[JTB]

Making a forest with modeled trees is simply impossible. So I have to use clipmaps to show a small house in the forest.
The way I choose is with clipmaps. Just some planes and 3-4 pictures of trees.
I am more than a newbie to Max so I need some info on constraints... I think the best thing to use is "look at" constraint to the camera so every plane is perpendicular to the camera's view, no matter where I move the camera to.
I know that some of you might think that I can read the help files but, I have to finish the project before Monday and there's a lot to do.
Please help me on the following...

1. Is there a better way (another constraint) to achieve what I need?

2. I need some advice on how to stop the planes rotating when I increase the camera's height. Can someone tell me how?

3. Since I need to have many trees, is it possible to create a scatter object (the planes distributed on a surface) and then have each of the scatter components looking at the camera?

4. The simple question... What do you guys do ? How do you handle situations like this?

Thank you in advance for your time

[JTB]

1. What I ask for is very difficult so I won't use it anyway
2. What I ask for is silly
3. Nobody cares about what I ask

I guess I will have to read the help files and test it myself.

[Neil Evans]

You could by forest pro, that automatically lets you set up a camera follow. It also has a feature for randomly scattering trees both in height, position and type.

or you could use this free script (you will need to register)http://area.autodesk.com/learning/tutor ... ails/4524/

Another thing you could do is use Natfx in hybrid mode, I find that there plants render fine in Maxwell, you just need to tweak the textures which takes a bit of time.

Hope this helps.

[JTB]

Thank you very much!

[michaelplogue]

In theory (I haven't tried this myself) you could also use the particle system PArray, which allows the use of planar particles which can face the camera....

[rivoli]

as michael says, you can easily do that with pflow. the flow would look like this: have all particles emitted on the same frame, use a position object operator to have them scattered on the surface of your terrain (play with separation to keep them from intersecting), use a shape facing operator and pick your camera (here particles will have area = 0), then use a shape instance one (which will inherit the shape facing orientation), and pick your mapped billboard. you can use a group of different planes and pflow will randomly scatter the different ones around.
usually when dealing with billboards trees and sunlight (any direct light), you may want to have two planes for each tree: one will face the camera without casting any shadow (to avoid weird flat planes kind of shadows), and the other one will face the sun, will cast a correct shadow but won't be visible to camera.

here's a quick test, it looks anything but good, but anyway, it may give you the idea. the problem is that billboard trees in animation look phony, there's no workaround. they just look wrong.

totally fake bunch of trees

[JTB]

Thank you all, I will try to find out what you mean!
I am very glad to say that my client is ill and will be back to work on thirsday so I think I will be able to show something, since I have to read the help files anyway

[x_site]

as michael says, you can easily do that with pflow. the flow would look like this: have all particles emitted on the same frame, use a position object operator to have them scattered on the surface of your terrain (play with separation to keep them from intersecting), use a shape facing operator and pick your camera (here particles will have area = 0), then use a shape instance one (which will inherit the shape facing orientation), and pick your mapped billboard. you can use a group of different planes and pflow will randomly scatter the different ones around.
usually when dealing with billboards trees and sunlight (any direct light), you may want to have two planes for each tree: one will face the camera without casting any shadow (to avoid weird flat planes kind of shadows), and the other one will face the sun, will cast a correct shadow but won't be visible to camera.

here's a quick test, it looks anything but good, but anyway, it may give you the idea. the problem is that billboard trees in animation look phony, there's no workaround. they just look wrong.

totally fake bunch of trees

but how do you stop one plane casting shadows on the other one... even if i switch it of in object properties it still looks strange.... can you please render an example? something like two planes [crossed] and one casts shadows only the other the diffuse map only.... many thanks

[x_site]

thanks guys... that was really helpful.
Better stop all those suggestions... my head hurts

[rivoli]

sorry mate, I'm afraid I missed your post. I must admit I never had the need to render an animation with maxwell+mapped trees on planes (if it happens with still images I guess you may not even need two planes, maybe just a bit of post work and you can get away with murder).
now that you mention it, I guess those strange artifacts might be gi contact shadows, and I'm not sure you can get rid of them with maxwell. I'll try to render something and see how it goes.

[x_site]

thanks rivoli...

i guess part of the problem is that even in stills the tree maps seem over exposed and it's a pain adjusting shadow planes etc... i guess you are right somethings are best left for post work

thanks mate

[creasia]

Here is your one stop solution all in a tutorial.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/upclose/VI/default.asp

Look at week 8 Creating Vegitation on a Large Scale

Enjoy!

[x_site]

creasia

Many thanks for the link... will look through it and learn from others....

[JTB]

Here is your one stop solution all in a tutorial.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/upclose/VI/default.asp

Look at week 8 Creating Vegitation on a Large Scale

Enjoy!

Great link...

However, you can do the same thing with Forestpack from www.itoosoft.com, it is very nice too! Forestpack can be used to creat grass too... See the example
http://www.divshare.com/download/604824-bda

[creasia]

Thanks JTB.

I remember seeing this site before, I but I had forgotten it. I am now working on a project that the clone and glue plugins will come in very usefull.

Thanks!