Birds eye views and massing
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Hey guys I would like to know how many of you do birds eye view presentations that require vegetation.
As you know I'm busy with another Garden pack, but this time I want to go much lower on the whole polygon thing, I want to create models that can be used for straight SU output and render, without using .png or clipmaps to cheat the poly's instead I want to use real geometry yet be low enough that one can mass a hundred trees in a scene with shadows on and still be able to move around easily.
However these trees will be mid to background only as the textures are reduced and close up they will pixelate.
I have made an Ash tree and a Skyrocket Juniper so far to test it out and it seems pretty good so far, I can imagine with a few various species one would be able to model a golf course or a large tree infested campus without crash or lag.
So, the question is how many of y'all would be interested in such a collection as there is no point making something that nobody needs and secondly if you are interested and are planning to purchase what trees would you like to see in this collection?
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The last render you helped me with and one I am doing right now have bird's eye views. I would be interested yes.
Some trees that come to mind:
ACER BUERGERANUM -TRIDENT MAPLE
ACER RUBRUM "ARMSRONG" -COLUMNAR RED MAPLE
ACER RUBRUM 'OCTOBER GLORY' -OCTOBER GLORY RED MAPLE
ACER PALMATUM -RED JAPANESE MAPLE
ACER SACCHARUM -SUGAR MAPLE
BETULA NIGRA -RIVERBIRCH
CERCIS CANADENSIS -EASTERN REDBUD
GINKGO BILOBA -MAIDENHAIR TREE
CHAMAECYPARIS OBTUSA -HINOKI CYPRESS
ILEX OPACA "SAVANNAH" -SAVANNAH HOLLY
ILEX VOMITORIA -YAUPON HOLLY
ILEX X ATTENUATA "FOSTER #2" -FOSTER HOLLY
ILEX x NELLIE R. STEVENS -NELLIE R. STEVENS HOLLY
JUNIPERUS "HETZI COLUMNARIS" -COLUMNAR JUNIPER
LAGERSTROEMIA X INDICA var -CRAPE MYRTLE
LIQUIDAMBAR STYRACIFLUA -SWEET GUM
LIRIODENDRON TULIPIFERA -TULIP POPLAR
MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA "BROWN BEAUTY" -BROWN BEAUTY MAGNOLIA
MAGNOLIA GRANDIFLORA "LITTLE GEM" -LITTLE GEM MAGNOLIA
MAGNOLIA SOULANGIANA -SAUCER MAGNOLIA
MAGNOLIA STELLATA -STAR MAGNOLIA
MAGNOLIA VIRGINIANA "GREENBAY" -EVERGREEN SWEETBAY MAGNOLIA
MALUS BACCATA "CALLAWAY" -WHITE FLOWERING CRABAPPLE
PINUS TAEDA -LOBLOLLY PINE
PINUS THUNBERGIANA -JAPANESE BLACK PINE
PINUS VIRGINIANA -VIRGINIA PINE
PLATANUS OCCIDENTALIS -SYCAMORE
PRUNUS SERRULATA 'KWANSAN' -KWANEAN CHERRY
PRUNUS X "OKAME' -OKAME CHERRY
PRUNUS x YEDOENSIS -YOSHINO CHERRY
QUERCUS ACUTISSIMA -SAWTOOTH OAK
QUERCUS BOREALIA -NORTHERN RED OAK
QUERCUS PHELLOS -WILLOW OAK
QUESCUS SHUMARDII -SHUMARD OAK
SALIX BABYLONICA -WEEPING WILLOW
TAXODIUM DISTICTIUM -BALD CYPRESS
TSUGA CANADENSIS -CANADIAN HEMLOCK
ULMAS PARVIFOLIA -TRUE CHINESE ELM
ULMUS PARVIFOLIA -DRAKE ELM
X CUPRESSOCYPARIS LEYLANDI -LEYLAND CYPRESS -
I've used clip map trees many times for large sites. A few thousands on the largest. For the largest I've used four sided faces, face-me components to keep poly count down. Rendering in V-Ray with opacity map gives me proper shadows, while sacrificing SU shadows. (On that scale turning on shadows bogs down the computer anyway.) On smaller projects I some times do a very simple outline of the trees so I get ok SU shadows.
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Thanks for that list Eric, I will start making textures.
Thothom, thanks for the info, I will see what i can come up with, but if I'm using optimised jpg's you will get correct shadows with SU and with Vray, I will have more polys than a face-me 2D billboard but I will have a much smaller texture footprint.
Another quick test, added a Large Holly.
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I did a test for massing, I used 1006 trees with shadows on.
Seems pretty smooth.
[flash=600,293:1s06n09x]http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/DeT4e_EffUE[/flash:1s06n09x]
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White Oak.
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Me personally could use these kind of trees big time. I don't really use top view ones (like landscape architects) that you mentioned in another post but some like the4se would definitely be great.
As for the species... Quirte "simple", (Middle-)European ones like oak (including big, fat, old oaks for some Robin Hood series
), birch, horse (ches)nut, maybe plane, ash, elm, some kind of semi-Mediterranean things similar to junipers, and pines... Nothing really special, I guess. -
pete,
in all projects i do there is always at least one bird's eye view. if it consists of more than one building then a larger number of bird's eye views are needed. so your plan for a group of trees that could be used effectively for that is very, very handy.
could you include some tall and thin tree like a cypress, especially the italian variation?
cheers.
p.s.: the first pack is great.
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Hi Solo, Nice trees!
This is link to a Picasa album: http://tinyurl.com/aplypq
The images in here are typically how I use trees.
From our point of view getting a tree specifically right is not that important, just as long as it looks like a tree and looks like it would grow naturally in western europe.Hope this helps.
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Paul that's exactly what I intend with these trees. I threw together a few trees from my next collection and massed them with an old scene that I used Vue to add trees as SU would crash otherwise. I am now able to add the trees as needed and easily navigate the scene with shadows on.
This is straight SU output with soft focus/bloom added in post edit.
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I'd buy that for a dollar! (or more)
How do they look low level?
In my images I've got the tree materials semi-transparent so that I can still see the buildings behind, how would your trees look semi-trans? -
Paul, I did a quick test, opacity at 75% on second image.
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You have a sale Mr Solo!
I assume that they are scaleable like all SU objects, I've found that by scaling some trees in only one direction (Up or Out) I can produce other tree types that look relativly convincing. -
As a quick note:
This is how I set about placing trees on a large site, bearing in mind that I'm not actually trying to create a planting plan, I'm just trying to enhance the model.Take my 5,6,7 unique tree components and scale them to the size I want.
In plan view:
Make 2 or 3 copies and scale each set up or down a metre or so to get some variety in height.
Make 6 or 7 copies of the lot
Select half of them, rotate them through a random angle and place the copies over the top of the other half'
Keep doing the copy/select half/rotate until I have a load of them all jumbled up.
Randomly select trees from the pile and place them over the model in groups of 3 or more, along roads etc etc.
Use Drop.rb to drop them on to the surface.
Select them all and move them down a further 100mm to cover any occurrence of the flat bottomed trunk appearing over sloping ground.
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I agree Solo, these are very useful for what I need too. And the general species listed are exactly what I'm looking for too. I don't use too much tropical foliage, but european and mediterranean are big time on my list. And like Paul, I generally don't need anything that looks exactly like a species, but just an approximation is good enough for me.
And Paul, sounds like you should check out randor.rb. It does all minor rotates and scaling for you. I generally like it pretty good.
Chris
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@chris fullmer said:
And Paul, sounds like you should check out randor.rb. It does all minor rotates and scaling for you. I generally like it pretty good.
Or Didier's Component Spray tool as it has a "click one to place one" option as well and you can pre-define random rotation, scale and (AFAIK) even tilt (is it tilt? like leaning sideways a bit).
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