House

[charleyc]

Thanks again for the feedback.

We have not been using VRay GI for long and these are the only images worth showing. We have been using VRay free for some time however using a standard light setup. You can see examples of this here.

http://www.linderoth.com/Web_Marketing/
and some here
www.la-3.com

Again, most of this was rendered on either VRay Free or Brazil only to take advantage of faster ray tracing...no GI was used in any of these. Also, the image with the fountain is obviously using PS comped plants as well.

As far as the time frame. 15 of these were done in two weeks. On the average it takes 4 hours to model and 2-4 to texture, map, and place the landscaping. All the plants were modeled over a year ago in about a 6-8 month time span that wasn't dedicated exclusivly to them. A typ. plant takes anywhere from 1-8 hours. The materials are pre-made (via scripts) and exist in several very large material libraries and can be applied to the house (via scripts again) as needed. In case no one noticed, scripting is a valuable part of our pipeline.
And actually, the architectual office I work at has moved to ADT and we soon hope to loose the modelling chunck from our department and get these done a bit faster.

[timmatron]

Great work Charley! The first image you posted is definitely my favorite. I just started my own arch. cg business here in Phoenix last year, but so far its just me.

I certainly wish I had your knowledge of scripts. Sounds like you save a lot of time that way. I have my first job coming up with s-roof tile and I'm not looking forward to it because I'm sure I'll end up modeling it all the old fashioned way.

Also another obstacle I need to find a solution to soon is landscape. I usually just comp. in my landscape in PS, but I have an animation coming up in a couple of months so I will have to start getting a new method.

Your GI renderings are looking great! Kitchen Sink had better watch out!

[charleyc]

Your GI renderings are looking great! Kitchen Sink had better watch out!

hahaha thanks. Funny you should mention them. The guy that I wrote the roof script (and many others) with actually works there now. There is a lot of compatition here in Phoenix for architectural renderings. Good thing there is so much new construction

If you get a chance and don't already, you should attend the local Max User Group meetings hosted by the CAD Store http://www.thecadstore.com/events.asp Discreet is there almost on a regular basis and it is a great way to get to know others in the valley. Then next one is this comming Friday.

Yeah, landscaping is always a problem for me too. I am not 100% happy with my solutions. I got very fed up with RPC and several others because they never looked right and they never had the plants that are used so much here in Phoeinix. I want fully detailed geometry plants, but still can't handle the load or the modellng time. I have never tried Speed Tree, but that is probably what I would try next if I didn't make my own. I am hoping that the new versions of VRay supporting the Proxy objects and the unlimited mesh renderings can handle the plants I have always wanted. At which point I will start to make them I am actaully quite satisfied with VRay. It seems to be a good tool, a litlle glitchy here and there, but with a very advanced feature set.
Best of luck to you.

Thanks again for the comments.

[Harutium]

You can get the plug-script for the tiles right here:
http://www.af-video.com/
It was invented long ago and there is no secret!

[RErender]

Any chance you'd share your technique on a simple particle plant?

[charleyc]

Any chance you'd share your technique on a simple particle plant?

Sure. I will post a max file tomorrow morning (for me) and a brief explination, and I will post a tutorial later if I get time to complete it.

Harutium
-You can do something very similar to that with the Tiles material (formerly Brick) that comes with max. The script I use generates actual geometry roof tile as opposed to just a material.

[Syclone1]

great job on the renders, I also would be verry interested in learning how to produce a script like that as we do alot of arch viz here.

-dave

[Mattman]

CharlyC,
It's pretty obvious that we all want to know and need scripts like you have. In the future when you branch out on your own Compile those scripts and mats and sell the CD to all of us arch viz guys who suck at scripts. I'd pay a few hundred for a good set of tools like that.
good luck.
Mirage

[charleyc]

Mattman

Yeah, if I end up rewriting the script from home on my own time I will certainly freely post it (hopefully in a plug-in form rather than script). I am a firm believer that success comes from talents and abilities rather then secrets. The roof tile scripts use tools that did not come with max that the company paid to create and owns, so I cannot freely give those away or I would. I have no problem giving the proceedure for my plants as they use only the tools that are there.

So anyway, about the plants.

Here is a file you can pick at. It is for a small bush (made without any photo reference...not recomended), structured similar to a tree (rather then a flowered stemmy bush) but the overall concepts and process is basically the same for eveything. I saved out screen shots of making it in hopes of putting together an actual tutorial if I get the time.
www.la-3.com/Downloads/Bush.zip
The file is basically untextured and without materials..that will be later. I did include maps that I typically use for leaves (Color, Bump, and Opacity). The one feature I use that is not part of max is this script
http://www.scriptspot.com/bobo/mxs5/...ot_as_mesh.htm
created by Borislav Petrov over at Boboland. That script is used after the branches are scattered to give a mesh to scatter leaves to.
Before I start, the most important thing for any sort of realism is that the branch structure of the plant must be as visually accurate as you can get (the angles the branches come off each other, the length of the branches, the number of branches, the taper...so on)
Here is a simple breakdown;
-the Main Trunk was created with the Extrude Along Spline tool in the editable Poly and the branch shaped splines (for best results, UV map this as you make it).
-the branch was made with renderable splines and then a single face at each segment was kept in order to reduce poly counts.
-the leaves and branches are positioned using sub-object face selections (the tips of the branchs can be selected to place flowers that usually grow at the branch ends)
-the branch and leaf direction is created using the Geosphere Normals and controlled by the Speed by Surface and Rotation operators in PFlow
-the leaf object can be simplified to accomodate opacity maps and save faces, but there should still be some 3d bending to the object (not just a flat plane). A rough leaf shape will give better results with shadow maps, and GI prefers mesh as well, so I try to stay away from simple leaves now.
-if using Opacity mapped leaves and/or flowers, use VRay or VRay free with the VRay Shadow to get really fast raytraced shadows. I don't recomend VRay free with GI as the opacity mapping kills render times if you are not using a VRay Material (not included in VRay free)

For close up plants, any of the face saving methods can be replaced with better geometry without changing the process. Also, once you have a good PFlow setup and a few generic main trunk structures you can quickly create many plants. For best results, your Branching structure has to be accurate to the plant you are recreating.

Thanks agian for the positive feedback and interest.
Charley Carlat

[hamilton3d]

Charley

great great stuff!!! very impressed. also very excited and appreciative that you are so willing to share your methods and systems for achieving such magnificent renderings!

you are an inspiration to us all!

[rusted]

thanks !

thanks charleyc for sharing the plant technique,eventhough it sounds bit complicated for my level i would like to try it

[charleyc]

Thanks.

rusted - It is actually very easy. The computer does most of the hard work.

Some cool things to having a tree/plant with particle leaves is the animation potential as well. You can add a Send Out operator to the end of the leaves event and send them to a Speed set to 0 to keep them inplace during an animaion. You can then add a Spin or Rotate/Go to Rotation to get them to appear to be blowing in the wind. You can set an animated texture to turn them to fall leaves, eventually falling off to the ground....the possibilities are many.