ajroane

This is an update about the crash problem I was having, related to menu re-ordering. I noticed that if the menu is fully expanded, I can re-order the list without any problems. The problematic behavior only occurs when I have scroll bars to the side of my list window. Now I make sure to fully expand my lists, and I haven't had any problems. Regards, Andrew PS - As an example, the list on the left causes re-ordering difficulties, and moving the modifiers up/down can cause Max to freeze. The list on the right works perfectly.

It would be great to have all four of the Path Parameter windows open at the same time. Currently, the 'Direction Modifier' window automatically closes when I click the 'After Mesh Modifiers' tab, and vice versa. Regards, Andrew

@mbe - There are three parts to creating a thick, succulent-type plant. First, you have to model the leaves, outside of GrowFX. It would be very difficult, if not impossible to get the right geometry for this type of leaf using only GrowFX parameters/modifiers. For my agave, I started with a 3dsMax plane object, then poly-modeled the flat shape of the leaf. Then I copied that element, offset it a bit, and welded only the edges together. Then I started pushing and pulling vertices to get the right thickness in the leaf. This step requires a lot of tweaking. Second, create the spline structure for the plant using GrowFX. You're right, this part can be a bit tricky for a plant like this, since leaf intersections will make the plant look odd. You can always do a bit of manual editing of leaf placement after you convert to a mesh. That is what I did. Third, attach the modeled leaf to the GrowFX splines using an 'Instanced Geometry' mesh builder. The attached geometry will stay instanced to what you see in your GrowFX model, so you can continue to edit/tweak the leaf geometry to get the right look. Best, and let us know how it turns out. Andrew

Today I made this Agave plant for a desert scene I'm rendering. I can't share the final image right now, but I like how the plant turned out. I poly-modeled a single large leaf, then I used GrowFX to create the plant structure, using the leaf geometry. Afterwards I unwrapped the entire model, mainly as an exercise, because I had never unwrapped a plant model completely. I'll be playing with it more in the future. Regards, Andrew

The crashes occur while using 1.9.0 on a computer running Win XP 32-bit, and 3dsMax 2010. I did some tests, and the crashing does not occur with my Win 7 64-bit computer at work, using Max 2012. But, in both cases the behavior of dragging paths up and down in the path list is very erratic. It is difficult to explain, as an example, if I have 10 paths numbered sequentially in the list, and I want to drag path 07 above path 06, dragging path 07 up will automatically snap to the top of the list, then dragging back down will snap to the bottom of the list. Stopping anywhere in between is almost impossible. Hopefully this helps explain the problem. I still need to install 1.9.2, I'll let you know if the problem persists. Thanks, Andrew

Okay, so maybe not "everything", but I would love to see controllable Min-Max range values on almost every parameter. An idea I have would work especially well in the node-based editor...Create a "Randomizer" node. The randomizer node could attach to the input node of any path parameter in order to set a min and max value for the parameter. You could even call it a "Chaos" node, since chaos variables are already used in GrowFX quite frequently. But if the chaos/randomizer were a free-floating node, its use could be expanded, and I think it could be very useful. Thanks, Andrew

Eduard, Thanks for the example, it helped me a lot. Your example gave me an idea to use a single path and then deform it a lot with the radial modifier to make a spiral. I think the result looks pretty good. The max file is attached if anyone else is interested in creating something similar. Thanks again, I'm going to check out the node-based version tomorrow. - Andrew Flower_Center_Test.max

I have been trying to replicate the geometric pattern of a flower seed-head, and it would be awesome if there were a parametric solution in GroxFX for creating such a system. I think it could be useful in many other circumstances as well. Please see this link to get a better idea of what I am trying to achieve. Here's another link showing some schematics of different spiral variations. Thanks, I really enjoy using this plug-in. Can't wait to see the node-based version. PS - The plug-in crashes a lot when I try to rename and/or move paths in my path list box. These crashes make it very hard to organize my paths efficiently. Has anyone else had this problem? I am using Max 2010 and GrowFX 1.9. Regards, Andrew

Nice work! It looks like a rhus glabra, or Smooth Sumac. It's actually a shrub, but it can be pruned to resemble a small tree. Regards, Andrew