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Best tree plugin


alfienoakes
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I'm looking to upgrade from the old evermotion 3d models, to a more organic Proffessional looking set of foliage. Needs to be compatible with max 2012 and vray 1.5 ( I know, I should upgrade..) need my trees to start looking a little more realistic and varied.

 

If there is a relevant thread I have missed on this, my apologies. Just point me to it if you can. If not, would really appreciate some feedback on what people are finding gives the best results against ease of use / cost.

 

Thanks in advance..

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What ever models pack do you use?

As far as I can see on theirs site, there are a plenty of really good and realistic trees,shrubs, etc..

...

Look for vol 136, 58, 113, 106, 100, 117 etc....maybe you change your mind?

...

Besides that, I would suggest you to look over this source

 

http://www.3dmentor.ru/shop.html

 

Not so famous, but awesome models, you'll see...

Good luck!

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You'll be suprised, but there hasn't be almost any evolution since... the Evermotion 100+ are OKish, probably the best out of the existing.

The Mentor ones are quite poor imho, but efficient for far-back. They're done inside GrowFx though...it's just the author has something with eyes I guess.

Then there's very nifty plugin Laubwerk with few sets of trees inside. The plugin's idea is genial, the trees are mediocre at best so far though as well.

 

I am bit more critical when it comes to nature but so far everything is dissapointing in my eyes. Not even like 10perc. of the quality AlexRoman and Marla have demonstrated in past. It takes weeks to create high-end trees and months of research, so I suppose, no one really goes that far.

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Cheers guys. I am surprised. I thought I would have a bunch saying xfrog or similar. Some of those links look pretty good though. Mi must admit, with the ever motion ones it's about the materials. Opacity etc.. But they take an age to render. However, they do look better.

 

So

what are you guys using.? The examples that you have posted. ..?

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The Evermotions don't take any longer than the others. Simply put filtering off on the textures (opacity, but can keep it off for all the maps). The GI still takes longer with mapped opacity leaves, but that can be tweaked through materials.

There's no choice, any good looking leaf has to be mapped, no way around it.

 

Beware, some of the newer Ever collections, the trees still comes as group (leaves, branches and trunk as separate models), and sometimes, the trunk has displacement modifier ON, so obviously with more than 1 or 2 of these used as Hero models, it will crash the scene or render forever. Not sure why they set them up so idiotically...

 

xFrog, is kind of...past its time in my opinion.

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I find plant factory the best I've tried. Sure it's eon and a bit slow and buggy in places but in terms of quality of the final model you can get out of it, it's very tough to beat. I have worked out the basics and bought a few extra plants and im pretty satisfied with the results and control over variations. Worth a look anyway but you need to be prepared to put a bit of time in.

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I really like the idea of the laubwerk plugin, but as Juraj said the quality of the trees isn't the highest out there. Perhaps they have one eye on the poly count so people with lower spec systems don't run into trouble.

Edited by rhodesy
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Marla (Alessandro Prodan) did great stuff here

 

What happened with the guy ? Do you know by any chance ? Since you're from Italy. He could have easily become the single best man of the archviz world. No other work has come even 10perc. to that level of realism. Such an eye for everything. With 4gb, with zero reference, in Maya... I am still impressed beyond means when I see it, and depressed at same time, because we can't learn more from it.

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These guys used to do some pretty good trees years ago, I'm not sure if they are still up to scratch.

You could buy 'seeds' in the online store, drop them into your scene and then grow them.

Each seed randomly generated a tree in the confines of its algorithm, each tree type had its own algorithm.

You could change the season and everything. They were high poly though.

 

http://www.bionatics.com/Site/product/realnatpremium.php

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Grow FX is just mind-boggling annoying to use. However some guys have mastered it and the 3D Mentor library is pretty nice and accurate in my view. An Oak looks like an Oak, a young Ash like a young Ash!

 

The SpeedTree stuff is good if you get the library trees, but I'm not sure the UI there is "nice" for making trees. A big learning curve involved just like Grow FX I'd say... so if the trees you want are missing from the library... lots of work to make them.

 

I know this sounds silly but I quite liked Onyx to make trees. The big issue was it's so old that it's just a pain to work with the trees into your 3D app.

Also because it's old the expectations on scale accuracy are a bit bonkers so leaf sizes vs tree sizes can be a bit out, so you end up using non-real tree size values and it all gets a bit confused.

 

 

I'd love to see a backwards tree generator. Given it's relatively trivial to pick up a bit of a tree and describe it's phyllotaxy for the last 50% of a branch say, then it's frustrating to find that no current tree generator just works from asking you simple questions about this character.

 

Given it's common for trees to be managed, especially in arch vis type environments, then the macro appearance is likely to be nothing natural any way.

 

Ie, describe the last 50% (after 1st branches off the main trunk/s) with example data, then model the main trunk/branches manually (the ones likely to be managed by humans) and that is it.

 

In a way this is how many game engine trees are made any way. The main trunks are modelled to suit the desired artistic needs, first stage branches are possibly modelled or arranged with a simple system.

Beyond that the tree branches and leaves are part of pre-constructed branch elements that are essentially painted chunks of real branches, probably from photos of tree branches or ones they've cut off or have fallen off or whatever else.

 

 

Hmmm, all very interesting stuff. I'm still waiting for a tree maker that isn't just a pile of coefficients but actually asks questions about the trees form.

 

 

PS, does anyone remember this from a few years back? It looked pretty impressive to me. I can only assume it's being developed heavily as a commercial project now?!

 

http://www.bath.ac.uk/media/research/video-based-modelling/video-based-tree-modelling.html

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I can second everything David said.

 

I personally used GrowFx quite extensively (think 2 months straight of research) more than year ago. I(and we) HATED every single moment of it. It's exactly how nature mimicking soft shouldn't look like. With that said, it is still THE BEST plugin because of it's capacity (sheer giantness compared to outdated Onyx which trambles with true-size big trees), flexibility (create just anything...if you have that sort of time and patience) and output quality (animated with wind, quads, single mesh!!!!,etc..).

Onyx was superb in its time, it's now outdated unusable abandonware....quite regretable. It's joke they still ask money and sell it...the website is beyond absurd itself. Onyx is how the soft should look like.

Plant factory seems to be very decent, haven't tried it yet, both to price and because I do more interiors for past year. I will def give it a try. Sadly I haven't seen a convincing example yet either, but this is simply because of weak users. The tech seems powerfull.

SpeedTree...I don't know. There's quite reason it only fills mediocre looking video games at best (of course, if we discount the fake claims of how it was "used" for Avatar....by which they meant internal previz....) It will become abandoware eventually as well.

 

I love all the research around, but I wouldn't hold breath it will ever be developed into commercial solutions. This stuff either stays white paper or become private proprietary tech. Too bad..

Edited by RyderSK
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