Maxwell Render

they look perfect!

Not the best tree I admit though, it's a billboard.

I tried something different with trees to test what possibilities might exist to improve the rendered output from billboard trees!

1. Exported Onyx tree model
2. Imported to Maxwell, applied bark an leaf maps,
3. Rendered high res, low render time, sky dome,
4. Exported rendered image, alpha map, depth map (z buffer)
5. Created MXM (maxwell material) colour map, clip map, depth map as displacement,
6. Created SketchUp billboard with tree mapped and linked to MXM
7. Exported render.

Here is the result, it actually created I think far better depth than just flats.

The nice thing is the shadow cast on areas of the tree itself and thus the correct response to sun direction as opposed to normal billboards. And best of all low cost in sketchup.

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Move your arse and your mind will follow!

Guys I've got a question! Can one still use SSS on clip mapped objects?

Meaning if I have a leaf made with thickness will a clip map on bothsides still produce SSS or does the geometry need to cut to the edge of the leaf?

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Move your arse and your mind will follow!

I haven't tried with clip maps, but I can confirm it works with layer weight maps.

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Brian Looney
Maxwell + RealFlow
http://lunatic-studio.com/
Help! I'm dispersing into a haze of probability!

Richard, i'm working on renders at the moment that require lots of eucalypts.
Your result looks great but can you tell me the size of the mxs of the onyx model ?
Curious why you dont use the 3d mxs......is it that big ?
Is onyx adept at creating much larger (height and age) eucalypts that maintain the same degree of realism ?
Are the uvs all set properly with obj export straight from onyx so texturing is a one step procedure once in maxwell or are you using other software ?
Basically want to confirm if I can get onyx trees straight into studio without ANY OTHER software between.

cheers

Mate that fairly simple Gum MXS file is about 38Mb, I can use these in studio but try to stay clear of studio where possible - it's pretty unstable on my system.

I trialled this tree so I could use them as billboards in SketchUp - I can use instances in SU but one tree like this in 3D bogs it down to a crawl.

Be mindful mate this is only at this stage a test to check the results.

I find with Onyx (could be doing something wrong) cant seem to get the leaves big enough to take a wider leaf map! Mapping is simple in MXS - as you suggest just a drag on process!

Good luck mate!

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Move your arse and your mind will follow!

Thanks Brian for always jumping in with the answers mate!

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Move your arse and your mind will follow!

thanks Richard
guess its time to spring for onyx now

I was looking on onyx trees web site. It seems it only offers the ability to create leaf plates with the use of an alpha channel. Can anyone verify this? I know with xforg you can create leaf geometry.

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dual quad E5320's (1.8 ghz) (14.88 ghz total)
S5000 XVN SATA MOBO, 12 gigs of ram
win xp pro x64
Core i7 920 (2.66 ghz each core) 20 gigs of ram
Windows 7 Professional
Form-Z, Blender, VUE 9.5 and Maxwell Render
http://www.aaronsmithey.com

Yes, you have a few choices of different geometry for the leaves. Also the sizes of the leaves also can be chosen.
I use Oynx all the time. Old program but still works like a champ.

Yes mate you set leaves as a geometry shape or by plates for textures

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Move your arse and your mind will follow!

Thanks for the confirmation on the leaves. I have used Xfrog. It's kind of clunky. Hard to navigate around. I think I will be getting Onyx Tree. Has anyone used Onyx Grass modeler?

How is that?

Thanks,

Aaron

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dual quad E5320's (1.8 ghz) (14.88 ghz total)
S5000 XVN SATA MOBO, 12 gigs of ram
win xp pro x64
Core i7 920 (2.66 ghz each core) 20 gigs of ram
Windows 7 Professional
Form-Z, Blender, VUE 9.5 and Maxwell Render
http://www.aaronsmithey.com

Mate I've tried Xfrog too and found it pretty clunky though the result seems more predictable!

I tried a little freeware tree application yesterday called tree[d] www.frecle.net. It's a bit limited on how customizable the output is but if the developer ever expands on it "what a winner" - amazingly great workflow!!! Fun to play with - the trees show realtime rendered swaying in the breeze as modelling them!

I haven't played with Onyx's grass modeller though there is another sweet little app call Bantam 3d Grass which is great for producing grass and rock clumps, could be worth a look!

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Move your arse and your mind will follow!

I went ahead and got Onyx Tree last week. So for my first tree, since I live in Arizona I thought I would model a Mesquite Tree. I have three in my back yard so getting textures and studying the tree was easy to do.

It took me a week to make this tree to where I was happy with it. Modeling the trunk and branches was pretty quick to do. It took awhile to find a good twig and foliage balance for the tree. They can be very intense and hard, at least for my machine, to render in a good amount of time to be useable in a project.

And I did notice that making them instances took longer to render. For "instance"..HAHA...Ok. When I render the second tree in this post for one hour, not instanced, it reached 10 SL in 1hr:06sec. at 2000x1500.
When rendered as an instance, it only rendered to 8.55 SL in the same amount of time.

Any way, Here they are.

Lots of foilage


Reduced foilage


Full resoultion image

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dual quad E5320's (1.8 ghz) (14.88 ghz total)
S5000 XVN SATA MOBO, 12 gigs of ram
win xp pro x64
Core i7 920 (2.66 ghz each core) 20 gigs of ram
Windows 7 Professional
Form-Z, Blender, VUE 9.5 and Maxwell Render
http://www.aaronsmithey.com

They look awesome Asmithey!!

Sweet!

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Nik V.
www.theattic.net.au
.... Sleep, isn't it about time?