Arbaro

I know, but I can see it in the material preview and cannot see it in the rendered scene.

JackOfSpades said:

I know, but I can see it in the material preview and cannot see it in the rendered scene.

Click to expand...

If it is in the mat prev but not in the render, then maybe the cam is not close enough or the lightning is unfortunate.
If the light comes from the back, hardly bumps will appear, sidelight is best.

JackOS, 2 things come to mind: bumpmap intensity (archie has 3.0) and UV map... maybe a screenshot?

cheers,
Alessandro

If that doesn't help (and you don't render with camera light on), post the file please so I can have a look. Maybe it's too big, then (area) select the prominent leaves in the front in point mode, invert selection and then delete, also trunk and stems, now save and zip the .jas and try upload again.

Nope, stays the same.
Just plain leaves.

JackOfSpades said:

Nope, stays the same.
Just plain leaves.

Click to expand...

mind posting your file ?

Ok, here you go.

JackOfSpades said:

Ok, here you go.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, three points:

There are no UV coordinates set to the leaves in your file.
This can only be done in Arbaro, in the render window there are two boxes:

UV-coordinates: _ for stems _ for leaves

best to check both.
this will ensure that in cheetah the texture is assigned to each leaf disk, a mode not available in the cheetah uv mapper that consideres all polygons as part of a coherent body, so sorry but you have to render your tree in Arbaro again.
_

Then you should throw a skylight into your scene
(with geometry on, samples=1, and a radiosity tag with ambient occlusion at 100 samples)
_

and disable the subdivision, it makes no sense on a transparency texture and increases polycount and rendertime.

Let's see if this helps !

Ha, it works now.
Thank you.
Another quick question: How do I make the leaves randomly spread out?

JackOfSpades said:

Ha, it works now.
Thank you.
Another quick question: How do I make the leaves randomly spread out?

Click to expand...

Duh !

- randomly spread leaves:
I have not figured out yet, I suspect it's the LeafDistrib value ( 0 - 8 ).

Cheers !

Well, your models look pretty random already.
If I use a too big amount of leaves, it looks like there would be static rows.
If I use not enough, the tree looks bald.

JackOfSpades said:

Well, your models look pretty random already.
If I use a too big amount of leaves, it looks like there would be static rows.
If I use not enough, the tree looks bald.

Click to expand...

I'm happy with my models too but I assure you, the leaf randomness was not intentionally set up ! :tongue:

I used the the quacking aspen with minor tweaks in shape but not leaves for my bump map renders.

As I said earlier, there is a long way to go the trial and error route before finally all the settings are understood - I have barely begun !

But it looks you're on a good way - just continue and have fun !


- Archie

Dear archie

Nice stuff there with that software, I love the closeups.

A little question. Why don't you just export the plant from vue ? ( I notice you use it )

regards

luke

luke Bocchinelli said:

A little question. Why don't you just export the plant from vue ? ( I notice you use it )

Click to expand...

thanks luke

i have vue 7 pro studio which needs a 149 $ module for mesh+mat export.

also the vue trees are problematic for closeups, they show weird diameter changes on trunk and branches and the leaves are a bit regular.

in arbaro it should be possible to have finally all leaves really hanging, that means pointing down.

once i have figured out vue ecosystems i plan to render cheetah models in vue because of real forests and clouds as surrounding.

but it's a slow progress in vue when i spend so much time with cheetah -

cheers,

archie

Arbaro Trees

Found this thread about creating trees to use in Cheetah scenes. I downloaded the Arbaro software and having a hellofa time trying to figure out how to use it. I was able to open the Arbaro software but I really don't understand how Java works. I opened it and saved a tree as "Wavefront obj" but Cheetah doesn't recognize it with an "open file" or "import file" command. I want to place my newly created 32 Ford Roadster Hot Rod in a realistic outdoor setting. Been spending a lot of time searching for tutorials on Vimeo, YouTube, and this forum. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Arbaro Trees

Are there any tutorials on how to use Arbaro to create trees to use in C3d?
Thanks.

Hammer said:

Are there any tutorials on how to use Arbaro to create trees to use in C3d?
Thanks.

Click to expand...

None that I know of. But here's what I suggest.
1) Launch Arbaro (double-click arbaro.jar - if Java is installed on your machine, it should open up the arbaro window).
2) Mess around with the settings to create the tree you want (use the description panel at far right to get a clue about what each parameter does).
3) Click the "Create and Export Tree" icon/button up in the top menu.
4) Make sure to select Wavefront OBJ for file format and click the UV coordinates for stems and leaves
5). Despite your best efforts, Arbaro will save your file in the root of your user directory. So find the file there. It will not have a file extension. Add one (.obj).
6) Open Cheetah and import this file. And there's your tree. Usually in lots of parts. I suggest grouping them together in a folder.

Hope this helps!

If I can add a couple of suggestions ...

If you are running Lion, make sure that Java is installed. (The installer doesn't include it by default, as it did with previous versions of OS X.) If not, you can download and install it from the Apple website.

If the arbaro.jar file won't execute when you double-click, you can run it from the terminal window. Launch the Terminal application (located in your Applications/Utilities folder). Change the default folder to the one that contains arbaro.jar. For example, if arbaro.jar is in a folder named "Arbaro" in your user folder, type this after the prompt in the Terminal window:

cd ~/Arbaro

Now run the jar file:

java -jar arbaro.jar

Once the Arbaro GUI opens, you can make your tree. Click the folder icon to load the default trees -- usually it's easier to make a new tree by modifying one of these. Click the "Create and Export Tree" button and follow bemdesign's advice above to save it out as a Wavefront OBJ file.

It's a little clunky but it works quite well. I like the fact that you can optimize the trees and make them very lightweight -- important when you have hundreds of them in a scene.

Search YouTube for a couple of tutorials on how to use Arbaro. They assume you are also using Blender, but the info also applies to C3D.

For more info on Arbaro, the theory behind it, and suggested input parameters, see the author's original paper here.

Steve

Edit: Didn't realize that you'd already tried YouTube. Maybe you overlooked these?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uabftHFJar8
(Don't believe the video title. Arbaro works fine on Macs.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXsqc_6BwBU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uabftHFJar8

Ok I know this is a little older thread, but I think my question is still pertinent. When I try to import the file it tells me there are to many polygons to import. Is there a way you reduce the polygons in Arbaro to keep this from happening? I tried a few of the default trees that can with the app and they all gave me the same problem. I can post more details later if needed.

Thanks!

Can´t tell whats wrong on your side (maybe check console.app) - just loaded the example larch tree file (234k polygons).

Cheers
Frank