JRQ Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 Hello. I've run into this disappointment numerous times and am hopeful someone has a solution... I want to make realistic looking, long grass. Natural, wild fields. Unkept backyards. Lenghtly grass growth on sod rooves. I have Renderworks and Artlantis Studio. Most of my rendering I do in Artlantis. There is no 'long grass' object that can be applied to a DTM in there nor is there anything in Renderworks. DTM's, of course, while complex in three dimensions, have no surface depth. I've thoughts on how to make grasses in VW but they all involve way more time than logic allows. Easiet would be if this could be done in Artlantis as a plug-in object that blankets itself all over the DTM object and be modified for height and colour. Has anyone figured out how to do this? Any and all help will be greatly appreciated. Yours from Canada's Yukon, Jim Q, Treeline Woodworks Ltd. Quote Link to comment
CipesDesign Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Yes this is a tricky problem. I'm thinking of a complex nurbs created as a DRAPED SURFACE. The biggest problem would be creating the blades of grass to drape. I bet someone out there could write a scipt... Quote Link to comment
ckay Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 I think that this would be an important feature. As a potential buyer I'm dissapointed to hear that this possibility doesn't even exist yet. When will we stop worshipping the short grass lawn? Quote Link to comment
dspearman Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 How large are the areas you want to cover? How close to them do you want to look? What angle? eg iso or perspective? There are a few options here but depending on scale I might approach it differently? Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 There are features or add-ons for this kind of things in real rendering programs, maybe even for Artlantis, at least for creation of "hairy thingies". Quote Link to comment
alanmac Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 (edited) It's been my experience that organic modelling of the type you describe is better handled by a program developed more towards modelling as its main function rather than how VW was developed, as a draughting type program. That's not to say VW is not a capable modeller, but I've found if not using tricks like image mapping over formed objects to create the render you require the file rockets in size and becomes really difficult to work with. It horses for courses as they say. This is one of the reasons I looked into Cinema 4D. Create most of what you can in VW, it's great and quick for most things, but on complex organic shapes revert to something else. With the available plug in you can export your VW file into Cinema and complete the development how you wish. Here's a few links which may help in your research. http://www.maxon.net/pages/products/modules/hair/hair_e.html http://www.maxon.net/pages/images/products/modules/hair/gallery/2/nature09.jpg Don't be put off by the fact the modules called Hair, as you can see from the second link its capable of much more than first perceived. Also check out the Xfrog package It has a plug in link for Cinema 4D. http://www.xfrogdownloads.com/greenwebNew/news/newStart.htm Of course its not going to create construction drawing for planning the job etc, but it sounds like you want to create 3D images as best as possible to show your designs and this may be a route you consider taking. Also xfrog has a link to VW Landmark but I'm not sure how it works and what results you can achieve with it. Check out the main NNA site for details or maybe a staff member will comment here. Regards Alan Edited January 5, 2007 by alanmac Quote Link to comment
Petri Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 It's been my experience that organic modelling of the type you describe is better handled by a program developed more towards modelling as its main function rather than how VW was developed, as a draughting type program. Yep. In a CAD-program, you are supposed to know & be able to modify the exact coordinates of every vertex of each blade of grass or strain of hair. A square metre of grass would easily require a million 3D vertices. (One grass blade: 2 NURBs & surface? 1 blade per cm2 (sparse) to 5 per cm2 (sorta OK). Each generated with a random function. How many points per hectare do we get?) Quote Link to comment
JRQ Posted January 5, 2007 Author Share Posted January 5, 2007 Good morning, I could send you a sample image if you'd like but, in words what I'm after is grasses surrounding buildings with viewpoint being from standing eye level and distance everything from zero to, at least, 100 meters. I typyically have DTM's that are 100 x 300 meters. thanks, jq ps- I posted a sample image here http://www.abvent.com/support/forum/liste.php?fid=atl_general_us Quote Link to comment
JRQ Posted January 5, 2007 Author Share Posted January 5, 2007 Good morning Alan, Thank you very much for all this help. I'm just downloading a demo of Cinema 4D as I type. Lots to explore. What about Artlantis? I'm a long time users and have spent a lot of money there. I love the software. How it works. It's ease of adjustability. It's rapid image updates. The rich qualities of the results. Do you also have, and use, Artlantis Studio? Do you know if Vectorworks, Artlantis and Cinema can work together? JimQ Quote Link to comment
alanmac Posted January 5, 2007 Share Posted January 5, 2007 Yes they do work well "together" but I'd say you'd either use Vectorworks and Artlantis or Vectorworks and Cinema, depending on your specific needs. I did write a long reply, but got the annoying "this form is no longer valid" whatever message from the server. Please sort NNA, its been mentioned on the wish list. I also own and use Artlantis, more so than Cinema, because of the reasons you state. I'm sure you know how to get round this requirement using Vectorworks and Artlantis, by image use, the same as you would in Renderworks. Anyway, better go before the form times out on me again gggrrrr... Alan Quote Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.