density......try playing with the sliders and numbers.

And , no, I dont remember an 'installation compete' notice.

And Pete...Palm trees?

solo · 23 Nov 2008, 20:47

Stu, yup.

see image.

However even with bend in editor the final image is straight.

Stu · 23 Nov 2008, 21:04

[quote="solo"]Stu, yup.

see image.

SLAP!!! .....I missed that option all together

Al Hart · 23 Nov 2008, 21:06

Oof - (bent trunks) - This must not be being written to the XML file properly. We'll trace it down.

See what happens the to the next tree you try to make after the bent one fails - does it start out straight or bent. (We reuse the last XML file for the next tree, so it should start with whatever settings you used for the last tree)

ScottPara · 23 Nov 2008, 21:30

Al,

Thanks for this. Really nice of you. Just a couple notes or questions:

Can we get this to not only export a PNG but also an alpha map? As these do not render at all in Vray. Without an Alpha map it makes it that much harder.

Best regards,
Scott

Stu · 23 Nov 2008, 21:37

@al hart said:

Oof - (bent trunks) - This must not be being written to the XML file properly. We'll trace it down.

See what happens the to the next tree you try to make after the bent one fails - does it start out straight or bent. (We reuse the last XML file for the next tree, so it should start with whatever settings you used for the last tree)

Al, After trying with a bend the angle slider reverts to zero when opened again.
[Im finding the angle and bending sliders work in conjunction]

Al Hart · 23 Nov 2008, 21:43

@unknownuser said:

Al,

Thanks for this. Really nice of you. Just a couple notes or questions:

Can we get this to not only export a PNG but also an alpha map? As these do not render at all in Vray. Without an Alpha map it makes it that much harder.

Best regards,
Scott

The PNG file contains an alpha channel. I am not sure what an alpha map is.

When you render other alpha channel images from SketchUp to they work, or do you have to do anything special to make an Alpha Map?

If you create an Alpha Map - do you store it in SketchUp, or apply it separately after you extract the alpha image from SketchUp?

Are you sure you don't have the same problem that the Podium users have - that you need to explode the alpha-transparent SketchUp image into a face with an alpha material? If that is what is needed, we can make that an option for SketchUp, and perhaps set the face not to cast a rectangular shadow.

Podium users - if I set the alpha transparent rectangular face not to cast a shadow in Sketchup - does it still cast a shadow in Podium?

Al Hart · 23 Nov 2008, 21:46

@gaieus said:

And the link to the WH:

The trees you are making do have the .ArPlant information, so go ahead and upload them.

If you use custom leaves or bark, we will want to upload them again after we make a new version next week which stores the custom images on the tree as well.

EarthMover · 24 Nov 2008, 03:04

Prior to rendering in Vray, I had to explode the Faceme component twice, then return it to a faceme component. I had to generate a transparency/alpha/clipmap (I use Deep Exploration)to plug into the transparency slot in Vray. This worked fine and the trees rendered well. The process is a bit of a pain, but who can complain about such nice trees for free!

$http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/6563/fractaltreetestka3.th.jpg$

It would be nice to see an option added to put in a flower map. This would open up the possibility of doing and assortment of flowering shrubs and trees.

Gus R · 24 Nov 2008, 07:26

Al,

Thank you very much for this application. Works great and the trees and the options all work like a charm. Even tested it with other leaves as someone suggested -- having converted them to PNGs.

Thanks again.

Gus

ScottPara · 24 Nov 2008, 11:13

Al,

As earthmover stated we (vray users) will still need to generate a alpha/clipmap for these to work. I am not sure how much trouble it would be for the program to export out the associated clipmap at export but it would be a huge time saver.

Thanks again,
Scott

kwistenbiebel · 24 Nov 2008, 12:00

Hi Al,
Just wanted to get back on the 2D/3D subject.
As I understand, the treegenerator is actually 3D based by default right?
So what about the option to have the full 3D tree as output?
Would be great for us render headz.

cheers,
Kwistenbiebel

ScottPara · 24 Nov 2008, 12:29

I second (or third) the 3D request.

Scott

thomthom · 24 Nov 2008, 13:12

Third! (fourth?)

Al Hart · 24 Nov 2008, 14:54

@unknownuser said:

Al,

As earthmover stated we (vray users) will still need to generate a alpha/clipmap for these to work. I am not sure how much trouble it would be for the program to export out the associated clipmap at export but it would be a huge time saver.

Thanks again,
Scott

Send me, or upload, a .SKP file or .PNG of a RpTreeMaker tree and a alpha/clipmap of the same tree so I will know what it is you need. Is the clipmap stored in SketchUp anywhere, or separately?

We store all the old .PNG files in the RPS_TreeMaker_Images sub-folder of your temporary folder. If we can easily make a clipmap we could store it there as well.

Al Hart · 24 Nov 2008, 15:06

@unknownuser said:

Got it working. It's a pretty neat tool. Can you change color? If so, how? This would be very important.

Thanks,

Huck

To change color, you can take the raster images for the leaves or bark, change the color, and save them with a new name.

These are stored in:

C:\Program Files\Render Plus Systems\RpTreeMaker\Support\Plants

in a Bark and a Leaves sub-folder.

Here I took the standard leaf, made it yellow, saved it as a new leaf, and used it to render the tree.

You can create your won bark and leaf images by altering the color of existing images.

You will need a paint program which respects the Alpha Channel.

(I don't have one, but there is a tool in RpTools which will convert the background color of an image to an alpha channel which I used.)

Alan Fraser · 24 Nov 2008, 15:11

There are methods of obtaining a clipmap from a png using any decent image editor. What you effectively end up with is an alpha-channel image. That is a separate image of the tree, exactly the same size as the png, in which every transparent pixel is represented as black and every opaque one as white.
I'm assuming Rick has already worked this out in his image profile ruby in order to generate the path of the vector outlines....but that'll be the encrypted or server-side bit.