Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
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Forester
3DQuakers, one of the few providers of Softimage video training, is proudly presenting its
first Softimage plugin: [..] Forester is a procedural creation addon that renders the creation of natural
elements like trees, forests, grass and flowers a breeze! With its procedural approach,
Forester generates the geometry using ICE, making the creation and editing of elements
very straightforward. Forester is not aimed for technical directors, but for artists.
No ICE knowloedge is required. In fact, Forester will add all the connections automatically,
so the user would only have to change the element parameters. Forester elements come
with lots of parameters to render the customization process very fast and intuitive.
Almost all geometry come with built-in UVs, called Space UVs, that fit perfectly over
the geometry, and render exactly the same way in Mental Ray and Arnold.
Pricing information: Forester v1 is launched with an introductory price of 159 USD, for single machine use. Additional licenses cost 100 USD per machine. Prices are subject to increase after the launch period.
A lot of documentation videos to be found here
Related plugins: TGen, LKLightning, StrandTree, Ivo Tree, Recursive Tree (click »vegetation« tag). Here is an xmas tree demo setup by Matt Morris: http://www.matinai.com/si/xmas_tree_settings.jpg
Pricing information: Forester v1 is launched with an introductory price of 159 USD, for single machine use. Additional licenses cost 100 USD per machine. Prices are subject to increase after the launch period.
A lot of documentation videos to be found here
Related plugins: TGen, LKLightning, StrandTree, Ivo Tree, Recursive Tree (click »vegetation« tag). Here is an xmas tree demo setup by Matt Morris: http://www.matinai.com/si/xmas_tree_settings.jpg
author link: http://www.3dquakers.com/web / plugin: /forester-for-softimage-2/ / purchase: ..softimage-licensing / si-community thread
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
Thats a fantastic combo of tools.
just fighting trough the paypal stuff
ty!
just fighting trough the paypal stuff
ty!
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
I'm wondering if its possible to remodel the base tree by hand before adding leaves at all? I need some more granular artistic control over exact placement of branches, but don't need any simulation or growth for this, just a static tree.
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
Yes Matt it is possible, following these steps:
1. Prepare the leaf emitting branches as a separate object, called for example "leaf emitter", and give it an ICE tree.
2. The ICE tree should have the following ports:
a. self.__leafPoints
b. self.__staticLeafPoints
c. self.__leafSize
d. self.__branchSegs
The points positions of the "leaf emitter" should be converted into an array using BUILD ARRAY FROM SET and fed into self.__leafPoints and self.__staticLeafPoints
self.__leafSize should be given a value of 1
self.__branchSegs should be increased to something like 10
Now create a "Frs_Tree_Leaves" compound and make sure that Apply To External Tree is Checked
Feed the "leaf emitter" under External Tree Name
Now the "leaf emitter" should be emitting the leaves.
1. Prepare the leaf emitting branches as a separate object, called for example "leaf emitter", and give it an ICE tree.
2. The ICE tree should have the following ports:
a. self.__leafPoints
b. self.__staticLeafPoints
c. self.__leafSize
d. self.__branchSegs
The points positions of the "leaf emitter" should be converted into an array using BUILD ARRAY FROM SET and fed into self.__leafPoints and self.__staticLeafPoints
self.__leafSize should be given a value of 1
self.__branchSegs should be increased to something like 10
Now create a "Frs_Tree_Leaves" compound and make sure that Apply To External Tree is Checked
Feed the "leaf emitter" under External Tree Name
Now the "leaf emitter" should be emitting the leaves.
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
Great, thanks very much Charbel, that will be a big help.
Second question (hope you don't mind!) - is there a way to space out the branch distribution on the trunk so that we have less branches towards the top - think christmas tree where the distribution gradually thins out. Yup, christmas in july ;)
And third, sorry, is there a way to control the length of the branches further up the trunk? Trying out a few different things but can't figure these out yet.
Second question (hope you don't mind!) - is there a way to space out the branch distribution on the trunk so that we have less branches towards the top - think christmas tree where the distribution gradually thins out. Yup, christmas in july ;)
And third, sorry, is there a way to control the length of the branches further up the trunk? Trying out a few different things but can't figure these out yet.
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
2nd Question: Already doable with the Conifer Tree. Increase the Tr Insertion parameter and play with the Spread Profile F-curve to get an instant Christmas tree!
3rd Question: For the branch length up the trunk, decrease the Expand Top parameter to a negative value, like -0.5. This will shrink down the length towards to top of the tree.
3rd Question: For the branch length up the trunk, decrease the Expand Top parameter to a negative value, like -0.5. This will shrink down the length towards to top of the tree.
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
I tried with the conifer tree but the spread profile just affects the orientation of the branches. Ideally I'd like to be able to plug an fcurve into the Br ins parameter so that I can have more branches emitting from the bottom of the tree and far less coming from the top. The branch length - decreasing the expand top gets me somewhere, but would much prefer an fcurve again to drive the length of the branches emitting from the trunk for more control. Is that possible at all?
This is really just minor feedback from trying to get very specific shapes with the plugin, its been very useful so far to get the base tree quickly. Thanks! Had to remodel the top to get the shape of branches I needed, but would have taken a lot longer without Forester than it did to get this far:
This is really just minor feedback from trying to get very specific shapes with the plugin, its been very useful so far to get the base tree quickly. Thanks! Had to remodel the top to get the shape of branches I needed, but would have taken a lot longer without Forester than it did to get this far:
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
To control the branch emission bias with an f-curve, I would need to implement this internally. I added it on my to-do list for the next version.
And, nice render!
And, nice render!
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
now, that is nice xmas tree! been trying to do the same but run out of time...any special insight on making it much appreciated mat.
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
This was the starting point using forester:
http://www.matinai.com/si/xmas_tree_settings.jpg
Then copied the UVs to a normal UV set before freezing the tree and remodelling. Had to thin out the top a fair bit and reshape the upper branches to get that very specific shape. Also bodged together a needle distribution compound based on distance from the trunk and also a weightmap based on the UVs (so each branch had more needles towards the end).
http://www.matinai.com/si/xmas_tree_settings.jpg
Then copied the UVs to a normal UV set before freezing the tree and remodelling. Had to thin out the top a fair bit and reshape the upper branches to get that very specific shape. Also bodged together a needle distribution compound based on distance from the trunk and also a weightmap based on the UVs (so each branch had more needles towards the end).
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
thanks for the explanation!
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
btw you can use lattice for additional shaping and tree is live....and pretty much any deformer witout breaking the ice tree
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
During the last 1,5 years Forester turned out to be one of my most used addons for Softimage, great job guys!
Now I have a few questions...
- Forester generates some kind of UVs, when applying a texture they are available as "Space UV". But if I freeze the geo, there is no UV cluster and therefore no UVs in the texture editor. How can I get a UV cluster from the Space UVs?
- Is there any development going on for the Softimage version? I noticed, that it now costs 250€ while I bought it last year for 150€. But what would justify such a drastic price increase without any new features?
Now I have a few questions...
- Forester generates some kind of UVs, when applying a texture they are available as "Space UV". But if I freeze the geo, there is no UV cluster and therefore no UVs in the texture editor. How can I get a UV cluster from the Space UVs?
- Is there any development going on for the Softimage version? I noticed, that it now costs 250€ while I bought it last year for 150€. But what would justify such a drastic price increase without any new features?
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
The old price was an introductory price.
If anyone wants to get Forester XSI at the old price still, please email us.
If anyone wants to get Forester XSI at the old price still, please email us.
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
I do this with a script I found on Rray, will look monday on my comp for its name. Bake ice uvs, if I recall.
Cheers,
Jasper
Cheers,
Jasper
Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS
@3DQUAKERS:
Thanx for the info. Currently I don't need more licenses, but I would pay for an upgrade if it would provide at least the same feature level as the C4D version, including those nice presets.
@Bullit:
Unfortunately I didn't have any luck with Fabricio's script so far. It crashes Softimage if I try to run it on any Forester mesh. Tested in 2013 SP1, 2014 SP2 and 2015 SP2. Also just freezing a Forester object crashes Softimage sometimes.
Thanx for the info. Currently I don't need more licenses, but I would pay for an upgrade if it would provide at least the same feature level as the C4D version, including those nice presets.
@Bullit:
Unfortunately I didn't have any luck with Fabricio's script so far. It crashes Softimage if I try to run it on any Forester mesh. Tested in 2013 SP1, 2014 SP2 and 2015 SP2. Also just freezing a Forester object crashes Softimage sometimes.
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