gschumsky

no the groups are just used for grouping. no groups will give the same results. of course you could select the group AFTER growing the tree and delete it to get rid of a level. but keep in mind, that on unbalanced trees this might not work as expected so applying a hair material will actually let it grow along the whole tree. a simple solution to this problem would be a modification of the plugin to add an additional spline ring for each main branch. that way unsuspecting intermediate branches wont be caught (if anyone would like this, it would be easy). the other way to work around it will soon be available: the tree will automatically have a decal applied that can e.g. control hair density along its lenghth. Well, the funny thing is if I take your project in AM beta for OSX, it works without modifying anything. If I create a new project, add splines for the base and then the branch targets, and call the base "base", without the group levels, it crashes (but then OSX beta is just that). I should try it out on my crappy PC (yes, it is just crappy, not because it's a PC, although... ) and see what happens. The extra spline sounds like an interesting idea. Wow, the decal for density sounds cool too. Would be nice if it could be a randomly generated one.

yes. but if you delete the old "base", the groups "level0" through "level20" will be empty. this means, that no new cps can be added by the plugin (this is being fixed in a:m - thanks dan!). so if you want the plugin to assign the cps to the levels (to be easily able to assign hair), you'll have to add cps of the base to each level you want filled. selecting one cp is sufficient (have a look at my example project to see how i did it .. difficult to explain (for me) but actually very simple ..) the model is actually created in the MODEL. the action is just used to get the curve controls (and soon the target surface animation). so you can just select your tree, copy it and insert it into a new model in your desired project. Aha! That's why I saw just the one CP light up when I clicked on the different levels in the PWS...makes sense now. Question: What happens if you add more or delete levels? Will the treeZ generate more or less branches (yes I know it does this based on target CP's, but what will happen otherwise)? And, thanks for the info on the model. Simple and should have thought of that, but being at my current day job (until we get the game studio off the ground) and using an old Dell drains any creativity from me...no matter how simple something is. Can't wait to get home and try this on my Mac!!

One last stupid question: How do I get it to render so the targets (and patches) don't render?

Okay, I have the project. So, I'm guessing after deleting Marcel's base and target, all I have to do is add a new base, assign it to the group named "base" in the pws, and just leave the rest alone, correct? Also, once the model is made in the action window, can I save that as a completed model, or do I just drag the tree model into the chor and add the action (so if I have a number of trees, I have to do this for each one..)? Thanks.

What did you use for the texture on the tree?

Okay I seem to be missing something here. (Treez for OSX) Made a base spline. Made non rendering splines for end points, and one that is a grid. Make a new action (cuz I can't get any wizards to work in the modeling window). control click in the action window, select treez, it thinks, and then crashes AM. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong (mac guys??)

You know I just found out about it today...wahhh!!! Been busy trying to put together a video game company. Okay, time to spend a little "quiet time" tonight with my Mac and treez. Thanks Randy!! (Hopefully I'll get better results than the other guys).

Wow! That is some nice compositing!! After Effects too??

Well, at home on my measly cable connection, it downloaded pretty fast. Nice work! Interesting making the Assasin a droid. For some reason though, every time I saw the 3D version of Fett and the Assasin walking it reminded me of the robot from an old Scooby Doo episode (anyone remember the one with amusement park and the robot on the loose??). Now if only the rest of us could find time (maybe someday)to make ours as well. Thanks for sharing your hard work with the rest of us, and keep up the good work!

Still....trying...to...down...load... Hmm, although I can't wait to check it out, did you happen to turn on "fast start for internet" when you compressed these? If you used Cleaner, then that's a default setting. If you have not done so, then go into QT Pro, save movie as (self-contained" and make sure "fast start for internet" is selected. Now back to waiting (on a T1 line here...)

That's it Graham, keep providing stuff for the PC gang so Marcel will feel guilty enough to get this done so we can get it on the Mac.

Although it would be way cool to play with this for us Mac users (wringing hands, salivating), it looks like Marcel keeps pumping out new versions with new little features at an incredible pace (you da man Marcel!). But, the good sid of this is you guys get to beta test for us Mac guys (although we are a little envious), and I'm guessing once the big M has this locked down to a point, we can get Randy or one of the other guys at Hash (Ken, how's that new marketing gig going?? We KNOW you miss programming and compiling, doncha??) to make it Macintized. So Marcel, as much as we appreciate your speediness, can you hurry it up!?!?! This is getting a little to difficult to bear any longer!

WOW! Except for a few playback issues on the crappy Dell I use at work, really nice work. Boy, does this bring me back to one of the better times in my professional career making multimedia CD's and websites (big and small teams of some of the most talented and really great people I worked with). It's not often you come across sites anymore that use QTVR, nice 3D animation, Flash, and all the other cool things that the web can be. I am impressed and want to thank you for bringing back some fond memories. Keep up the good work!

There's no picture,and the link is dead!!! I wanna see it!

Ken, you know way to much about tintin. Now, go back to getting OSX AM into beta!