fun with trees

[trivision3d]

Nice rendering, use of materials and lightning!!

Maarten

[Saulman]

Those images are just incredible.

I wouldn't even know where to start. Nice one.

[powerandrubber]

This is embarassing next to lgrohs work but is my best attempt at a natural scene. I'm pleased with the lighting but my bark texture sucks and I'll be working on that for a while. Fire away...

[Robert]

some very nice pics, been done here.... hope we will see an animation next...

[maroomari]

powerandrubber - nice image!
I think you are definitely getting there.
Like you said you might wanna grab some other bark textures, and I think the composition is slightly strange maybe. I actually ended up going out in the woods the other day and getting some good textures. I think that makes all the difference...

[powerandrubber]

Thanks. I worked on the bark textures a bit. It was much easier than I expected. I mixed some textures from the previously posted link and used them also for displacement. UVW mapping is a bigger issue for me since I don't have a tree modeler that generates mapping. It would be better in this case to make new trunks with deformed cylinders. (mapping applied before deformation) But that doesn't help with the branches, any ideas?

[maroomari]

I would suggest taking the two trees out of the foreground that are in the middle, so you can focus on what is inside the forest, and the interesting lighting inside there. I think that will also help to get rid of the leaves that look a bit strange in the foreground. Move those trees behind the camera so that you still get a shadow from them.
The displacement on the ground is much too pronounced, turn that down a bit. The log looks good. Try putting opacity maps in the leaves of the small plants also.
See what that does.

[chris-x//]

fantastic work ! Is it onyx max plugin or onyx tree storm independant plugin with 3ds exporter ? well maybe it's the same thing... thanks for the info... those trees look impressive, you remapped them completely or is it onyx created texture ?guess you created them, look damn good...

[Dynedain]

This is my tree using the Max 7.5 Hair for the grass. A still from the middle of an animation, but you get the idea.

[powerandrubber]

Thanks for the suggestions. Getting rid of the 2 middle forground trees helped a lot. Here's also a frame from an animation scene I'm working on. Proxied all the trees then realized I can't add displacement to a proxy so I'll rearrange it (eventually) so only the canopies are proxied and the trunks will be max objects with displacement. Also came up with a better ground cover. The trees are not onyx, they are arboro http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/. I mapped these myself but arboro will export mapping coordinates if you use obj format. Love the grass on the last image!

[n6]

very nice and realisitc!
But I dont like the texture of your rocks.
Also the trunk's base is a bit linear

[maroomari]

Hey looking good there.
The new ground texture is cool too.
I would say grab a new rock texture and vary their sizes and shapes a bit more. Maybe make the ground a bit more uneven and throw a few twigs down here and there. Also, move the little shrubs you have around so they don't sit around by themselves. Try to nestle them next to a rock, or a tree. Also make some more defined roots at the bottoms of the trees. Could you try a different leaf shape? That one looks kind of flat. Also are you using proxies for the trees? It would help if you did, that way you could put more in the background. Keep the ones in the foreground full meshes though so that you can still displace the bark. The bark is also looking self illuminated a bit.
Those are my comments for now.
I'm working a covered bridge scene. I'll probably start a new thread for that one though.

[glorybound]

Ground cover

oh the texture link?
yeah here it is
http://www.monitorstudios.com/bcloward/textures/
yeah they are onyx trees. they work really well with vray and the new proxy system.

This link is dead... does anybody have a link?

[sea2stars]

http://www.bencloward.com/resources_textures.shtml

[glorybound]

Textures

Wonderful, thanks.