Fractal Tree Maker for SketchUp - Free add-on

Al Hart

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

@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

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

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

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

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

I second (or third) the 3D request.

Scott

thomthom

Third! (fourth?)

Al Hart

@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

@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

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.

Al Hart

@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

@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.

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?

Alan Fraser

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.

Al Hart

@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:

Daniel

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?

mirjman

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.

Al Hart

@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.

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

Stu

@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 ]

david_h

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