Trouble rendering 2.5D trees

Edson · 23 Nov 2010, 10:40

I have some 2.5d trees (made of inclined faces so that they look 3D from any angle). they look great in sketchup but when rendered in podium they look very blocky and artificial.

in some cases, the images that compose the tree must be exploded for them to work but this destroys the tree.

any ideas?

tomsdesk · 23 Nov 2010, 15:28

Hey Edson, I sent you a reply to your email...but thought I'd post it here in case anyone else is having trouble:

...here's what I think is happening (but I'd need the model to check for sure):

First, go into the "model info" popup menu, "rendering" tab, and make sure "use anti-aliased textures" is NOT checked. I think this will get rid of the furry halo effect...?

Second, looks like you may have exploded more than just the image(s)...I still don't understand when a texture will move on a face and/or otherwise goofball when the group or component it's in is exploded (some do, some don't). When doing this step myself I make sure my camera position is "face-front" then keep double clicking until I'm highlighting the image ONLY before exploding (otherwise the texture may be affected by any scaling and movement the group/component was subjected to eariler).

Also, be sure each tree is right-clicked and made "unique", otherwise the last instance placed will tell the rendering program which way to face all the rest (I don't know Podium, but I'm assuming it's the same as Twilight and LightUp). This gets obvious it the last is on one side of the image and another is on the far other side.

And finally, I have to admit most of the earlier trees were made with large faces of leaves or WC textures which don't render very pretty (they get to be obviously flat planes). I wasn't going after anything that would render at the time, just low-poly...the trees now have sacrificed some bytes to render capability.

Hope this helps...?

Edson · 23 Nov 2010, 15:45

thanks, tom. after I sent you an email I realized this discussion could help more people so I posted my problem here too.

I will go back to the originals as soon as I have some time and will try out your suggestions.

clayc54 · 28 Nov 2010, 21:20

how did you go with fixing the trees in this render?

Edson · 29 Nov 2010, 12:27

I have not yet followed tom's advice.

clayc54 · 29 Nov 2010, 22:19

im having some similar issues. im trying out different rendering software to see which best renders the Toms Desk Trees with the littlest effort. this is what happens in Podium. I have turned off anti-aliased textures and have tried to explode the leaf. not sure if i have done it right.

light-up seems to render the leaves perfectly without doing much but doesnt render the shadows properly.

d12dozr · 29 Nov 2010, 23:12

Well, Tom uses Twilight, so I imagine his trees work well with that renderer.

tomsdesk · 29 Nov 2010, 23:59

Wow! Clay, I've never seen such...podium has worked fine by others?

First thing I see is that the tree shown in your image doesn't need to be exploded in any way (the image is already exploded into a texture), but you will have to make each instance of the component "unique" so each will face the camera correctly when rotated.

Also, I don't recognize the bush as one of mine and it seems to be rendering screwy also...?

Boy, I hope someone can help you out! (Send me the model and I'll give it a closer look: tomsdrop at swbell dot net)

clayc54 · 30 Nov 2010, 00:05

i would probably use twilight if i could but im on a mac.

currently trying/tried:
Podium (like its simplicity but doesnt seem to render 2.5d trees without extra work)
Light-up (renders trees well but not shadows, crashes a lot on my computer)
Render-in (didnt like the interface as much)
Thea Render (looks really complicated for a newbie)

Im not sure why it seems so difficult to render 2.5d trees. ive rendered pngs and they look fine.

I also use tree components for bills of materials so i cant make each tree unique without a lot of extra work.

clayc54 · 30 Nov 2010, 00:11

here is the skp file. basically just dragged the tree component into a new file and changed some lighting. rendered in podium using exterior preview, nothing else. render attached.

something weird is going on!

maybe ive corrupted the component??

render-tree.skp

clayc54 · 30 Nov 2010, 00:30

here is a render from one of Toms Desk Oak Trees in Podium (bottom image) and in light-up (top image). just dragged in. no changes.

obviously im no expert renderer but something seems like its not working. leaves weird in podium, shadows weird in light-up. not sure what's going on.

can someone advise as to what the easiest rendering software for 2.5d components?

srx · 30 Nov 2010, 09:33

Twilight Kerkythea Thea

tomsdesk · 3 Dec 2010, 19:51

Okay, couldn't stand this sittin' out there any longer...so I spent the morning downloading demo renders and testing the model Clay posted (Edson, I'll find the trees you were using and do some podium tests on them later today...but I'd sure like to have a copy of the model with the trees you exploded to see how you did it):

Clay's SU8 model was set with AA "on" and shadow settings set to "light 10" and "dark 8"...which I didn't change (appears a couple of the renderer's use SU's light settings by default, some don't...?).

I rendered all with the software's out of the box settings...except for adjusting size to about the same height (podium's demo would only allow 500 max...?).

First off, in all of these the render was unaffected by the "anti-alias textures" setting in SU8 (though the look in SU and direct 2D exports from SU are drastically affected...see below this post).

Second, I didn't get anything like what you were getting, Clay (except that my LightUp shadows are tinted green too), and don't understand why your images are as they are...???