Winter trees

[TomD_Arch]

So I am working with tree models en mass for the first time. I am not currently using any scattering or forest plugins. I just have tree models purchased from Evermotion and Vizpark (I also, have CGAXIS trees, but have not explored them yet). I need to scatter an bunch in the background of my scene but they need to be bare as in winter and very early spring.

 

I am struggling to find a quick way to isolate just the trunks and branches from the leaves in the models.

 

I feel like there should be a quick way to do this and I'm going to feel like an idiot when a bunch of you come up with like a dozen ways real fast. I mean the whole point in buying trees rather then making your own from scratch is because it saves you time right? I'm starting to wonder if I should just make some bark maps and start extruding cylinders and scaling???

Edited September 30, 2017 by thomas.denney@gmail.com

[James Vella]

I would select the trunk by element and detach, do the same for the branches. Delete the mesh object that is left over (leaves). Trying to select the leaves is going to be a nightmare in most situations. Remember Edit Poly is a single core operation, try to be smart about your selections (think backwards, select the most easiest piece and detach that). This should speed things up. There is a few scripts around for scattering I would recommend using them if your not using forestpro (or the free version of forestpro if its just a flat plane) - It will never have enough variation otherwise and you will have a very CG render.

[Chris MacDonald]

Use the select by material ID in the edit mesh/poly rollout to select the leaves, then detach or delete them.

 

Alternatively replace the leaves opacity with a VRayColor map set to 100% white so all the leaves (whilst technically still there and loading into memory) render as totally transparent.

[TomD_Arch]

Selecting by Mat ID doesn't work because the leaf material is embedded in a multi/sub-object material. It just selects all the materials, even if you are all the way down in the individual material itself.

 

So what I am doing is creating new twig maps to replace the leaf maps in the models.

[Chris MacDonald]

Are you sure? For the leaf to be (for example) #3 in the multi-sub material, it would need to have a material ID of 3 in the mesh. I am not suggesting you right click in the material editor to achieve this (which is what it sounds like you've done?) - you need to go to the mesh and in either poly or element mode type 3 in the material ID and press "select"; it will then select all the leaves.

Edited October 1, 2017 by Macker
Added screenshot

[TomD_Arch]

Are you sure? For the leaf to be (for example) #3 in the multi-sub material, it would need to have a material ID of 3 in the mesh. I am not suggesting you right click in the material editor to achieve this (which is what it sounds like you've done?) - you need to go to the mesh and in either poly or element mode type 3 in the material ID and press "select"; it will then select all the leaves.

 

Ah, yeah, you are correct. I will give this a try!

[TomD_Arch]

I downloaded Forest Pack Lite. No joy, as I can't seem to load my own trees. I'm limited to the ones that come with Lite library it looks like.

[James Vella]

once you place your forest object, in the geometry tab instead of Template select Custom Object, select None (this will highlight blue), then select your tree in your viewport. Booooom