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    Fractal Tree Maker for SketchUp - Free add-on

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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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                      • M Offline
                        mirjman
                        last edited by

                        the spread control still results in a trunk that smoothly tapers from the base, which is fairly unrealistic for trees like pines which begin to taper farther up from the ground.

                        I am also experiencing some double grouping with the created components where they have a group inside the component- not sure if this is desirable behavior

                        Also thought I should mention here, this plugin works hand in hand with "component spray" ruby to create fast environments: rendered in podium


                        02.jpg

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                        • S Offline
                          Stu
                          last edited by

                          Mirjman, that sprayed image looks great!

                          I dont know a lot about DCs but given that its really easy to produce leaf variations on one tree....would it be possible to make a DC that could display the whole range of seasons?


                          Summer.Autumn.jpg

                          http://www.landesign.com.au

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                          • Alan FraserA Offline
                            Alan Fraser
                            last edited by

                            Yes Stu, You can also have different growth stages too. You can do this by having any number of variants occupying the same space and use the DC attributes to specify which one is visible. The file itself would be quite large, but the performance would only be the same as if the visible form was the sole element. I haven't tested how multi-part DCs export to Kerky etc. but when exported to another format, only the visible element gets exported.

                            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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                            • Chris FullmerC Offline
                              Chris Fullmer
                              last edited by

                              Yeah Stu, that would be pretty easy. You could create all 4 seasons and then combine them in a DC. Then you could have a pull down option as to what season to display. You could also creat a series of heights for each season, then make a menu that would let you choose what age to show during what season. All of this is also do-able by some tricky layer management too though if you don't want to dig into DC's

                              Chris

                              Alan beat me to it

                              Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                              All my Plugins I've written

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                              • Al HartA Offline
                                Al Hart
                                last edited by

                                (We were just talking about what to do about seasons about an hour ago)

                                Although we are all looking for a good use for Dynamic Components, the layer idea might be better.

                                You could have just 4 layers, the same in each component, and then change the season for all plants at the same time.

                                Also, we could make a generator which allows you to specify bark and leaf images for each season and make all 4 seasons at the same time, and create the component with all 4 seasons in one step.

                                And, of course, we could do the same with age - generating images for 2, 5, 1- and 15 years for each plant.

                                Al Hart

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

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                                • Chris FullmerC Offline
                                  Chris Fullmer
                                  last edited by

                                  I think I agree that seasons through layer management might make more sense here because it would be a universal change. DC asettings are per DC. So each tree would need to be changed separately. Or they would need to ALL be in one container component that could then pass on the season information to each tree in the model. But I think the layers might work better. Although the layers could get bulky if you start specifying 4 tree ages and 4 seasons. That's 16 layers. But I guess its not that bad for the great functionality it would provide.

                                  Chris

                                  Lately you've been tan, suspicious for the winter.
                                  All my Plugins I've written

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                                  • EarthMoverE Offline
                                    EarthMover
                                    last edited by

                                    This is exciting! The idea of changing seasons is great. What if there were some magical way to tie a dynamic component into sketchup's shadow date control, then hypothetically you could animate the changing of the seasons!

                                    Also, I'm still curious about flowering.......is it possible to add a feature for this?

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

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                                    • david_hD Offline
                                      david_h
                                      last edited by

                                      @stu said:

                                      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 😄

                                      Stu . . .I didn't see it in Podium, that 's what I meant. When I exploded for a Podium view, It didn't render shadows at all. I will keep playing with it. and that was my first tree with this program. you're abso. Right. the Roots are bad. Walmart Xmas tree was my first thought as well. But I was just seeing how to do it and what it offered.

                                      Thx,

                                      D

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

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                                      • G Offline
                                        gaganraj
                                        last edited by

                                        i'm unable to install. is anyone else having issues? it said i was missing a certain .dll file and to reinstall. I tried that a few times, to no avail. then all of a sudden my license for v7 says its expired?!

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                                        • Al HartA Offline
                                          Al Hart
                                          last edited by

                                          @gaganraj said:

                                          i'm unable to install. is anyone else having issues? it said i was missing a certain .dll file and to reinstall. I tried that a few times, to no avail. then all of a sudden my license for v7 says its expired?!

                                          We just posted a new version.

                                          Give it a try.

                                          If it says it is missing a DLL, try to note which one it is.

                                          Downloads are available from:

                                          http://www.renderplus.com/pdf/download.htm

                                          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

                                            We uploaded a new version which:

                                            1. Clips 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. Creates the image (and component) so that the center of the bottom of the trunk is at the center of the image (and component)

                                            Downloads are available at: http://www.renderplus.com/pdf/download.htm

                                            Al Hart

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

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