Small file size 3d tree for Sketchup

Did some experiments with various configurations for the leaves and twigs. I decided to take out some details which may not be necessarily important like those curving leaf surfaces, leaf stems and some fancy twigs. The result was a smaller file size less than 110kb with much of the detail you had come to expect from a detailed model still intact.

Renderings of the model using Indigo Renderer are shown below. I already uploaded the model in the 3D warehouse and is now included in the 3d tree collection under the name 'tall tree'.

Uploaded a revised 3d tree for Sketchup

I uploaded another revision of the maple tree that has no scanned image of a leaf painted on the leaves. The notable change was on the form of the leaves and their arrangement. The leaves are now curving in two directions. Their positions on the twigs had been re-arranged in a way that those on the tips would be a bit smaller and do not block the leaves behind them. This model is included in the 3d tree collection in the 3d warehouse.

The images below show a comparison between the revised maple tree and the Maple tree (very detailed) revision 1. The first one shows the model mentioned in this post while the other shows the version which still has the leaf images painted on the leaves. Both images are rendered in Indigo Renderer.

3d trees in Sketchup forest test render

I Did a test render of a scene that has over a hundred trees on it. In the next few days I'll try spraying thousands of these trees on the same scene. The trees on the scene are the same ones I uploaded to the 3d warehouse. These images were rendered in Indigo Renderer.

Maple tree model with purple leaves

I found some time to map the scanned image of a purple maple leaf on the leaves of the tree model I made. By just changing the image painted on the leaves, a new variant of the same model was made.
I uploaded the model to the 3D warehouse and named it 'Maple tree purple leaf'. It is included in the 3D tree collection.

Newly uploaded 3D trees modeled in SketchUp

I uploaded five new 3D trees in The Google 3D Warehouse. A simple rendering of these models is shown below. These models are very useful background objects when you compose outdoor scenes. Be it the a perspective view of a house or an entire forest! They can be downloaded at the 3d tree collection I made in the 3D Warehouse.

Using the tree modeled in SketchUp for renderings

Finally had an opportunity to use the model on the following renders. These are just simple renders. Future scenes would probably include more props. The first image shows the scene in SketchUp before the render in Indigo Renderer.

I uploaded the maple tree in the 3D warehouse. It is included in the 3D tree collection.

Depth of field (DOF) tests in Indigo Renderer

Did a research in Wikipedia about DOF. I'm not really familiar with photography stuff and my camera is only a point and shoot so there is no way of knowing it. (unless you read about it) I see these f-numbers on the render settings dialog box but do not know how to use them. That all changed this afternoon when I read the Wikipedia article and did some renderings. The thing is, I learned using the technique using a virtual camera inside Indigo Renderer.

The maple tree on the scenes was a revision of the 3d maple tree I was working on last week. The notable change was on the form of the leaves and their arrangement. The leaves are now curving in two directions. Their positions on the twigs had been re-arranged in a way that those on the tips would be a bit smaller and do not block the leaves behind them. This model is included in the 3d tree collection in the 3d warehouse.
Aperture: f/1.4


Aperture: f/22

Modeled another tree in sketchup

I modeled another tree in sketchup. This time, I just assigned a dark green and yellow green color on the leaves and did not used any scanned images of leaves as textures.

I just named the model 'tree' and is included in the 3d tree collection in the 3d warehouse.

Modeling a tree in sketchup

After watching a youtube video of how to create curved surfaces in sketchup, I decided to apply what I had just watched on the tree model, I was working on this week. It took less than ten minutes to apply the changes including the mapping of the leaf image on the new curved surface.

The final image was rendered in Indigo Renderer. I uploaded the model in the 3D warehouse and I named it 'Maple Tree (very detailed)'.

If you're interested in modeling your own 3d tree, you can refer to my previous posts on how to model a tree in SketchUp.

Simplifying surfaces in Civil 3D 2008

The newer versions of this software (Civil 3D 2009 & 2010) already has these tools that simplify surfaces thus reducing file size. But if you are still using Civil3D 2008 like me (but will be upgrading soon) and working on a 50+Mb file and suffer frequent crashes, then this is for you.

Surfaces created from TIN files in civil 3D comprise about a 70% of the file, so the suggested work around was to divide it into smaller manageable portions with each portion being saved on a separate file. A segment of the corridor being designed would have to be done on each portion of the divided surface on separate files. If there is a revision, then all the files had to be revised because they are not interconnected.

The work around I was using was simplifying the surface. Civil 3D 2008 still does not have this nice little feature so everything had to be done manually. From my experience, file size can be reduced up to 60% with minimal effects on the accuracy of the model. I did a test using the simplified surface vs. the original surface. An identical corridor model was placed on both surfaces and volume of and cut & fill was computed. The differences on the results was not even 1/2 of 1%.

This is how it was made:

1. Open the drawing file.
2. On the plan view, set the contour interval to 1m minor & 5m major.
   
   • Right click surface on drawing & choose surface style
   • The surface style dialog box appears
     
   • Choose the contours tab and start setting the interval
3. After setting contour intervals, new contour lines will be generated.
4. Explode surface twice.
5. The existing surface will be taken out from the Prospector tab.
6. On the prospector tab, right click surfaces and choose 'Create Surface'.
7. Give the new surface a name and expand it. Go to 'Definition' and expand again.
8. Go to 'Contours', right click and choose Add.
9. The Add contour data dialog box appears.
10. On the weeding factors, change the default distance of 15.00m to something like 40m or 50m. Click OK and choose all the polylines from the exploded surface.
11. A new surface will be created from the polylines.
12. Add new boundary (non destructive) on the new surface by using the old boundary from the previous surface.
    
    

Modeling a tree in Sketchup

Constructing this model in Sketchup was much easier than what I thought. First thing to do was to draw the leaf and construct the stem. Join the two to form a group or component. Make several copies of this leaf component and construct a twig. Attach the leaves to the twig in the same way as real leaves are attached to twigs. Make this new leaves and twig group again into another component. Make several copies of this and construct a branch. Attach the leaves and twig components to the branch. Make this into a branch component and make several copies again. Construct the tree trunk and attach the branches until the tree is finished .

Even though there are millions of pictures on the net, I was not able to find a suitable image to use as leaf texture, so I just took a maple leaf and scanned it. The final image was rendered in Indigo Renderer.

Right now, I'm still trying to figure out a way on how to make the surface of the leaves curved. They are so flat.

Car paint material

This is the first time I used the car paint material preset in Indigo and also the first time I did some renderings of vehicles. All my previous works were landscapes and architectural visualizations.

All the 3d models were downloaded from the Google 3d warehouse.

Almost forgotten Vue renders

Going through my files, I came across these these test renders of very large sized images. These came from the same Vue files where I got to render some of the images I posted last year. The idea back then was to render an image as big as possible so that when you scale it down, it would look realistic.

Actually images uploaded here get scaled down automatically. So when you click on them, they are only a quarter of the size they are supposed to be. Even with this, the photo realistic look, I was hoping to get is nowhere near it. That's the reason why this exercise was forgotten.

Exposure settings in Indigo Render

I've been using Indigo for quite some time but I haven't bothered using the exposure controls. I always use the default auto exposure for the camera when rendering scenes.

In real life, I use these exposure settings when taking pictures on my camera. Yesterday I started doing some test renders with different exposure settings to see what the results would be.


default auto exposure


exposure = 0


exposure = 1

The plant model including the bark texture was downloaded from archibase.net. The guy who uploaded it did not mention what kind of plant it is. It looks like a ficus tree so I just assigned a dull plastic preset for the leaf material to make the leaves shiny.

Reentry

I always wondered how it would look like to travel from a hundred miles above the earth to the sea in thirty seconds and decelerate at the same until you are as fast as a boat.

I tried searching for similar 'reentry' videos on YouTube. None of the vid clips showed that front seat view I was imagining. That's the reason I made this short animation. For this scene, I just used one of the examples included in the Vue dvd. After playing around with the camera path, I was able to get what I wanted. As the saying goes 'If you can't find a way, make a way!'

From dawn to dusk

I just wanted to compare this Vue rendered animation I prepared with the Crytek tech demos of real time rendering of the Cryengine 2.

After the storm

Still playing around with atmospheric settings in Vue 6. By increasing the amount of haze on the atmosphere, "God rays" will appear whenever the sun is placed behind the clouds.

Ominous dark skies

All the scenes except the one that has buildings are modeled and rendered in Vue 6. The bad weather settings were used for the atmosphere.

The scene that has high rise buildings on it was modeled in Sketchup and rendered in Indigo Renderer using a .exr file of the bad weather setting for the atmosphere exported from Vue 6.

sunsets

Just experimenting with God rays in Vue

Day and night studies

By changing the time of day, the mood of the room changes.

Everything here is modeled in Sketchup and rendered in Indigo Render. Items like chairs and tables were downloaded from Google 3D Warehouse.

Interior Spaces

With the right tools already installed in my home computer, I am now ready to do interior renderings. Modelling an interior space is like constructing a real home. The good part is that you do not have to be a really good handyman. You can make as much mistake as you want. To fix it, you just have to undo or delete it. I did 10 renderings for this and the client chose 3 for the poster. This was my first project.

It was fun working with the folks at UrbanGreenLiving. Since this is the first time I'm into this business, it's like Building Reality before it's Real 101.

All the interior space including the Scavolini kitchen were all modeled in Sketchup. All other typical items like fruits, faucets, stove, fridge, table, chairs & bamboo plants were downloaded from the Google 3D warehouse and Archibase.net. All the scenes are rendered in Indigo Render.