Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

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ForesterAuthor: 3DQuakers
3DQuakers, one of the few providers of Softimage video training, is proudly presenting its first Softimage plugin: [..] Forester is a procedural creation addon that renders the creation of natural elements like trees, forests, grass and flowers a breeze! With its procedural approach, Forester generates the geometry using ICE, making the creation and editing of elements very straightforward. Forester is not aimed for technical directors, but for artists. No ICE knowloedge is required. In fact, Forester will add all the connections automatically, so the user would only have to change the element parameters. Forester elements come with lots of parameters to render the customization process very fast and intuitive. Almost all geometry come with built-in UVs, called Space UVs, that fit perfectly over the geometry, and render exactly the same way in Mental Ray and Arnold.

Pricing information: Forester v1 is launched with an introductory price of 159 USD, for single machine use. Additional licenses cost 100 USD per machine. Prices are subject to increase after the launch period.

A lot of documentation videos to be found here

Related plugins: TGen, LKLightning, StrandTree, Ivo Tree, Recursive Tree (click »vegetation« tag). Here is an xmas tree demo setup by Matt Morris: http://www.matinai.com/si/xmas_tree_settings.jpg

New plugins, tools etc.
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druitre
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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by druitre » 10 Mar 2014, 12:04

Looking better all the time. Really interested in seeing how to do a larger scale scene (forest etc) including wind.

Couple questions:

- in the wind section, is there a way to do temporal variation as well as spatial? Have gusts of wind move through the tree(s)? Or use curves to 'model' the wind? (those would apply more to clusters of trees than to individual trees, so perhaps you'll have these covered in the upcoming forest walkthrough already)

- like the custom trunk curve, would it also be possible to have some sort of manual control over the overall shape of a tree... perhaps defining the shape by bounding volume geometry?

thanks,
Jasper

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by 3DQUAKERS » 10 Mar 2014, 15:14

Hi Jasper,

These are good ideas. I'll try to squeeze in the wind feature before release, but the tree shape would have to wait for a future version.
Charbel Koueik
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3D Training and Development

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by mirkoj » 10 Mar 2014, 21:43

as long as there will be more version in future you have our support :)
really looking forward to this one.
thanks

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by 3DQUAKERS » 11 Mar 2014, 07:50

Broadleaf Forest Walkthrough



*spacial wind feature not shown in this video, but already implemented
Charbel Koueik
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3D Training and Development

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Firebird
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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by Firebird » 11 Mar 2014, 08:29

Great Plugin. :ymapplause:

Looking forward to the release.

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druitre
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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by druitre » 11 Mar 2014, 12:41

Hi Charbel, nice video again, keep 'em coming! Looking forward to learning more about the spatial wind feature.

A few questions:

- About the 'verticalize' parameter: is it possible to have the base of the trunk be always aligned to the normal and then set the point/level at which the trunk starts to 'grow upwards' (verticalize)? That would reflect real life behavior better I think. As in a tree growing from the side of a cliff - the trunk would start out nearly horizontal but still end up growing vertical.

- Is it also possible to add a turbulization/randomization to the alignment after the verticalization - as in, all trees should be growing upwards but not all of them 100% uniform?

- along the same line but for each parameter: can user add turbulization, randomization, weightmap influence etc by plugging in appropriate compounds instead of straight values?

- do you have plans for a 'roots' addition to the trunk? Some types of trees have very pronounced visible roots that are almost an inverted branch system. Gnarly old oaks, for instance.

- is it possible to have different types of trees in one forest or should one create one forest per treetype? And is it possible to have a kind of colission detection option then to avoid intersections? (Or should the user take care of that by filtering a point array at the input by particle ID or something similar)

Okay, quite a few question actually, hope you can answer some of them. :)

regards,
Jasper

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by 3DQUAKERS » 12 Mar 2014, 06:58

Hi Jasper,

All your comments are valid and applicable, but I'm afraid not for this version, otherwise I will never be able to release Forester in the projected time-frame.

As for different types of trees within one forest, it can already be done suing instancing and scattering. The Forester Scatter walk-through is coming soon.
Charbel Koueik
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3D Training and Development

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druitre
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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by druitre » 12 Mar 2014, 10:05

No problem Charbel, just looking forward! :)

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by 3DQUAKERS » 13 Mar 2014, 06:08

Forester Leaves walk-through

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mattmos
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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by mattmos » 13 Mar 2014, 13:18

Looks really promising!

Quick question - when you have multiple leaves from the segments and they are spreading around the branch, is there a way to have most of them face in one direction - so for example have most leaves fairly flat coming off the branches with an upvector of positive y? (Still taking the direction of the branch.)

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by caledonian_tartan » 13 Mar 2014, 13:52

Amazing! versatile and clean. nice!
SI 2015 @ WIN7-64

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by 3DQUAKERS » 14 Mar 2014, 06:07

@ mattmos, if I understood you correctly, this is the way it actually works by default.

@ tartan, thanks!
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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by jamination » 14 Mar 2014, 20:44

Don't know how soon you are planning a release, but I would pay for beta (assuming the price is comparable to other plugins:) ).
Phil Harbath
Jamination Productions

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by 3DQUAKERS » 15 Mar 2014, 20:46

I will be in contact with you soon Phil.
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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by 3DQUAKERS » 17 Mar 2014, 08:30

Charbel Koueik
http://3dquakers.com
3D Training and Development

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Re: Announcing Forester a new plugin from 3DQUAKERS

Post by owei » 17 Mar 2014, 08:32

Wow...loads of videos...! Great work! Looking forward to the release!

cheers,
oli

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