animated trees

laverdet_943f1f7da1laverdet_943f1f7da1 Posts: 252
edited December 1969 in Carrara Discussion

Hi!!! is it possible in C8 to get animated trees, like Wind in the leaves???

Comments

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,200
    edited December 1969

    yes
    I tend to overdo it though :lol:

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    It's in the tree modeling room under the 'tree shape' tab you'll find settings for wind, gravity, leaf rustling, etc and can change it along the timeline to make your tree and leaves sway in the wind.

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    Realized I had never animated a tree before to see what it is like.

    I discovered really quickly that it's really easy to use too much windforce and deformation :) A little wind goes a long way!

    Still a few test renders later and with some gentle wind and a low rustle (1.0) and a bit of rustle frequency, I replicated the same tree a few times just to see, it seem like it animates pretty well, and this could be a great effect to add life to an animation I think.

    Here's a link to the animation: http://youtu.be/pRI0QlV9jW4


    By the way, how do you guys upload animated gifs to the forums? I have no idea how that's done, and I'm stuck with giving youtube links.

    Never was into animation before, now I'm animating dynamic hair, dynamic cloth, trees, who knows where this carrara animation madness will end... :)

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited February 2015

    Dustrider was kind enough to tell me about a program which turns my avi animations into an animated gif for posting, just testing by posting an abbreviated low quality version of the swaying trees.

    Edit: Cool, it works :)

    Tree_animated.gif
    106 x 160 - 349K
    Post edited by Jonstark on
  • dot_batdot_bat Posts: 373
    edited December 1969

    what software is it for the animated gifs? mac version? thanx

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    I'm an idiot dot_bat, sorry that was unintentionally rude to mention the program and then forget to pass on the link that dustrider gave me, which is:

    http://www.video-gif-converter.com/

    I'm running windows, I don't really know if it matters for windows vs mac or if there's a mac version.

  • dot_batdot_bat Posts: 373
    edited December 1969

    Jonstark thank you... as usual there is no mac version!

  • dot_batdot_bat Posts: 373
    edited December 1969

    scottidog2 thanx for info

  • starboardstarboard Posts: 452
    edited December 1969

    Jon,
    Thanks for the tree demo. I had written off trees - I usually do them in AE. I've got to go back and look at Carrara's trees again. - those don't look bad at all. I don.t think you would want to get too close to the trees - but who cares, for middle ground or back ground they could work really well. The wind movement is very convincing. Still in hair - trees next.

    Thanks Scottidog for the Mac links. I have never used Gifs Time to learn and use.

    Once again this forum is proving pure gold. Thanks

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    Yeah I was surprised how nice it can look, and truthfully I think I overdid it with the wind forces, should be even more subtle. I'm thinking with a little particle emitter and a directional force, could easily have 'leaves' blowing and skittering along the ground. Combine that with someone walking with Carrara hair, maybe some dynamic cloth from Stringtheory's method, put some clouds up moving and animated, could be fun to put together an animation filled with animated forces :)

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    msteaka said:
    Jon,
    Thanks for the tree demo. I had written off trees - I usually do them in AE. I've got to go back and look at Carrara's trees again. - those don't look bad at all. I don.t think you would want to get too close to the trees - but who cares, for middle ground or back ground they could work really well. The wind movement is very convincing. Still in hair - trees next.

    Thanks Scottidog for the Mac links. I have never used Gifs Time to learn and use.

    Once again this forum is proving pure gold. Thanks

    You can get trees ready for close up! Look at Howie's trees. It takes a little practice and learning how to use the editor, and then ditching the default shaders!

  • starboardstarboard Posts: 452
    edited December 1969

    Jon - Evilproducer,
    I can see that using the tools creatively has to produce some effective 3D trees. It must be like dynamic hair, ditch the defaults and learn to play it like musical instrument. Its not the individual notes but the subtleties of the chords.

    Where do I find info on Howie's trees? I did a tree search on DAZ website.. Surprised how many tree options there are.

    Starboardtack

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    msteaka said:
    Jon - Evilproducer,
    I can see that using the tools creatively has to produce some effective 3D trees. It must be like dynamic hair, ditch the defaults and learn to play it like musical instrument. Its not the individual notes but the subtleties of the chords.

    Where do I find info on Howie's trees? I did a tree search on DAZ website.. Surprised how many tree options there are.

    Starboardtack

    Search for Howie Farkes. Prepare to be impressed. ;-)

  • JonstarkJonstark Posts: 2,738
    edited December 1969

    As Evil mentions, it's a reference to Howie Farkes, one of the vendors in the daz store and a genius with environmental scenes. I believe his winter scene still comes as a free extra to Carrara? Maybe I'm wrong about that though... Do a quick search on his stuff in the store and you'll see he really is brilliant. He does customize his trees (at least some of them), though they are all made with the carrara plant modeler. When I first stumbled across Carrara I was actually researching Vue and Vue alternatives, since one of the key things I wanted was a landscape generator. One glance at Howie's scenes made me say 'Vue who?' and jump into Carrara with no worries about its abilities to make outstanding landscapes. Here's a few links from the store to Howie's work:

    http://www.daz3d.com/maple-meadows

    http://www.daz3d.com/stoney-creek-sprucevale

    http://www.daz3d.com/valle-alpina

    http://www.daz3d.com/forest-drive

  • chickenmanchickenman Posts: 1,202
    edited December 1969

    Yes the winter scene is still free as an extra in Carrara. I used it as a base for the holiday challenge. Replaced hise tree's with my own.

  • starboardstarboard Posts: 452
    edited December 1969

    The search engine in DAZ is not very good. I put in howie /trees then Howie Farkes.. still nothing. Fortunately your links got me there. Gotta admit..tree/ scenes are very good. I thought the last one, forest drive was extremely good. I liked the first one, also, Maple meadows.... I will buy one and see how they work.. It will have to be in a couple of days..at present I am in a modeling/render cycles..you know how that goes.

    Thanks guys for the good information.. Learning this program is a lot of fun..

    Starboardtack

  • ChoholeChohole Posts: 33,604
    edited December 1969

    If you know the vendor name it is very simple to search. Click "vendor" from the top line of the store http://www.daz3d.com/vendor

  • starboardstarboard Posts: 452
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Chohole,
    Geez there are a lot of vendors. Howiefarkes...its one word,, that's why it did not come up.

    Starboardtack

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,549
    edited December 1969

    msteaka said:
    I thought the last one, forest drive was extremely good. I liked the first one, also, Maple meadows.... I will buy one and see how they work.. It will have to be in a couple of days..at present I am in a modeling/render cycles..you know how that goes.

    Thanks guys for the good information.. Learning this program is a lot of fun..

    Starboardtack

    I also like collecting Howie's sets simply for the tree presets that he includes with them! It got me to also buy one of his "Arboretum" kits and will be buying the other one as well. It makes it fun and fast when I want a specific tree for a scene:
    Insert > Plant
    In the editor: Load Preset > Pick any one from Howie's vast selection
    Click "Yes" when asked about importing the shaders
    Finally edit the tree to my needs

    His shaders are excellent! I always have to keep in mind that his leaves use translucency for more realism - so if I don't need them to be quite that real (populating a distant terrain, for example) I need to remember to go into the shaders for the leaves and set translucency to "None".

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    msteaka said:
    Thanks Chohole,
    Geez there are a lot of vendors. Howiefarkes...its one word,, that's why it did not come up.

    Starboardtack

    Sorry about the name thing.

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,549
    edited December 1969

    msteaka said:
    Thanks Chohole,
    Geez there are a lot of vendors. Howiefarkes...its one word,, that's why it did not come up.

    Starboardtack

    Sorry about the name thing. Right! Because "evilproducer" is one word as well! :ahhh:

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