WCSallySally Posted May 27, 2011 Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 I am a total newbie to 3D, plunging in, but barely have the vocabulary. If I mess up, please correct me, I will not take offense, and it is better to be corrected and wiser than wading in mistakes! ... I am certain I will make a few blunders, it is almost inevitable. I am learning ray-tracing rendering currently. All my ideas are set out of doors, and good foliage is a must! I use 3DS, and some other programs ... learning 3Ds now. I wish to use the ray-tracing render engines ... I will be getting a CUBIX box to assist for animations. Does this product present to the render engine a modeled, and textured "object" (say each leaf), or a placard with an image on it, and transparency mapping (as is favored for the gaming industry)? or .. perchance does it do both? Thanks for any help, and "nice gallery"!! I hope if you do not have "presets" you may put them in a later version? WCS Breath is the Courser, and Mind is the Rider, Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Actions. --- Zoroaster Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduard Posted May 27, 2011 Report Share Posted May 27, 2011 Hi, GrowFX is a plugin for modeling and animating plants for 3dsMax, and it doesn't rendering engine. For rendering, you can use any other plugin or integrated renderer in 3dsMax. Or use other applications, but for this you need to convert your model to another format. GrowFX creates a full-fledged model of trees (as you said: textured object with each leaf), and it doesn't create a placard with an image on it. Thanks for your interest in our product! Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WCSallySally Posted May 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 Hi, GrowFX is a plugin for modeling and animating plants for 3dsMax, and it doesn't rendering engine. For rendering, you can use any other plugin or integrated renderer in 3dsMax. Or use other applications, but for this you need to convert your model to another format. GrowFX creates a full-fledged model of trees (as you said: textured object with each leaf), and it doesn't create a placard with an image on it. Thanks for your interest in our product! Cheers Thank you Eduard, So it is good for ray trace renderers!! Awesome!! I refer you to the CUBIX box for this kind of rendering on a regular PC. Now, how many kinds of plants / trees can it make? Grasses and bushes as well as trees? (Three, six and nine nodes I read of already.) To be honest (which is also to be fair) .. I am comparing your product with 'Carbon Scatter' by e-on .. there is about $20 difference in price .. so I wonder what are the differences in the product offerings. ... Carbon Scatter comes with 100 built in plants which can be re-configured -- can be grown with fractal algorithms if you wish to do so. They also will randomize on their own, if you choose that. If in Russia you sell the models of GrowFX trees as a package, could we have an option to buy that here, and what is the cost? eon and VUE are highly thought of, and are used in the US movie industry. I would like, however to give an opportunity to a new start up company which is on the ball, and working on it's products .. that would be you guys. Please advise me of the breadth of the program's ability and the depth of its offerings so I can make a choice. On another note, I did download the "examples" which will "only open the cage" in Max .. and not an image (unless the image is very, very small and I could not see it?). I did get the free Demo ... have not installed it yet .. I hope it will make the difference. Thank you, WCSally P.S. If you have a gifted artist sitting around with time on his hands, consider making a fire plug in .. because Phoenix Fire Plug-in is very, very expensive!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptrain03 Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 Hi WC Sally So it is good for ray trace renderers!! Awesome!! I refer you to the CUBIX box for this kind of rendering on a regular PC. I think that the cubix is primarily used for accelerated hardware based rendering (GPU) . It allows you to make use of additional video cards aside from the slots provided by your motherboard. GPU (video card) rendering is really taking off right now, and there are several GPU based renders to choose from (iray, vray RT, Octane, Maxwell and fryrenders GPU products, etc.) . The main limitation for GPU renders at the moment is the amount of VRAM available on your graphics card. I am not sure if the CUBIX is a solution for this. For more information on the CUBIX and GPU rendering You should check out the forums for the various GPU based renderers and see what their users have to say. If you are looking to do outdoor scenes with thousands of plants at millions of polys in each instance then RAM will be a huge factor for you. CPU renders like mental ray, Vray, etc. will make use of your system RAM and give you allot more freedom as RAM is the main factor determining the amount of geometry your scene can hold before crashing. You will also need to make sure you are running a 64 bit OS If you plan to make use of more than 4Gigs, and you will likely need to make use of proxies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptrain03 Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 Now, how many kinds of plants / trees can it make? Grasses and bushes as well as trees? (Three, six and nine nodes I read of already.) Grow FX is not really limited as to plant type. It is an extremely versatile L-system modeler geared towards plants but not necessarily limited to plants. Other programs that specialize in plant creation are onyx and xfrog, however they are stand alones (as far as I know xfrog only has an updated maya plugin) and their output has to be imported. growFX creates a native max object within 3ds max. I have used all three and I own both growFX and Onyx. Onyx has advantages regarding ease of use that I like, however it is expensive and limited in plant creation abilities depending upon which package you buy (also there is no demo available which is a turnoff for many new users that are strapped for cash). As far as modelling output is concerned They are both very comparable, I personally use growfx for the vast majority of my work because I am comfortable with its controls and I like the freedom it affords me due to its more general nature. The growfx interface is probably the most daunting of the three, however, it is hands down the most powerful program and Its great customer support and constant updates make it the most viable (in my opinion) for the future. Also meta mesh and vine creation, as well as several other features are unprecedented in any other program as far as I know. P.S. If you have a gifted artist sitting around with time on his hands, consider making a fire plug in .. because Phoenix Fire Plug-in is very, very expensive!! huh, thats actually an interesting idea. I played around with making cumulus clouds within growFX at one time, I got some decent results. GrowFX already allows for object interaction and random movement of its branching paths. You might be able to make some decent fire effects using growFX paths as a distributor. It would be cool to see what someone could come up with. Im not a programmer, but it seems like the components are already in place. Dissipating heat, explosions, smoke, etc. all involve branching distributions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptrain03 Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 As far as carbon scatter is concerned I would say try it out if they have a demo. I think It is more comparable to itoosoft's "forest pack" or onyx's "Tree Storm". Grow Fx is a plant modeler and thats really all its meant to do. I personally use forest pack to distribute my Growfx plants in my scene and I couldn't be happier with the combination. They are both top notch. Forest pack has a demo version. Try it out and see if it is what you need. As far as a comparison of Carbon scatters built-in plants I would say that its probably a matter of specifics. Will Carbon scatters solid growth CS plants be specific enough to portray the plants you want to show? Do they use solid geometry or opacity for their leaves? how do they hold up for close up shots? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptrain03 Posted May 28, 2011 Report Share Posted May 28, 2011 In summary, Plant modelers, 1. Xfrog - Pros: Good Realistic plant modeler, fairly decent interface, Reasonable cost for standalone, Standalone can produce many different types of plants, plant libraries. Cons: Can't import animation into 3ds max. No plugin available for use inside of max. Notes: Haven't looked at their stuff in a few years, definitely worth a peek. Maybe they've made some changes. 2. Onyx - Pros: Really good looking plant output. Easy to use interface. Nice animation features. Library. Cons: No demo, expensive. Not actually available as a native max plugin. I could be wrong about this as I haven't had a chance to look at Tree storm (No Demo). You have to buy different suites in order to create different plant types, again, expensive. 3. GrowFX - Pros: Really good looking models once you get the hang of it, (In my opinion the best) . Excellent customer support. Very universal, offers allot of modelling feature that the others do not have. Has a demo. Affordably priced. Absolutely seamless max plugin integration (produces native max objects). Continually updated. Cons: Learning Curve, No real libraries yet. 4. Carbon Scatters' Solid Growth CS plants - No Idea 5. Speed tree - seems to be an impressive modeler and animator with lots of capability, however, its cost is prohibitive and therefore can't really be put in the same class as the others mentioned. 6. Vue - unsure, I've used it, but it's plugin for max is too expensive to really be considered alongside simple tree modelers like the above mentioned. Its really more of its own thing as opposed to being a plugin. 7. Nat Fx - No idea Plant Distributors: ( you will need one for bigger scenes, for smaller ones your plants or proxies can just be placed manually or with max's paint tools however, the RAM footprint will be larger and you will be limited in the amount of plant material you can use.) I don't really know much about the difference between these. I only own Itoosoft and I have no complaints. It save me tons of time and It is indispensable to my work with large scenes. I am sure the others in the list are comparable but I couldn't say for sure. 1. Itoosoft forest pack 2. Carbon scatter 3. Tree storm ( I think this one is specifically for onyx but I could be wrong) Anyways, Best of luck in your 3d learning, hope the info helps. Personally I really like the GrowFx + Itoosoft combination. Yes GrowFx is a little hard at first, but the demo and manual are free. Just download it and go through the manual Then make the decision that best suits your needs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptrain03 Posted May 29, 2011 Report Share Posted May 29, 2011 Oh one other thing, To add to my insanely long reply You asked about pre-made libraries for sale. "HQ Trees" (actually made in grow FX). very nice, Google it and check them out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ptrain03 Posted May 29, 2011 Report Share Posted May 29, 2011 Also, for a newbie just starting out I would recommend www.lynda.com Its a great learning resource and I have found it to be invaluable over the years. For more advanced stuff you might also check out mentalboutmax.com . Then of course there's the max manual itself (which is a 10,000 page pdf file !!!!! ridiculous ) you can get it from autodesks website. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduard Posted May 29, 2011 Report Share Posted May 29, 2011 Hi ptrain03, Thank you very much for a full and detailed reply! I can only add that we are planning to create a plants library and gradually increase it. Also very soon we plan to release a new version, which will allows you to quickly and easily configure the wind animation. This will be very realistic wind animation of trees. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nildoe Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Hi ptrain03, Thank you very much for a full and detailed reply! I can only add that we are planning to create a plants library and gradually increase it. Also very soon we plan to release a new version, which will allows you to quickly and easily configure the wind animation. This will be very realistic wind animation of trees. Cheers Hi Eduard, any word on that wind feature?? :P:P Nildo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduard Posted June 6, 2011 Report Share Posted June 6, 2011 Hi Eduard, any word on that wind feature?? :P:P Nildo Hi Nildo, Now we're preparing a beta version and today or tomorrow we'll upload to the server. I'll let you know about this. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nildoe Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Ohhh thats just GREAT NEWS! i spent alotta time setting up wind the current way, and it stil doesnt look very nice on this tree im making...plz plz let me know when u have it available . Nildo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduard Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 Ohhh thats just GREAT NEWS! i spent alotta time setting up wind the current way, and it stil doesnt look very nice on this tree im making...plz plz let me know when u have it available . Nildo Hi Nildo, We're still trying to solve some problems for working together "Vector direction" and "Wind animation" modifiers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduard Posted June 7, 2011 Report Share Posted June 7, 2011 We already have some results Tomorrow we'll upload a new beta version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nildoe Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 COOOOOL!! Cant wait, nice video!! Nildo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eduard Posted June 8, 2011 Report Share Posted June 8, 2011 COOOOOL!! Cant wait, nice video!! Nildo The new version is ready. See additional info here: http://exlevel.com/forum/index.php?/topic/63-growfx-beta-version-170-is-now-available/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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