Leaf emitter model

[mtpeak2]

I created a leaf emitter model with growth and color sliders. Heres how to use it. Open leaf emitter model and import your tree. Create a group for your leaves. Drag the hair material shortcut from the leaf emitter group to your leaf group. Delete leaf emitter group and name. Rename your leaf group leaf emitter (very important). Add a leaf image to hair material. Open pose slider. Drag the model into choreography in shaded mode (color does show in wireframe mode). Move sliders to see the change. Windows v11.0. If your having problems let me know. Works very well with Marcel's treeez plug-in. Just drag onto level0 group and rename. Enjoy.

[mtpeak2]

Here is an example of what it can do.

[williamgaylord]

That is very encouraging. I think there is a lot of potential here! How fast does in render?

 

Bill Gaylord

[mtpeak2]

I'm not sure how long it took to render, not that long though. I'm creating a project that has the leaf emitter model and a basic tree model to use with Treez plug-in v.3. I found a way to transfer the hair material to the tree model without losing the sliders for the hair. It will include leaf and bark images. If people are interested I will create a folder with project, images, 2 models, the treez plug-in file and a text file with instructions on how it all works. I'm still working on gathering images and attempting to add a second emitter to add more density or to add flowers or fruit to the tree. I found a couple of problems with the first model that if you add it to the tree branches they take on the color of the material, if the tree is not decaled (v.3 treez plug-in decals tree). The second is if you add it to a group that is not attach to the tree the same happens. You need to set the transparency to 100% on the group and 0% to the material. Now back to finding more images.

[jfirestine]

Thanks for this wonderful tool!

Looks very promising!

[mtpeak2]

Added new slider to model for fruit or flowers.

 

30 frames

vga

qt sor3

multipass on 4 passes

14 sec a frame

7min 26sec total

 

aprox 15 min to build tree and render movie with project I'm putting together.

[mtpeak2]

Did a little experimenting. Add two of the same tree in choreography and was able to change the sliders for each one.

[jfirestine]

Wow! This looks cool!

Is there a new download for the fruit?

 

 

Thanks again!

[mtpeak2]

It will be part of the project file I'm creating. Still updating project. I have to write up the instructions, but I'd like to know if people are interested in it first before I do that. Haven't had too many reply to my posts.

[jfirestine]

I can't speak for everyone, but I know I will use it. I have a project that requires creating a forest, so I am interested in it.

 

I can't wait to see the documentation.

 

Thanks

[Ganthofer]

Just catching up on reading the Forum.

Looks very cool.

Would be very useful for a timelapse segue in an Animation.

An example project file would be great and with documentation fantastic!

[Sharky]

Hi mtpeak2!

 

It's great stuff, very cool and usefull!

 

Thanks that you post your model, Sharky

[Rodney]

Mark,

 

Very nice. This year is looking mighty good for trees!

Now I just have to figure out how to work some into a project!

[mtpeak2]

My project is getting closer to completion. I had an idea last night. I had 1 leaf emitter model, 1 tree target model, and one action. I'm now adding two more of each. That way you can generate 3 trees in one shot instead of 1. You have to revert or reload project to make more. I'm trying to make more of a variety. The third ones default settings are more of a bush type plant. Still working on it. I'll try to post a pic. Have other ideas, but haven't gotten around to testing them yet.

[mtpeak2]

I was playing with dynamics and forces today. Here a test movie. The three models are the default settings in the project I'm working on. Stilling tweaking the settings. Made things easier.

[mtpeak2]

How about some toon plants for my project.

[Ganthofer]

The trees just keep getting better.

Toon plants - Killer Look!

[mtpeak2]

Heres a pic of the toonleavs applied to trees. The bushes are just the base model that hold the sliders.

[mtpeak2]

Ran into problems with the new 11.0b update, but I think I'll be able to work them out. So in the meantime here is the toonleavs model to test out. I would like to see some of the results of your tests please. It will keep me motivated to keep working on the project. The bushes are the default model, just scaled and slider changes. The trees are imported into the model and the material dragged into your group, just like the other model was. Deleting and renaming still apply. This is designed to not use a leaf image.

[mtpeak2]

Here is a dynamics test with the toonleaves model.

[williamgaylord]

These are great! I think we are headed for some really fantastic animated plants. The next step would be adding dynamics to some of the outer branches to complete the wind effect.

 

Very encouraging!

 

Bill Gaylord

[williamgaylord]

Mark,

Don't know if you read my latest post in the Animation Master discussions "Creating leaves with hair?", but I ran into a problem when using hair with my "growing stick" rig. The leaves follow the group if I rotate or move the stick, but if I use the pose slider that lengthens the stick the leaves don't follow. They simply stretch (even when rendered). Have you noticed any similar behavior? Got any ideas about how to avoid this or fix it?

 

I have sent the project files to the Hash support folks, so I expect they will figure it out soon.

 

Thanks!

Bill Gaylord

[mtpeak2]

Try hitting the spacebar or view/refresh on toolbar to refresh the hair material on that frame to bring it to where it is supposed to be before rendering. Hair is a little slow in refreshing itself in realtime.

[mtpeak2]

Here's my first attempt at adding tree movement with a slider.

[williamgaylord]

Cool! Great looking toon trees! Nice to see that V11 has what we need for making windblown trees. Much better progress than I've made today. I've managed to crash V11b a number of times just during renders. Not sure what is happening. Did discover that the "leaf stretching" problem wasn't a problem when rendering in the Choreography. Then I tweaked the lighting setup and things started crashing.

 

Wish me luck!

 

Bill Gaylord

[mtpeak2]

The treeswithleavs project is ready, but it's too big to post here. Any suggestions on where I can post it? That is if anybody is interested. It has 26 images, 5 materials, 6 models and three actions. Added a few sliders to the models. And added the material right to a tree target model to use with the treez plug-in to save a few steps.

[Ganthofer]

Work can really get in the way of life

 

Work has been keeping me away.

 

How big we talkin' ? (when zipped)

[mtpeak2]

22 megs zipped through XP. Don't know if zipping through winzip would be any better.

[mtpeak2]

I got the zip file down to 3.4 megs and I am working with someone to try to bring it on-line.

[mtpeak2]

A link to the project is on the Animation:Master forum. Trees with leaves thread.

[Rodney]

Mark,

 

Thanks for all your effort to produce, document, illustrate and distribute your work.

Awesome to see this kind of thing come together!

 

I'm still looking for a good way to work trees into a project...

[mtpeak2]

Well with the great plug-in that Marcel made I thought I'd try to make it even easier to build trees for background props. And why keep it for myself. I just would like to see what other people can do with it.

[luiggie_san]

Hi ya'll:

 

I can't find the link to the project file you're talking about. I only found one to John's tree. Am I not looking where I should?

[mtpeak2]

http://johnl.inform.net/pages/treeswithleaves.htm

 

You can download from this link.