Nature's Wonders Sneak Peek Thread

[Ken Gilliland]

I'm half done with Volume III and decided to break-up the monotonous scale texturing with some modeling in my work day... so here's the start of my lizard environment which will have a US Southwestern chaparral/desert feel to it. I haven't decided on all the plants (I'm doing 3 species) but here's a early work-in-progress with some Ericameria nauseosa (aka Rabbitbrush). There will be more rocks, a native bunchgrass, either a sagebrush or buckwheat. The environment will have burrow, suitable for small mammals or my Gila Monster.

The environment will be somewhat polygon heavy because of the detail required on the plants (which need to look good on Lizard closeups)

 

[Banditcameraman]

It's because of this thread that I bought the Lizard base as well as Volumes 1 & 2 over the weekend

Waiting for Volume 3 as well

 

[Alisa]

I know you'll love them, Bandit!

 

[Banditcameraman]

Thank you so much, Alisa; they're perfect for a render I have in mind

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's another peek at my Lizard habitat which I worked on a little this weekend... The plants I putting in it are all from the sagebrush plant community. The smaller plants are
Rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus) and they'll be gray-green with lots of yellow flowers. The larger shrub is Great Basin Sage Brush (Artemisia tridentata). I might add in some
Four-wing Salt Bush (Atriplex canescens) but am concerned about making the model too polygon heavy so I might leave that out.

 

[Miss B]

It's coming along very nicely Ken.

 

[Alisa]

Sweet!

 

[RAMWolff]

May I ask how you create your vegetation Ken? Coming along nicely~!

 

[Mythocentric]

This is one to look forward to together with Volume 3! Is the environment a pre-load Ken or will it be possible to apply the plants and rocks seperately as required?

 

[Ken Gilliland]

May I ask how you create your vegetation Ken? Coming along nicely~!

I create the plants by good old-fashioned box modeling (taking primitives and pushing, stretching and adding to them). I probably should add I already have a strong knowledge of plants from years of volunteering with a native plant nursery, and the more than 400 different native plant species we have in our own garden, so that helps

This is one to look forward to together with Volume 3! Is the environment a pre-load Ken or will it be possible to apply the plants and rocks seperately as required?

The Sagebrush Environment will have pre-load and standalone items, much like my "Kiwi Burrow" does.

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I'm sure most everyone noticed the burrow in my new environment. I created that for the gila monster but I'm sure at rabbit or rodent will be happy to live there as well

 

[RAMWolff]

Thanks for the answer. I've always been amazed by how many leaves a branch can hold and if there was a magical way to tell a program to duplicate many of them along a certain path or something! lol

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Thanks for the answer. I've always been amazed by how many leaves a branch can hold and if there was a magical way to tell a program to duplicate many of them along a certain path or something! lol

There are software options to create plants... one of the oldest, xFrog is pretty good, though takes much practice to look good. Speedtree is the program I've heard that Stonemason uses. A cheaper and Speedtree-like program is E-on Software's Plantfactory. I own xFrog and Plantfactory but still prefer to make my own plants from scratch.

 

[RAMWolff]

Thanks Ken. Watched a few of the xFrog tutorials. Yea, a bit too strange for how my mind is wired! lol I have an older version of E's program (Vue 2014) but always hated that I had no live view it was always in wireframe and that's also confusing to my mind. Unless that's changed....

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Thanks Ken. Watched a few of the xFrog tutorials. Yea, a bit too strange for how my mind is wired! lol I have an older version of E's program (Vue 2014) but always hated that I had no live view it was always in wireframe and that's also confusing to my mind. Unless that's changed....

You should try the demo version of Plantfactory-- it's really easy to make a great looking tree with that (and it's has a live 3D view as well as wire frame)

 

[Miss B]

As a matter of fact, I'm in the process of downloading the PlantFactory PLE, as I can't see any limitations as to it's use, such as not being able to save, so I think that's what I'm going to be playing with. I never really gave plant creation, other than within Bryce, much of a thought. Maybe this will make me change my mind.

 

[RAMWolff]

BUT you have to buy the plants for it to work. I'm also downloading it as we speak. I've always wanted to design a Boris stylized tree with HUGE root systems that pop out of the ground. I still have a couple of his calendars from way back when with Tarzan standing on some of those. Great fantasy paintings that man created!

 

[Ken Gilliland]

PlantFactory...
I think the limitations with the PLE versions is in it's ability to export to anything outside of Vue. I believe the export to .obj is only available the studio ($$$) and designer ($$) versions. I have designer and it does export to .obj

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Back to my stuff...

I worked this morning, trying to cut down the polygon count on my Great Basin Sagebrush while thickening and adding height (not an easy task lol) -- but it looks a lot more like the actual species now (compare with the first image above). I'm guessing the overall model is going to come in at about 200-225K polygons when done.

 

[Miss B]

Thanks for that Ken. I would have to play with it quite a bit before I decide whether or not I could justify spending that much money on the pay-for versions.

Edited to Add: OK, I went back to the site, and where it lists the options for the PLE, this is what it says:

• Create complete projects and save your work*,
• Export your plants to other applications as standard geometry or use them in VUE**,
• Render in Full HD (for stills) and animations up to 720p***,
• Learn at your own pace (the PLE never expires)!

The second option leaves me to believe you CAN export plants from the PLE version. It does say 1 poly in 5 gets removed, so it's not "perfect", but for learning purposes, I'm not going to complain.

 

[Ken Gilliland]

Here's a couple lizards from Volume 3 (which I hope to wrap up by the end of the week), I am still working on that 'Bluey' (Blue-tongued skink) which turned out to be more challenging than I originally expected it to be; there are 3 very different patterned species.

Below is the Eastern Collared Lizard (m/f) from Southern/Southwestern USA and the Common Skink from New Zealand.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I saw the burrow! One of the things I liked about the Sagebrush Enviro.