How to make hedges in 2015

[Jon Berntsen]

How do people achieve good looking hedges that are following the terrain? I have seen many of them lately, and they look good and doesnt look like stiched from individual pieces. It almost seems like more the norm out there. I am sure there must be a decent way to do this? I use max and vray but any method would be adaptable I guess.

[jasonstewart]

I have done it before by making a box the same shape I want it (you can manually adjust it so it follows the terrain) and then scattering leaves all over the box. Sometimes it helps to then make the box smaller and have multiple layers as well. Of course some noise makes it less perfect looking and I know there are some scatter scripts that you can scatter within the volume of the object so that may be worth trying as well. It works well for distant stuff but close up it falls apart.

 

You could also try forest pack, just crank the random z way up and make it super dense and use a spline to control the shape of where it is going.

 

Growfx can do it but it would take a long time to get looking good and the models turn out fairly heavy.

 

Got an example of what you are after?

[Francisco Penaloza]

Forest pro can do that type of cloning very easily, it look very good. The trick is not using a large sample, big enough so when the hedge curve it won't pop out.

 

I saw a tutorial using VRay pattern, but I am not sure how long that company will stay, Multiscatter seem kind of dead already.

[Chris MacDonald]

Forest Pro handles stuff like this with ease.

[notamondayfan]

Yup forest pro, and some good stock 3D models.

[Jon Berntsen]

Thanks people. I use forest pack pro, so sounds like something I should manage to pull off. Are we talking about leaf models or hedge models here? Did you figure out this by yourself, all of you? I have been messing around with it, and also aquired some good hedge models without getting any good results

[Nicolai Bongard]

If you have good hedge models just use forest pack to scatter them arounrd inside a defined area, and it should work out. However, you can also try this method: http://xoio-air.de/2011/particle-foliage/

[Jon Berntsen]

Bringing back this thread to life. Thanks for responses, folks. Here is my hedge, https://www.dropbox.com/s/8hv5ph0vzppvvta/hedgetest.JPG?dl=0

 

Made with this model from Archmodels 126:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v26gzvu8120uheg/142_hedge_v1.jpg?dl=0

 

Hmm... Not pretty to my eyes. I have scattered along a spline with forest pack now.

Any other suggestions?

Edited August 31, 2015 by chroma

[Francisco Penaloza]

Well I think the main problem for us (CG artist) it is hide repetitions, just like with textures, there is a need to try to hide those stinky patterns.

I think there is a random value in Railclone, my guess would be to create different versions of the mesh you are using and let railclone to select random between them, that will definitely help. After that, for me will be just some photoshop love. it it is animation. motion blur

Hope some one else come with some better option, because I am also curious about it.

[Derek Forreal]

i think you need a lot more variation in things. here's one way to do it.

 

create a base hedge mesh with some variation in the surface:

 

 

model or pick your leaf mesh from your assets (i used a default MODO mesh):

 

 

instance the leaf mesh on the base mesh with variation in rotation, normal, scale etc:

 

 

tweak shaders, turn on sun/sky and here's a quick interactive render. whole thing took about 20 mins including screen shots and post.

 

EDIT: actually, it took longer to post than to model the base mesh, instance the leaf mesh, create the materials and render

 

Edited August 31, 2015 by derekforreal
edited to add

[Francisco Penaloza]

That look pretty good Derek, creative approach, but I guess in this case instead of railclone, Forrest or multi-scatter should be used. in that case, only RAM would be an issue. depending how big are those areas.

 

It is that Octane render interface?

[Derek Forreal]

That look pretty good Derek

this was just a quick go. if i needed this for one of my projects i would use more than 1 leaf mesh, multiple materials and add more variation, break things up a bit more, and so on.

 

only RAM would be an issue. depending how big are those areas.

in this case the OP showed a relatively cropped shot with only a few metres of hedge, but how much hedge do you need? here's a render with nearly a mile of hedge, completely unoptimised and with the same leaf mesh as before.

 

this is rendering interactively on my 2gb GPU...

 

 

It is that Octane render interface?

Thea Render.

[Jon Berntsen]

Derek your approach looks good. I will give it a try. Thanks!

[Jon Berntsen]

So I made smaller pieces of leaf-groups, and used forest pack to scatter it around an object. I struggled a few hours before I found out why it only worked with geometry made from 3d primitives: I needed to check Generate Mapping Coords. in Max on a spline before I extruded it or used it with the "enable in viewport/render" mode, before I added the surface in forest pack.

 

 

Thank you so much for helping me (and others?) in the right direction here.