Garden collection

Daniel · 9 Feb 2009, 17:13

Pete, your work is always amazing. I've a few requests:
A larger, denser liriope; they are very popular here, growing about 18" tall and very dense.
a hellebore (linten rose)
flowering crepe myrtle

rcossoli · 9 Feb 2009, 18:21

excellent job Pete!!!, something normal in you, the truth you can buy these plants is because they are very good and in sketchup is not always easy with vegetation so real, I guess that tell us where you can buy, grating

steelers05 · 9 Feb 2009, 18:51

Solo these look great, I havent completely read through this thread so I apologize if I am repeating this question, but what did you use to map the textures? Im pretty sure photoshop cs4 can handle mapping on 3d objects, as well as zbrush...did you use any of these or was it in 3ds max?

Roger · 9 Feb 2009, 20:37

Solo I am doing a photography collection of desert flora. Any interest or too limited in its reach.

EarthMover · 9 Feb 2009, 21:58

Pete, I know quite a few landscape designers and architects that will jump on your collection. If I may add my requests....

More ornamental grasses. Specifically Miscanthus Gracillimus Maiden Grass, Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass and Karley Rose Fountain Grass. These are staples in northeast landscape design and something I'm currently lacking in my collection.

Just to give you a run down of what LA's in my zone (6b) would be looking for:

Perennial staples - Rudbeckia (Black Eyed Susan), Echinacea (Coneflower), Perovskia (Russian Sage), Shasta Daisy, Lavendula, Gaillardia (Blanket Flower), Autumn Joy Sedum, Hosta, Phlox, Daylilly, Huechera (Coral Bell) & Dianthus.

Evergreen Shrub staples - Boxwood, Otto Luyken Cherry Laurel, Schipkaensis Laurel, Ilex Glabra (Inkberry Holly), Pieris, PJM Rhodedendron

Flowering Shrub staples - Spirea, Knockout Rose, Hydrangea, Crape Myrtle, Weigelia, Lilac, Forsythia, Viburnum

Other things would be ornatmental trees such as weeping cherry, dogwood and flowering crabapple
Dwarf and weeping conifers such as globe blue spruce, hinoki cypress, weeping blue atlas cedar, weeping alaskan cedar

Those are just a few of the many I use all the time in my designs. Even having just a few of these in 3D format would be worth the purchase of the collection.

What you posted so far would not be of much benefit to a landscape designer in my climate, except as use in annual gardens and planters, with the exception of the liriope and ferns.

Overall A+ on the modeling. I think it would behoove you to also release this collection in .vob format for Vue users, perhaps on cornicopia3d.com

solo · 10 Feb 2009, 16:21

Thanks again guys.

Adam, that's quite a list, you giving me room for a few collections there.

The first collection is nearing an end, here are a few more:

Daffodils (re-done), English meadow flowers, Hydreangeas and some generic wild flowers.

And the water lily.

SU output

Vue render

steelers05 · 12 Feb 2009, 12:48

Solo did u see my previous post? Still really curious how u mapped the textures

solo · 12 Feb 2009, 13:10

Steelers, sorry 'bout that.

I am planning to put my texturing process in form of a tutorial that will be available soon when the new SCF happens, I can say that it's a combination of projected textures and polygon sampling (difficult to explain, hence video is needed)

I have started setting up my 3D gardens page for soon release here : http://solosplace.com/3Dgarden.aspx
I am still posting images of the Solo 3D Garden pack1 and I explain about the textures also.

Stinkie · 12 Feb 2009, 13:15

Looking forward to both the tut and the models.

EarthMover · 12 Feb 2009, 20:55

Looks like a great collection Pete. Any idea of what the cost will be? Even just a price range will help. I moderate on a forum for landscape and outdoor construction guys and I'd be happy to spread the word over there for you. I've turned a lot of those guys on to Sketchup and they all complain regularly about the lack of plants.

Have you thought about whipping up a few quick variations of flower pots to include in the collection? Even in my climate, the palms and such would be useful if they could go on a patio in a pot.

solo · 12 Feb 2009, 21:02

Adam

Good Idea on the pots, I will look into it.

Thanks for the offer to promote my collection, every bit counts.

Did you see my recent inclusion?, that's mean't as a joke...or is it?

As for price, I have looked around at Cornicopia, Turbo squid, and a few other sites for an idea but they are just rediculously expensive, I would not dream of such prices, I was wondering what y'all think (hope this question doesn't bite me on the ass) I should charge.

EarthMover · 13 Feb 2009, 03:49

haha the flamingo! Nice touch! Or did you mean the gnome? Either way, very clever.

Pete, you've gotta talk the ruby guys into creating a Scatter Ruby for sketchup. I've been playing with scatter tool in max lately and can't help but thing how much that would help in sketchup with things like plants and grass. Since all components have gluing planes and snap to faces and edges, I don't think this would be impossible. I'd image for what you are doing, it would be great to scatter leaves on branches or quills on a cactus. Just a thought.

thomthom · 13 Feb 2009, 07:27

@earthmover said:

haha the flamingo! Nice touch! Or did you mean the gnome? Either way, very clever.

Pete, you've gotta talk the ruby guys into creating a Scatter Ruby for sketchup. I've been playing with scatter tool in max lately and can't help but thing how much that would help in sketchup with things like plants and grass. Since all components have gluing planes and snap to faces and edges, I don't think this would be impossible. I'd image for what you are doing, it would be great to scatter leaves on branches or quills on a cactus. Just a thought.

Like Component Spray?

EarthMover · 13 Feb 2009, 15:58

As far as I've tried, I can't get compospray to work on things like cylinders and spheres. Here's a video showing how scatter works in Max if you want to take a stab at it - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpCRPf0ARtg&feature=PlayList&p=05436D32294883CD&playnext=1&index=2

I'd imagine in sketchup. a scatter tool would have to be limited to the individual faces that form the sphere. I was just thinking for making things like trees and plants, scattering along a cylinder type object would be very useful. Perhaps you can do it with compospray and I'm just missing how.

steelers05 · 14 Feb 2009, 14:57

Sounds great. These look really awesome and I trust they willl be well worth whatever you charge. Anxiously awaiting. Thank you in advance

Ross Macintosh · 16 Feb 2009, 11:05

Hi Pete!
I see your plants collection is now offered for sale. (http://solosplace.com/3Dgarden.aspx ) I'm happy to be one of the first to purchase the set and to support you in this venture. I'm sure the components will be very useful.

Regards, Ross

thomthom · 16 Feb 2009, 11:16

@unknownuser said:

Textures have been carefully mapped and applied using projections and polygon sampling, so exploding groups will destroy the UV mapping.

I've not experienced that.

thomthom · 16 Feb 2009, 11:25

Ok, I see it now. Tried it on one of your plant. Seem to be when components/groups are scaled and skewed. Wasn't aware of that.

...wonder if it's possible to script an explode that doesn't do that.

On a sidenoe: the texture for the Generic tree looks odd and faceted. Is that suppose to be like that?

solo · 16 Feb 2009, 11:37

Thanks guys, I appreciate your support.

Thomthom, I have corrected that texture so you can iether re-download from the link you got or simply change the material size from 12' to 1',not sure what happened there as i made sure to check all textures before uploading.

Thanks again guys.

thomthom · 16 Feb 2009, 11:55

For future collections, do you think the nesting and amount of groups can be reduced?

As mentioned before, V-Ray will take a long time processing scenes with many deeply nested components. While the file size is small, it's not improving the V-Ray rendering time. Not sure how other render engines deal with this. File sizes doesn't concern me too much, all though I understand it's important since the product is download product. But in my experience it's the textures that add up most of the size, the geometry less.