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    Fractal Tree Maker for SketchUp - Free add-on

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    • Al HartA Offline
      Al Hart
      last edited by

      @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.

      Al Hart

      http:wiki.renderplus.comimageseefRender_plus_colored30x30%29.PNG
      IRender nXt from Render Plus

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      • EarthMoverE Offline
        EarthMover
        last edited by

        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

        http://img224.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif

        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.

        3D Artist at Clearstory 3D Imaging
        Guide Tool at Winning With Sketchup
        Content Creator at Skapeup

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        • Gus RG Offline
          Gus R
          last edited by

          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

          www.instagram.com/gusrobatto/

          www.facebook.com/gusrobatto

          www.flickr.com/photos/gusrobatto

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          • S Offline
            ScottPara
            last edited by

            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

            Love the fact that some HATE my avatar.....

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            • K Offline
              kwistenbiebel
              last edited by

              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

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              • S Offline
                ScottPara
                last edited by

                I second (or third) the 3D request.

                Scott

                Love the fact that some HATE my avatar.....

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                • thomthomT Offline
                  thomthom
                  last edited by

                  Third! (fourth?) 😎

                  Thomas Thomassen — SketchUp Monkey & Coding addict
                  List of my plugins and link to the CookieWare fund

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                  • Al HartA Offline
                    Al Hart
                    last edited by

                    @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

                    http:wiki.renderplus.comimageseefRender_plus_colored30x30%29.PNG
                    IRender nXt from Render Plus

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                    • Al HartA Offline
                      Al Hart
                      last edited by

                      @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.

                      yellow-leaf.jpg

                      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.)

                      Al Hart

                      http:wiki.renderplus.comimageseefRender_plus_colored30x30%29.PNG
                      IRender nXt from Render Plus

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                      • Alan FraserA Offline
                        Alan Fraser
                        last edited by

                        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. 😉

                        3D Figures
                        Were you required to walk 500 miles? Were you advised to walk 500 more?
                        You could be entitled to compensation. Call the Pro Claimers now!

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                        • Al HartA Offline
                          Al Hart
                          last edited by

                          @unknownuser said:

                          I second (or third) the 3D request.

                          Scott

                          I will try this out (creating full 3D plants) and see if it works and or is practical.

                          However, this may effect the "Free" aspect of RpTreeMaker. I will have to discuss this with the developer, since he includes this product as a tool in his own rendering package (nXt) - which is not free.

                          Al Hart

                          http:wiki.renderplus.comimageseefRender_plus_colored30x30%29.PNG
                          IRender nXt from Render Plus

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                          • Al HartA Offline
                            Al Hart
                            last edited by

                            @alan fraser said:

                            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. 😉

                            That will be easy to do - to create a second PNG image.

                            The RpTreeMaker images are not all-on / all-off transparent. the edge pixels are partially transparent.

                            partially-transparent.jpg

                            See how the horizon is partially visible through the pixels at the edge of the leaf. This helps make the tree blend in better at the edges.

                            I presume a clipmap uses gray pixels to represent partial transparency?

                            Also, is there a naming convention which would make these easier for V-ray users to use?

                            Al Hart

                            http:wiki.renderplus.comimageseefRender_plus_colored30x30%29.PNG
                            IRender nXt from Render Plus

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                            • Alan FraserA Offline
                              Alan Fraser
                              last edited by

                              I'd imagine that there would need to be a degree of feathering around the outline, Al. A pixelated all-or-nothing outline would be just plain nasty.

                              3D Figures
                              Were you required to walk 500 miles? Were you advised to walk 500 more?
                              You could be entitled to compensation. Call the Pro Claimers now!

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                              • Al HartA Offline
                                Al Hart
                                last edited by

                                @alan fraser said:

                                I'd imagine that there would need to be a degree of feathering around the outline, Al. A pixelated all-or-nothing outline would be just plain nasty.

                                The sample clipmap Scott sent me does indeed have feathering around the edges:

                                feathering.png

                                Al Hart

                                http:wiki.renderplus.comimageseefRender_plus_colored30x30%29.PNG
                                IRender nXt from Render Plus

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                                • DanielD Offline
                                  Daniel
                                  last edited by

                                  Al, thanks for the fantastic plug-in; you've solved the problem of cloned tree/shrub components.

                                  While playing around with it, I noticed it makes the insertion point at the center of the component. This means if you have a lopsided or leaning tree, it's not at the trunk; when orbiting the model, the trunk's location will change. Any chance the program can be modified so that the insertion point is always on the base of the trunk?

                                  My avatar is an anachronism.

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                                  • M Offline
                                    mirjman
                                    last edited by

                                    I might be missing something here, but is there a slider to adjust the taper for the actual trunk object? I am thinking of the giant redwoods or ponderosas out in California- they are hundreds of feet tall and don't have the cute "flare" at the base of the trunk that I can't seem to get rid of.


                                    ponderosa-pine-tree2.jpg


                                    Untitled.jpg

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                                    • Al HartA Offline
                                      Al Hart
                                      last edited by

                                      @daniel said:

                                      Al, thanks for the fantastic plug-in; you've solved the problem of cloned tree/shrub components.

                                      While playing around with it, I noticed it makes the insertion point at the center of the component. This means if you have a lopsided or leaning tree, it's not at the trunk; when orbiting the model, the trunk's location will change. Any chance the program can be modified so that the insertion point is always on the base of the trunk?

                                      We're going to do two things.

                                      1. Clip the roots at the ground - right now we make an image which includes roots below the ground. That is useful sometimes, but much too confusing.

                                      2. Create the image (and component) so that the center of the bottom of the trunk is at the center of the image (and component)

                                      Al Hart

                                      http:wiki.renderplus.comimageseefRender_plus_colored30x30%29.PNG
                                      IRender nXt from Render Plus

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                                      • S Offline
                                        Stu
                                        last edited by

                                        @mirjman said:

                                        I might be missing something here, but is there a slider to adjust the taper for the actual trunk object? I am thinking of the giant redwoods or ponderosas out in California- they are hundreds of feet tall and don't have the cute "flare" at the base of the trunk that I can't seem to get rid of.

                                        Go to 'Trunk'...and use the 'spread' slider

                                        A 3D version sounds attractive but if you look at the way this app can produce leaves [or in 3D, polygons] I would guess that you could come up with 50 and 60 Mb trees [if you could get that far without SU crashing 😄]

                                        http://www.landesign.com.au

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                                        • david_hD Offline
                                          david_h
                                          last edited by

                                          Okay. . .So I am playing with this, and Have created a Dang Ugly tree if I say so myself. When I did Render 1, I didn't see it at all, but then exploded it and it showed up--But as you can see--rectangular shadows.

                                          Any quick tuts on a remedy? I have read thru most of this stuff, and I am a bit confused. (Nothing new there, hehe, but still . . .)RPTRee Test Image.jpg

                                          If I make it look easy...It is probably easy

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                                          • S Offline
                                            Stu
                                            last edited by

                                            Dave...youve got me confused now.....how did you explode the tree without seeing it? 😕
                                            But anyway, there is no point in exploding the tree unless you are using it in a renderer like Podium [in which case the square shadow turns into a realistic shadow after rendering]
                                            At the moment, the trees dont cast shadows in SU....unless exploded....and by doing that you also loose the 'face me' capability.

                                            Oh, and Id loose the roots....looks a bit like one of those plastic Xmas trees 😄

                                            http://www.landesign.com.au

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