Grass textures and bushes.

[PJ1]

Does anyone know of any convincing grass textures out there? I've tried quite a few freebies but no joy. Also what is the best way to generate bushes in a scene?

[Tommy L]

for still or animation? what renderer?

[caddiellac]

I use the scatter command (3dmax6) to make bushes. But im keeping and eye on this thread for better alternatives too

[PJ1]

Using Viz

[staigerman]

Does anyone know of any convincing grass textures out there? I've tried quite a few freebies but no joy. Also what is the best way to generate bushes in a scene?

 

You can easily make your own with project Dogwaffle, even with the free version 1.2

 

Here are some presets which came with a recent patch for version 2:

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/whatsnew/2_1/Optipustics.jpg

 

Here's more info about the fractal particle feature of Project Dogwaffle:

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/whatsnew/1_6/optipustics/index.html

 

and an example of a painting done in Dogwaffle, with all bushes , trees and grass done easily in just a few minutes using optipustics:

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/wallpaper/wallpaperpustics.jpg

 

 

There is a fully-functional free version 1.2 here:

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/free

 

 

However, the 'shading' feature in Optipustics is only in the commercial version. The shading adds some realism and appearnce of lightning from above by darkening the particles which are heading down.

 

 

You could use Dogwaffle to make your own grass and bushes, and save the image as a BMP file or other formats. There are examples of presets too, here in the freebies section:

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/freebies/optipustics/index.html

 

 

Once you have saved your image (with transparency from Alpha channel, saved in Targa .tga file for instance), you should be able to use it in a 3D program. There are some tutorials showing how to in http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/tuts

 

I hope this helps.

-Philip

[vizwhiz]

hi There

 

PJ1

 

here is a link to an Image That i posted just minutes ago

 

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=5947

 

nothing too fancy, but i like putting in LOTS of Landscape,

i use to do This professionally a long Time ago for a Living.

 

Imagecels, or etc companys have cd's of Plants, Cars, People etc

That can be inserted into either Photoshop later after The rendering

 

or That can be placed on "planes", "boxes" inside of VIZ to render

i am using Viz2005 for This rendering so i know it would work for you

 

hey, TAKE some PHOTOS with your own Digital Camera

and Then do an "extraction" in your favorite FotoChop program

 

save as TGA or TIFF with an ALPHA channel to cast shadows

 

**

 

you can do This

 

i spend a fair amount of Time on landscaping in my projects

 

hope This helps

 

Randy

[staigerman]

 

 

Imagecels, or etc companys have cd's of Plants, Cars, People etc

That can be inserted into either Photoshop later after The rendering

 

or That can be placed on "planes", "boxes" inside of VIZ to render

i am using Viz2005 for

**

 

Yes indeed, I think they had samples of Imagecels images on Eovia's Carrara, Imagecels and also Dosch Design has collections like these that work.

 

If you're curious about making your own using Project Dogwaffle, here's a quick tutorial to discuss some tools that are useful in the context of making grass and shrubbery textures for use in 3D animations and renderings. Uses Optipustics, Alpha, threshold filter...

 

http://www.thebest3d.com/dogwaffle/tuts/alphabush

[Chris Johnson]

I bought Ambient Light's grass textures off of an ad I saw here awhile ago. Their textures are hands down the best I've ever seen. I highly recommend them. Heck I even tried making my own with photographing reall grass, etc... It didn't work so well, It wasn't nearly as good as Ambient Lights stuff.

[PJ1]

I bought Ambient Light's grass textures off of an ad I saw here awhile ago. Their textures are hands down the best I've ever seen. I highly recommend them. Heck I even tried making my own with photographing reall grass, etc... It didn't work so well, It wasn't nearly as good as Ambient Lights stuff.

The Ambient Light textures do look very good. Do you have any sample images you could show that use them? Thanks

[Tommy L]

If its for a still then id do it all in photoshop afterwards. Either buy a library of trees/bushes (they usually come as a targa seperated from the background so you dont have to fanny around cutting them out) or chop them out of photos. For trees in an animation then I usually use RPCs. They get a lot if stick in this forum but they are easy, reliable and if used well they are effective. I have used bionatics as well, but these can stiff you on render times. Also, they are supposedly accurately modelled to the species, but you get some pretty wierd shaped lower branches, all long and bendy. If you tweak them they work well for close up with RPC in the background.

Has anyone else had installation/license issues with bionatics? Probably the most complicated plugin ever. Them frenchies never could make anything easy.

 

Theres quite a few grass tutorials out there for animations, most of them procedural. The only advice Id give you for a texture is keep the grass map real big or real small and use a dirt map in there to avoid tiling. In a still, again id do it in photoshop. Go find a nice big fie and take some snaps in different conditions.

Another option for a still is displacement mapping, but be prepared for huge render times and alot of trial and error.

Good luck dude.

[PJ1]

Cheers Tommy L, I have some RPCs but looks like I'll have to invest in some more and get out there with my digital camera. You have some nice images/montages on your website, what do you use to render with?

[Tommy L]

Most of the stuff on the website is out of date and done with the scanline. We are now using mental ray and vray. Animations are still mostly done with scanline as we are still getting used to the newer renderers.

[staigerman]

This may also work for you: http://www.gardenhose.com

 

Pretty nice collection of various trees and foliage.