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You can already get some basic scene interaction ....have a look at the tutorial i did on cutting grass It was using object reaction modifiers that push the grass away as the mower moved & a animated slice modifier to cut the grass as the mower went over it. But YES.....it would be good to have even better reactions with real world physics Cheers Jamie

Of course GrowFX can do this sort of plant & much much more You also have all the tools in GrowFX so there is no need to model anything most of the time. Try to use the tools in GrowFX first as they have more options regarding the direction modifiers & affects & are much easy to change & tweak than instanced meshes I wouldn't worrry about unwrapping for UV's as it's a lot of time for not much to gain as GrowFX has awesome built-in UV mapping options Cheers Jamie

Hi All, Here is a test of the new metamesh displacement option added on the last beta version [Thanks for all your great updates Eduard!!] I also used a technique I developed to get some realistic bark on the trees so the displacement is not as visible as I would have liked. I'll post an update without the bark so you can see the displacement better. C&C welcome Cheers Jamie

Well Done!

Although it would be nice to have this feature, you can already do this with the displacement for Cylinder mesh. Saying that though, It would be nice to have this for the Meta-mesh which currently has no displacement parameters. Keep up the good ideas everyone!! The future of GrowFX is so bright I have to wear sun glasses to look at it...lol

Yes...this is actually an important part of an efficient work-flow. Always have a copy of the distributor that is able to be changed/manipulated very quickly so that you don't waste time waiting. This is also a useful technique for really high poly trees as well......just make a copy of the path that is slow to view to one that gives quick results

Sounds like another great addition coming up.! Thanks again Eduard for your commitment to keep making GrowFX better & better. Cheers Jamie

Hi Eduard, As always you are more than welcome to use it and thanks again for making such great software that allows me to do work like this. Jamie

Hi All, Here is another render for fun.....mountain wind-swept trees. Trees-- GrowFX Mountain Rocks--Forest Pro Rendered in Vray with a HDRI sky Final Colour grading - After Effects Cheers Jamie

Hi All, I recently made a Decorative Branch with Dried Seed pods for a prop in a apartment project. Here is a couple of renders of it. C&C Welcome. Cheers Jamie

See....you just have to give it a go & learn along the way. The best advice I can also give is to get good reference material [photos etc] of your plants as this will help you make your plants look better & you will also create them faster. My initial thoughts would be to add some variation to the leaf angles & size, Colour etc......it's looking a bit too perfect at the moment. Also don't be afraid to use a lot of polygons in your plants.....GrowFX is very stable & can handle creating massive amounts of geometry detail. I have made some trees with around 10 million polygons & it was not crashing . Opacity maps also increase the details where it would not work to use pure geometry. All the best

I Agree there are some limitations of the current leaf mesh...some additions such as these would be great.!

I Just got the update yesterday & hopefully will get time to look at it over the next few days. I'll let you know how it goes..[which I sure will be awesome!!] Cheers Jamie

Thanks so much for the latest awesome feature Eduard!! I think this is a huge time-saver & really helps to add heaps more realism. There are so many ways you could use this plugin, it even works on ANY objects/geometry that have vertex colours, not just GrowFX objects. It is working fine with no bugs [as usual].....I even tried it in a vray material & it works fine. Cheers Jamie

Hi Eduard, The link gives a 404 [not found] error???? Cheers Jamie

Great work Eduard! This plugin looks awesome....and as well as adding heaps more realism, it will save hours of tedious work. Thanks again for your continued development of an amazing program. Jamie

Sounds awesome Eduard!

Hi All, Here is a quick tutorial to show you how to create hollow branches using the Meta-mesh subtraction option. Hope this helps give you some more realism in your trees Cheers Jamie

Hi Davius, I tried to open your max file but I cannot as I use 2010 version. If you want to save it as a GrowFX PRESET I can have a look at it for you. Cheers Jamie

Yes you can do the same sort of thing using Vertex colours...it is an extremely powerful process/tool. You could turn your leaf maps to grey & blend them with the vertex colour. The other way to do this is to change the Leaf ID [on the leaves mesh window]. You can have random ID's for leaves, although the best way would be to have a different leaf path for the 4 different leaf sections [to match your 4 different texture groups] as this will give you the ultimate control. I will have a look at your tree on the weekend & show you how it's done Hope this helps Jamie

Thanks! The plants are not anything specific. Just ideas from plants & trees I know

The overall shape looks great but I think it would be good to add a few really old Stems/leaves that are bent & broken. You could easily clone your leaves paths to create the old leaves/stems & change or add modifiers to achieve a more broken & old look. [i would suggest adding a Start/End slice modifier with a random End slice & a Hard Bend modifier with a random percentage. The old broken Stems should also be angled downwards more & this will help hide the transition of the trunk to the stem/leaves better. Hope this helps

Yes it would be a good idea.....+1 here

Hi All, Just a quick update to the Project where I had to do a Vertical garden. Also included is another vignette of a balcony apartment. C&C welcome Jamie

I would strongly advise having a good look at this process as it's really where the power of GrowFX is. The Affects process seems complicated at first but it just takes a couple of times to understand it. In the end it's as simple as one parameter affecting another, it doesn't matter which parameter affects which other parameter, the process is still the same. Patience & perseverance will get you there sooner than you think Cheers Jamie