transparency or opacity maps

[geo_n]

Is it possible to paint transparency maps in 3dc and export the maps as alpha? I want to paint some trees to make 2D billboards and I think this could also be used for those people wanting hair in 3dc.

[Andrew Shpagin]

Is it possible to paint transparency maps in 3dc and export the maps as alpha? I want to paint some trees to make 2D billboards and I think this could also be used for those people wanting hair in 3dc.

Yes, you can paint opacity. Just go to layer 0 and arase background with eraser. There is the same idea like in Photoshop. You can export opacity via PSD or TGA.

BTW, one day (year ago) I have experimented with trees generating and 3D-Coat has hidden possibility to generate trees. There is file config.txt. There is line "3D-Brush" If you will write "TreesGenerator" there, you will get trees generator. But, please backup the file config.txt and restore it again after playing with trees. There is several missed textures in zip file, they should be unpacked in 3D-Coat installation folder. If all will be ok, you will see nice picture

Treesgen.zip

[geo_n]

Thanks a lot Andrew. Is this a hidden easter egg in 3dc? Why is there no mention of this making trees in 3dc? Can't wait to try it.

[Andrew Shpagin]

I have made standalone installer:

http://www.3d-coat.com/files/3d-Coat-2-trees.exe

Enjoy!

PS: I have not mentioned about this because it is not a part of 3DC, and these both parts are not logically combined. It is just attempt to make something like SpeedTree in very short time. It was written long time ago, I have remembered it just when I have read the post.

[ldzywsj]

oh,cool! Andrew,why not add to 3dc2.09?

[geo_n]

I can't save in the standalone treegenerator. I click autosave to obj nothing happens.

Yeah I think this should be within 3dcoat for easy access.

[lc8b105]

Sooooo coooooool!

[yukon_28]

Wow, its really cool Long life 3DC!

Edit:

I am shocked. It is not some small toy, it is really useful tool with wide feature set. I bet other developer would make paid major update for such addition. Thanks a lot, Andrew!

[Andrew Shpagin]

I can't save in the standalone treegenerator. I click autosave to obj nothing happens.

Yeah I think this should be within 3dcoat for easy access.

I have forgot to create folder "Models". Please create the "Models" folder in installation folder. In this case objects will be automatically stored there in subfolders.

But there is some problem with exporting leafs, because it is difficult to export billboards... How do you want to use it? For render or for game engine?

About adding to 3DC - it is very separate module. I can make it like standalone app. The only issue is export format for billboards. Just tell me what format could be used for BB, and I can make it easy.

[geo_n]

I have forgot to create folder "Models". Please create the "Models" folder in installation folder. In this case objects will be automatically stored there in subfolders.

But there is some problem with exporting leafs, because it is difficult to export billboards... How do you want to use it? For render or for game engine?

About adding to 3DC - it is very separate module. I can make it like standalone app. The only issue is export format for billboards. Just tell me what format could be used for BB, and I can make it easy.

Oh I see. I pressed autosavetoobj so many times I hope I dont have a lot of junk on my harddrive somewhere :lol:

I'm using it for rendering. Will it be possible to export leaf like this ivy generator? Its uvmapped per poly

http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/~luft/ivy_generator/

Thanks

[Andrew Shpagin]

Where will yo render it? LW?

Does anyone knows if LW has billboards support?

[Oliver Thornton]

So wait.... we get 3DC _and_ a tree generator that generates matching uvs, displacements and normals? For free?

um.... ok....

/self-restraint off

MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!! HaHahahHAahhAhhahahHahahAhahahahaAhaha!!!!!

/self-restrain on

That's really neat. This should really be posted in the general forums, not buried within someone's request like this.

Andrew, this does answer some questions about your plans for hair generation if you already have a procedural mesh generator in place. I would like to request leaf support also, heck throw in fruit/nut support, but request that this app stay separate from 3DC if it requires more memory to run both within the same app.

Does it have a name? 3D Seed? 3D Bark?

How many other features do you have hidden in here Andrew?

-Oliver

[lc8b105]

I have forgot to create folder "Models". Please create the "Models" folder in installation folder. In this case objects will be automatically stored there in subfolders.

But there is some problem with exporting leafs, because it is difficult to export billboards... How do you want to use it? For render or for game engine?

About adding to 3DC - it is very separate module. I can make it like standalone app. The only issue is export format for billboards. Just tell me what format could be used for BB, and I can make it easy.

I think the trees generated from TressGenerator are more suit for used in game engine,so not export too many polygons. Andrew,you are such a good game&software developer,so maybe no one will know clearlier than you about how to "export billboards and used in game engine".

What about .x format ? Then I can directly import it to Quest3D.

[yukon_28]

Andrew, i think billboards should be .tga format, its most compatible with any sw, and easily convertable if needed. obj plane with tga texture its universal, if you'll make it LW specific today, then tommorrow you'll be asked to make it for max, and day after tommorow for maya, and for xxx render, for yyy engine and so on. So universal formats such as obj + tga its a best choise IMO.

[ldzywsj]

Yes,yes,yes,obj+tga!!!!

[geo_n]

Where will yo render it? LW?

Does anyone knows if LW has billboards support?

Billboard support? Do you mean single poly with clipmap images? I will render it in lightwave and 3dsmax. I think yukon_28 explained it better. And the ivy generator is doing the same thing. Exporting obj with uvw leaves. Then you can just import it to any 3d program and put tga in color, spec, opacity.

I'm pretty sure this is the way to do hair in 3dc that could be used in any 3d package.

[bwtr]

Billboard support? Do you mean single poly with clipmap images? I will render it in lightwave and 3dsmax. I think yukon_28 explained it better. And the ivy generator is doing the same thing. Exporting obj with uvw leaves. Then you can just import it to any 3d program and put tga in color, spec, opacity.

I'm pretty sure this is the way to do hair in 3dc that could be used in any 3d package.

In Carrara, for Billboards, I find the .png format by far the easiest/best.

[Andrew Shpagin]

There is no problem to export obj-s with many quads & texture on quad. The problem is that to look great all billboards should look on camera. It there camera-aligned objects in carrara or LW or other packages?

[Costanel]

In Lightwave you can LookAtCamera at object levels, but that's not handy on polygon level.

I've made a post in the LW forum, and will post here if I've got an decent answer.

Got the feeling that it should be able with motion options and nodes, but we'll see.

As far as I know there is not simpel billboard function.

Link: http://www.newtek.com/forums/showthread.ph...9215#post689215

[yukon_28]

There is no problem to export obj-s with many quads & texture on quad. The problem is that to look great all billboards should look on camera. It there camera-aligned objects in carrara or LW or other packages?

I know nothing about LW and Carrara, in max we have a few free scripts that locking billboards to the camera. Also you can make for every tree 2 planes that intersect each other on 90 degrees angle, such construction face camera on 90% of the angeles or more i think.

[geo_n]

There is no problem to export obj-s with many quads & texture on quad. The problem is that to look great all billboards should look on camera. It there camera-aligned objects in carrara or LW or other packages?

i dont see a problem with the billboards not facing the camera. They shouldn't all face the camera. Its wierd to see a tree with all leaves facing camera. As long as the leaf polys have uv we can put leaf texture and make it double sided.

Look at this render from ivy generator

The billboards are scattered like in real life.

[philnolan3d]

i dont see a problem with the billboards not facing the camera. They shouldn't all face the camera. Its wierd to see a tree with all leaves facing camera. As long as the leaf polys have uv we can put leaf texture and make it double sided.

That's not billboards it's clip mapped objects for each leaf. a billboard tree would be a single polygon with the entire tree clipmapped onto it. The old way of doing this, which can be seen in many Playstation 1 era games, is to have 4 - 8 of these crossing each other like an X or an X and a + together each showing a different angle of the tree. Another method is to have an animation of the tree that gets stuck to one polygon which is targeted to the camera. As the camera moves the polygon always faces it and the "animation" plays in time giving the appearance that you are looking at a 3D tree while only taking the render time of one polygon. I hope I explained that well enough.

Edit: it just occurred to me a fine example of the second option is the bullet-time effect made popular in The Matrix. Where they used many cameras to shoot an object they were surrounding, in this case Keanu Reeves, in our case, a tree. all of those pictures get applied to the flat polygon and the software scrubs through them as the camera moves and the polygon turns.

[Costanel]

You're right, but the way 3d Brush exports is more based on game-engines, keeping a low poly-count.

Not every poly is subdivided, and not every leaf has an single poly, multiple leafs are on one polygon.

Ivy Generator creates lots of polygons, where 3dBrush tries to keep the count low.

If rendered you get something like this(image 1)(without billboards) in stead of (image 2)

[yukon_28]

Not every poly is subdivided, and not every leaf has an single poly, multiple leafs are on one polygon.

Actually, as philnolan3d said, in case of billboards ALL leafs are single polygon, and that polygon can be instanced on an angle, or animated and so on.

[Ztreem]

To make all the leaf billboards to face the camera in LightWave, the best solution would be if we could export one billboard and a point cloud object. The point cloud should be made of one point in the center of every billboard, these points could then be made as reference points in LW for cloning the billboard and get all of them to face the camera. LW have problems to make things face the camera on an poly level it only works on a object level.

[philnolan3d]

Actually, as philnolan3d said, in case of billboards ALL leafs are single polygon, and that polygon can be instanced on an angle, or animated and so on.

To clarify, I was actually talking about the entire tree, not just the leaves. I made up a really quick example using a tree from Vue.

[yukon_28]

To clarify, I was actually talking about the entire tree, not just the leaves. I made up a really quick example using a tree from Vue.

Yes, sure. Unfortunately my knowledge of VUE is far behind the level i want, but i am using wonderful free maxscript, called ml treeshop, which not only automate whole process of creating billboard trees and taking care of facing camera all the time, but also comes with 2 libraries of trees (diffuse+alpha+max's .mat)

WHAT IT DOES

------------

with tree shop you can easily plant trees (plane mashes with opacity-mapped bitmaps) into your scene.

each tree is an 'intelligent' object which allows later interaction, like changing/randomizing size, aligning it to the ground (gravity), changing orientation and map (tree type).

with the 'Look At Camera' mode all trees automatically turn to a camera.

TreeShop Website

TreeShop Manual

[philnolan3d]

Yes, sure. Unfortunately my knowledge of VUE is far behind the level i want,

Well I didn't really do much in Vue, basically clicked the tree button and then moved the camera to 4 places around the tree and did a render of each, the rest I did in Lightwave, simply applying those renders to 4 polygons. I could have just as easily exported the tree to LW or Max and done it in there. With this technique there no need for facing anything at the camera.

[Costanel]

Well, I thought it would be a good idea to post this here as well.

There has been an Billboard Solution created by our good friend Dpont!

It's called Poly-Face and is part of the free DP_Kit.

To make it work best, I recommend using MergeTrigonX prior to using it, so it has less polygons to calculate, and the results will be better.

TrigonX:

http://www.flay.com/GetDetail.cfm?ID=1394

PolyFace(and many other cool plugins)

http://pagesperso-orange.fr/dpont/plugins/...al_Nodes_2.html

It works like a charm, and exactly what I was looking for. Hope it helps you as well.

[newbie]

Doesn't work on Mac apparently