Best 3D Trees?

[TomA]

I was wondering what are people's preferred source or method for creating 3D trees and textures for 3DMax and Vray, and why - Xfrog, OnyxTree...?

Thanks in advance.

T

Edited September 28, 2013 by TomA

[theo@3drealism.com]

I am using 3ds Max and iray with imported trees from The Plant Factory. Very happy with it.

 

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/plant_factory/

[meherthakker]

try this..its free

http://www.avizstudio.com/tools/atree3d/

[Hris]

I'm using ATree3D every day. Check what i have done with this script:

 

Check my blog and some of these trees you can download:

http://trzyde.blogspot.com/2013/05/freebies-new-3d-trees-this-time-common.html

 

or try to ATree3D by yourself and make your own trees.

I hope my info are useful for You.

Kind regards

Krzysztof Czerwiński

[TomA]

Very useful links, thanks!

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I am using 3ds Max and iray with imported trees from The Plant Factory. Very happy with it.

 

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/plant_factory/

 

Theo,

 

Do you have examples of renderings you have done with The Plant Factory? I have seen what is on their website but I am more curious about the quality of tree you are able to create in a production environment.

 

Are you using the the Producer or Studio version?

 

Thanks,

ts.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Crazy Homeless Guy

[Nic H]

I'm using ATree3D every day. Check what i have done with this script:

 

Check my blog and some of these trees you can download:

http://trzyde.blogspot.com/2013/05/freebies-new-3d-trees-this-time-common.html

 

or try to ATree3D by yourself and make your own trees.

I hope my info are useful for You.

Kind regards

Krzysztof Czerwiński

 

very nice work

do you have any eucalyptus trees?

sent you a PM

[TomA]

Krzysztof, can I ask about your leaf maps? Have you used a single leaf texture or multiple textures for the same species in your work shown above?

[Hris]

Actually my models consist one leaf map per tree (only different sizes and different angle around branches). I know that is "not professional" and actually i'm trying to tests some trees with 3-4 maps of the same leaf with different diffuse color maps. It's hard to prepare many leaf textures for one tree If someone has ForestPack Pro, then maybe is easy to use forestpack pro shader to make randomness color (taken from gradient map prepared in forestpack pro).

Ggreetings

[Hris]

Here is my last test to create huge, old tree, with tripple trunks (but still one leaf).

 

ATree3D is really powerfull script, but huges trees is generating really slow (generating geometry for this tree has taken 8 minutes - finally tree has 7.375.000 polys).

I hope i'll be able to share this stuf in next week, because i want ot make this tree fast for rendering and available in 3 versions (low, middle and high poly). I hope i'll find free time to do that

 

Greetings for all

Krzysztof Czerwiński

[theo@3drealism.com]

Hi Travis, I am using the Studio Version. These are 3 trees from the standard library which I imported into 3ds Max 2014 using FBX and rendered in iray. The Acacia is a billboard tree which is low poly and good for medium to distant viewing. It is not a typical single plane billboard, it has a 3d trunk and branches but has lots of planes at various depths. I have set it up to be constrained to the camera. I have made some trees/plants myself but because I am still learning they are not perfect yet. It is very quick and easy to build trees but there are a few settings I still need to know more about. Also the plants can be exported from The Plant Factory with Point Cache animation which works brilliantly (but I have only tested the Mexican Fan Palm so far).

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Hi Travis, I am using the Studio Version. These are 3 trees from the standard library which I imported into 3ds Max 2014 using FBX and rendered in iray. The Acacia is a billboard tree which is low poly and good for medium to distant viewing. It is not a typical single plane billboard, it has a 3d trunk and branches but has lots of planes at various depths. I have set it up to be constrained to the camera. I have made some trees/plants myself but because I am still learning they are not perfect yet. It is very quick and easy to build trees but there are a few settings I still need to know more about. Also the plants can be exported from The Plant Factory with Point Cache animation which works brilliantly (but I have only tested the Mexican Fan Palm so far).

 

Thanks. The first image looks interesting. What intrigues me about Plant Studio is the detail of the secondary tertiary branches. They look more detailed than the trees coming from most of the packages.

[theo@3drealism.com]

Yes. The best thing is that the level of detail is up to you - you can go crazy. It is a procedural modelling program, you can easily add things such as peeling bark.

[RyderSK]

In battle of GrowFX and Plant factory, I have to say the high-end solution is rather GrowFx, altough with heavy cost of not being exactly easy/fast as well as the workflow not being very nature mimicking (you have to manually copy references ). I watched Plant factory closely for some time, but, I have yet to see a single, realistic tree done with it, even the Accacia in their example is rather...CGish. I understand the tools are there (but only in the very highest version, 1.5k dollars, lol...competing with SpeedTree I guess..) but imho they are still somehow oriented toward "optimal" quality/resources, rather than very pure photorealistic output, which most users aren't after anyway (I am talking, 50+ milion of poly, not 5+ like current "high-end" trees, which still look comically CGish no matter what).

 

Then price... it's 300 vs 1.5, that's a bit big difference.

 

Onyx is old, and just...outdated. It can't output single mesh (i.e unibody, not bunch of cylinders sticking out of cylinders...), it has problems keeping realistic proportions when you want to generate older, complex trees (anything taller than 10-12+ meters will look awkward), the viewport is unusable once you need complex trees (10+ milion poly) even if you use the hide tools of UI. Still, it generates decent trees, but it should already die. It's been effectively abandonware for past 5 years.

 

Chris's trees are quite damn nice, I use his birches, only can support him :- )

 

From premade collections out there, the very recent evermotion ones (117 and something...) are OKish. For far distance...maybe for most users even for close. RD iTrees vol4 and 5 are rather nice too, even for upclose, but these are only Firs.

 

Then there is Laubwerk kit, which is great idea and plugin execution. But I find the model quality...poor. It's not realistic in any way to me yet.

 

3D vegetation isn't yet where it should be.

[theo@3drealism.com]

Juraj, there is no modelling difference between the Producer and Studio. Originally, there were modelling restrictions on the Studio version but e-on software lifted them. The main difference is the Producer suits a larger company where you can share assets within the studio.

[Trick]

I have Plant Factory since the beginning but didn't have time to work with it yet. Is there a way to export trees as a complete mesh without the billboards ?? I still haven't seen any decent example of trees with meshes for all the leaves !!!