Winter trees?

solo

I'm trying to get content together for the next pack (slow going) and wondered if winter trees would be of benefit to anyone?

These are still WIP's and need texturing still.

sepo

All seasons would be useful.

honoluludesktop

Hi Solo, Hard sell in the tropics:-) Also, no one models palms, the way I like them. "To me", a palm (tree or potted plant), looks best if some of the fronds are sticking up. Guess I am used to looking up at a palm from the ground. Anyway very nice winter trees, are you going to "snow" then like the photo?

Alan Fraser

Looking up at palms....and papayas

They look excellent, Pete.
Some of the best winter trees I've seen were on the old forum...done by a guy called Hermes (or pepe). I don't know if they been uploaded to the 3D Warehouse...they were very effective and very light...and mostly fully 3D, or at least a skilful use of 2.5D. Here's a shot of his willows.

honoluludesktop

Very nice Alan:-)

EarthMover

Pete, how about some 4 season trees in your next pack. Have the same .skp tree packaged with multiple layers. Have the bare tree as the base layer and the user can turn on the spring blossom layer (if applicable), the summer layer, the fall layer and a snow layer for winter trees. The user can delete those layers he doesn't need for that project to cut down on file size. Or it may make for a killer animation of all four seasons by rotating through layers.

Edson

sometimes i prefer to use leafless trees so that the building can show through.

solo

Thanks for the replies guys, lots to think about.

Here are a few of the winter trees mixed with some snow conifers.

or with DOF.

Click Draw

Could the trees be made into a dynamic component and then have options drop downs to choose leaves, no leaves, bark type and so on....?
Jeff

d12dozr

@click draw said:

Could the trees be made into a dynamic component and then have options drop downs to choose leaves, no leaves, bark type and so on....?
Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I recently asked Tomsdesk the same question about his 2.5D trees...apparently it makes the file size too big - that's why they don't like dynamic components.

Maybe this would work better, though?

@unknownuser said:

...Have the same .skp tree packaged with multiple layers. Have the bare tree as the base layer and the user can turn on the spring blossom layer (if applicable), the summer layer, the fall layer and a snow layer for winter trees. The user can delete those layers he doesn't need for that project to cut down on file size...

Click Draw

Thanks Marcus...that makes sense.

tomsdesk

Guys, I think most of the 2.5d trees (mine and others) are already pretty dynamic...:`) as the color of the leaves are easily changed in the material editor and they can also be turned off for winter (though my trunks don't have near the beauty of these Solo is working on: too much poly for my intent at the time).

Alan Fraser

I think Tom's right. I tried some pretty extensive experiments with dynamic vegetation. You can quite easily end up with a component that is 5MB+ A good quality png file can be not far short of 1MB on its own. Have one for every season, including bare branches with snow and the whole thing gets pretty heavy.
Given that you have to choose the season anyway; and then perhaps explode the component and purge it of the unwanted seasons to save on file size, you might as well simply produce seasonal versions and then simply reload to suit.

Those arial views look stunning, Pete. Are you using geometry instead of image transparency, so you can render in V-Ray or whatever? I would guess so, looking at the cast shadows in your first shots.

sepo

First Santa render this season...

mateo soletic

@unknownuser said:

First Santa render this season..

Christmas is coming sooner every year.
BTW Nice trees.

solo

Thanks guys, now I'm playing...

Xmas scene 2 (quick scene, reusing an old scene)

sepo

That is Vue I presume. The snow is just amazing.

Daniel Bouchard

Hi Solo,

Like I said in Twilight forum, a winter trees and shrubs pack will be very useful for me. Most of my SU projects are done for my job, the Quebec "Winter" Carnaval.

Like Alan said, for the moment I usualy use Pepe trees (very good) but it will be interesting to have more choices.

I like Bruce idea to have trees and shrub with snow on.

Put me on your list.

Richard

They look great Pete! We don't get snowy winters here so I could never be sure, though would the lower branches droop so much in winter with the absense of any weighty foliage?

Texturing these obviously has to be done out of SU due to the wrapping issue! What will you use for that! I wrapped a trunck recently with UV tools and when exported to render it spat out each face as a separate material - strange!

Gaieus

@richard said:

I wrapped a trunck recently with UV tools and when exported to render it spat out each face as a separate material - strange!

Try to triangulate the faces first, Richard. Until a recent update, Twilight did the same with UV Tool'ed wraps and that was the workaround. Maybe it could help with whatever you are trying to render, too.