Bonsai!

[Hutch]

I got my new cd yesterday and have been playing with hair and the UV editor. What do you think of my bonsai tree? C&C and suggestions please.

[KenH]

That's cool. No real crits.

[Rodney]

Hutch,

That's a great start for sure.

 

For long shots or even toon rendering I think that would be a perfect prop.

If you continue to add to the knarliness and twisting of the bark/branches and the detail (you know... due to constant clipping and recorrecting of the tree) I think you could have a masterpiece on your hands.

 

Never owned a bonzai because I don't have the patience for it but they are beautiful things.

[williamgaylord]

Oooh! I like it! The foliage looks a lot like patches of moss. I like the overall effect. Like something you would expect to see in a Dr. Seuss book.

 

Bill Gaylord

[steve392]

wow thats a nice tree well done ,that new cd is good aint it

[MATrickz]

That looks great! How long did it take to render?

[Zaryin]

I love the toony feel to it. Please post a pic of your UV so I can see how you textures it, it's great.

[Hutch]

For texturing the bark I just rotated all of the limbs so they were pointing out to the left or right then scaled the trunk and limbs to 5% in the Z axis in an action. Then I stamped the front half and without moving the decal stamped the back. Somehow I missed a patch and I can't get it to line up right now

 

Attached is my color map converted to jpeg. I also converted this to gray scale and adjusted the contrast and brightness to make my bump map. Is this what you wanted to see Zaryin?

[Hutch]

I may redo my bark to fix that missing patch and add more detail as Rodney suggested. For now though I have been playing with the foliage, trying to get a bit more randomness. I can't figure out what is causing the really dark areas. They aren't shadows because the top has it and the hairs are set to not cast shadows. Anyone have any idea what it is?

 

I also added a pot. This render took about seven minutes with a sun and 8 skylights. My P4 isn't the fastest though.

 

Ugh! I just noticed my sky doesn't go all the way to the edge!

[John Keates]

Nice Bonsai!

 

I think the darkness of the hair is caused where it points towards the light.

 

One method is to comb it so that it is side on to the light.

 

You couls also try this:

 

Set the diffuse falloff to a low value - or even 0%

 

Set the translucency to about 80% or more/

 

This should get more light in there.

 

I think you need raytraced shadows for this to work

 

You can also whack some more ligts in there - perhaps a rim light to get some back-lighting.

 

Expect render times to go up when using translucency.

 

 

Hope that helps

[Zaryin]

Yeah Hutch, that's close enough to what I wanted to see. The pot look real nice.

 

What's the intensity for your lights? I can never get my main light to get that dark of a shadow.

[Rodney]

Very nice update Hutch.

Lighting it and putting it in a scene really does wonders for it. It looks alive.

[jesshmusic]

That really does look nice. I have no crit of the leaves, they are very cool.

 

The trunk and branches need some more roughness. Perhaps add another bump map with turblence applies or some other effect. I would also vary the color of the wood more.

 

Very good modeling!

 

[Hutch]

Thanks for all the replies. John, the translucency worked great. Thanks for the suggestion. The 2 hour render time was a bit much for me but it is the best look for the leaves I have got so far. Zaryin, my sun was at 100% and my skylight was at 7% (probably not really affecting the lighting at all). I have tried bumping the skylight intensity to 15% to get rid of the dark spots. It helped but still didn't look as nice as the translucency. But it rendered in 7 minutes. I will work on the textures for the bark when I get a chance.

[Sharky]

Hi!

 

Very nice Bonsai tree, I like it and I love the bonsai!

Good modeling and texturing!

Keep it up!

 

Cheers..

 

Sharky

[Hutch]

Thanks Sharky. Here is my final version for now unless someone points out something in need of fixing. Upgraded textures on just about everything. Let me know what you think please.

[Frank Silas]

Very cool. Can you try lighting it with a skylight rig or with skycast? That type of lighting may really push the photographic qualities of the render.

 

Frank Silas

http://www.franksilas.com

[turbokitty77]

Sweet!

But the lighting seems a bit off to me.

Maybe too harsh white light?

 

Anyway, love the model and texture.

Keep it up.

[Zaryin]

I would try lighting it with the skylight intesity up further like Frank said. Other than that, I love it.

[Hutch]

Here is an example of why my lighting is poor. In my choreography I can never tell what the final lighting will actually look like using a skylight system. I have to try a render and adjust it. I haven't done enough to know what changes are best. When import Yves skylights it seems like the intensity of the light is always way too high. I have read through his site but I guess I am too dense for it sink in properly.

 

Anyway, I tried a 52 light rig with 8% intensity (this is how it loaded) and 7 rays. Four hours later I get my bonsai with frost!