Devin Johnston Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 What is the best way to bring in onyx trees into Max? I've tried using the Max plugin and I've tried exporting a 3DS from the Onyx tree broadleaf program. In each case I have an issue when mapping images of leaves to the geometry of the tree. I'm not sure if I should be adding a UVW map or if there is something else I should be doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbibb Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 When either exporting to 3DS or inside the Treestorm plugin in Max, there are options to change the number of polygons for each element of the tree. For the Treestorm plugin it's under Polygons -> Adjust. For each tree element there is a UV checkbox. If you're trying to map leaves, you should be able to select the UV checkbox for leaf, and apply any map you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billabong Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 Brian done a video on Onyx trees that talks about this, I highly suggest watching that video which is in the Visulilzation Insider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I have to fire up Onyx today, haven't touched it in almost a year, I think. If I remember correctly, you can make the leaves simpler shaped polys and forget the leaf mapping. Remember the hit you take raytracing all those alpha channels. In vray, you may be better off with more polygons and not doing all those transparencies. At least for mid-level trees. Right now I'm adding a lot of simple 3D trees to a site, the more prominent trees will be the Onyx ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raterry Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I'm gald to see this post. I've put Onyx Tree, both TreeStorm and exporting 3ds from the main app, through the ringer pretty good but still am not satisfied with it. The problem is mainly speed because like Ernest says you take a major hit with the alpha channels but with the simple mapping, it's just not good enough unless the trees are pretty far away. Until Mental Ray gets a feature simliar to V-Ray's Proxy, it's really painful to fill up your scene with OnyxTrees. If there is anyone out there who is really good with OnyxTree, I 'd love to see your tips, tricks, etc because I definately see the value of this software but right now the speed vs. accuracy issue make it a little cumbersome unless I'm really misssing something. Also, TreeStorm seems to crash alot using Max 9... -=Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Smith Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I'm gald to see this post. I've put Onyx Tree, both TreeStorm and exporting 3ds from the main app, through the ringer pretty good but still am not satisfied with it. The problem is mainly speed because like Ernest says you take a major hit with the alpha channels but with the simple mapping, it's just not good enough unless the trees are pretty far away. Until Mental Ray gets a feature simliar to V-Ray's Proxy, it's really painful to fill up your scene with OnyxTrees. If there is anyone out there who is really good with OnyxTree, I 'd love to see your tips, tricks, etc because I definately see the value of this software but right now the speed vs. accuracy issue make it a little cumbersome unless I'm really misssing something. Also, TreeStorm seems to crash alot using Max 9... -=Rob well as ernest said, you can replace the higher poly leaves with individual faces or just fewer faces. you can also get great results without using bitmaps or opacity maps. make sure you understand the vertex color map because it works really great. it's covered in that video on the insider page as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
raterry Posted March 3, 2008 Share Posted March 3, 2008 I downloaded and will be watching that video tonight. Thanks, Brian. -=Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 Ok I spend all day yesterday watching Brian's video and tinkering around and I think I've had some success. Bryan's video is very helpful and I really hope that CGA will sponsor more of these video's in the future which deal with real world problems everyone faces. Now down to business! There are really only two ways to make onyx tree leaves, either through bitmaps or vertex colors, everyone knows that. What I've found is that if you set everything up correctly bitmaps work just as well as vertex colors or gradient ramps. The trick is filtering, Brian pointed this out but it's very important to turn it off both in the diffuse and opacity maps. Another adjustment you should make is to the basic diffuse and secular colors turn these to black. One of the problems I kept having was some of the leaves would render white, or have white edges. Turning these settings to black will eliminate any of that. You must make sure that before you convert the onyx tree to an editable mesh you turn on all of the UV mapping through the onyx plugin, if you don't nothing will map correctly. The next problem I need to figure out is the mapping on the trunk and branches. No matter what map I choose or how I tile it the map looks blurry when applied to the tree. Adding a bump map has no effect and the only thing I can do to bring out the bark of the tree is a displacement map. This increases render times dramatically so it's not really an option. I've included some pic's let me know if you have any ideas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 No matter what map I choose or how I tile it the map looks blurry when applied to the tree. Adding a bump map has no effect and the only thing I can do to bring out the bark of the tree is a displacement map. This increases render times dramatically so it's not really an option. Can you use the disp. map as a normal map? Those render much faster since they do not create new geometry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devin Johnston Posted March 4, 2008 Author Share Posted March 4, 2008 Does Vray support normal mapping? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbibb Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Yup. Put a 'Normal Bump' in the bump slot. You can then put a normal and a bump map in their respective slots inside that map. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ernest Burden III Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Yup. Put a 'Normal Bump' in the bump slot. Do you have to convert to red/green? I haven't tried a normal map in vray yet, and the material system it uses under C4D is not the same as under Max. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nic H Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 ^ give crazybump a go for making normal maps. its a great tool, and free - for the time being. http://www.crazybump.com _ _ _ _ it looks like its been recently updated! check out teh fornt page vid, amazing tool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason Matthews Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 Can you post the link to download the insider? I cannot seem to find it. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billabong Posted March 4, 2008 Share Posted March 4, 2008 http://www.cgarchitect.com/upclose/VI/default.asp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claudio Branch Posted March 18, 2008 Share Posted March 18, 2008 If there is anyone out there who is really good with OnyxTree, I 'd love to see your tips, tricks, etc because I definately see the value of this software but right now the speed vs. accuracy issue make it a little cumbersome unless I'm really misssing something. You might want to take a look at this thread: testing with creating 2d background trees from onyx I have a description of a workflow that I have been using succesfully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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