BillBoard Generator 2.62

A simple script that facilitates the creation of vertical planes for use with trees/people images billboards.

1.Select a diffuse map (tree/person image)

2. Select a matching Alpha map of the same map. or press the lock icon if you use a TGA/TIFF image with an embedded Alpha channel.

3. you may resize the plane to a desired height or width (great for specific people heights).

4. Press the Generate! button.

Once done the script will place a vertical plane with the tree or person in 0,0,0 .

You may change some parameters both before and after the billboard is created.

If you check the Random checkbox - each time you press the Generate! button - a billboard of slightly different dimensions will be created. You can also determine the max/min offsets.

The defaults for the billboard name and its material can be modified only prior to its creation.

You can Pick Point in Viewport < to specify the exact location of a newly created billboard. If you already have one selected - picking a point will move it to that new point. You may reset it to the world zero point by pressing the Reset button.

If you need more than one instance of this billboard - use the scatter engine. Enable it , Type the number of duplicates and define a rectangular area where the billboards will be generated. Scatter uses the Random function if it is enabled.

You may also modify the Shadows casting and reception and visibility parameters of the billboards.

The Orientation command will orient the selected billboard to an object - preferably a camera.

To download the script , go ahead Mr.Nir sullam's website who has kindly given us permission to put this on our blog

http://www.orvatsel.com/max/

Archvision RPC content trees

ArchVision announces the immediate availability of RPC Trees Vol. 12 (Deciduous). Rich Photorealistic Content ("RPC") is the industry standard format for managing image-based content and is supported natively or via plug-in by the world's leading 3D visualization applications.


read more here

ArchViz 3D Cars Collection

The123D is proud to announce its very new 3D Cars collection available in .max and .max (ready to use with Vray Render). The collection consists of 16 polygon efficient 3D Cars which can easily be used with ease within 3ds max. All the 3d cars are interior ready so animators can make use of them conveniently. You can purchase the full collection for $275 which is quite reasonable.

read more....

new library for vray trees

Vismasters store has just released a new product



HQ Plants Volume 1
115 High Quality 3D plant and tree models in 3ds max 9 format. All trees have materials, textures and light rig for V-Ray. Textures are in both V-Ray Materials and Standard Materials. V-Ray proxies for every tree is included.

it is for $250 and is worth every bit of it

http://commerce.vismasters.com/catalog/viewproduct.aspx?product=4513

particle flow for hedges

tutorial for making hedges

This tutorial was written by Mr. Nir Sullam from Orvatsel , Israel. I thank him since he has given permission to reproduce his tutorial in this blog

http://www.orvatsel.com/max/hedges/
For our tutorial we need to have (or prepare) a leaf to use for our foliage. (you can use these 2 images)



You can create your leaf plane by either creating a plane and then create a material to apply to it OR you can use my free Billboard Generator to do this automatically.



You will get this: (you can change the size of the leaf with the Height spinner)




Create a BOX with a L: 200 units W: 50 & H: 80



Under the Create Panel > Geometry > Particle Systems Create a PARRAY object.


This is what you should see:




Select the PARRAY object.
- Under the Basic Parameters Rollout:

1. In Object Based Emitter - Press the Pick Object button and click on the BOX object
2. In Particle Formation - Select Over Entire Surface.
3. In Viewport Display - Set the Percentage of Particles to 10% or less - setting a higher value may halt your system.

- Under the Particle Generation Rollout:

1. In Particle Quantity - set to Use Rate and set the number to 1000 or more - this actually sets the number of cloned leaves over the entire object - the more the better but do not use too much if your system is not too powerfull.
2. In Particle Timing - set Emot start to -300 and Emit Stop to 30 and Life to arount 50-100.
3. In Particle Size - set the size to your needs. it may depend on various parameters.

- Under the Particle type Rollout:

1. In Particle Types - Set to Instanced Geometry.
2. In Instancing Parameters - Press the Pick Object button and click on the LEAF object
3. In Material Mapping and Source - set to Instanced Geometry and press the Get Material from: button.

- Under the Rotation and Collision Rollout:

1. In Speed Spin Controls - Set Phase to 90 degrees.

Basically - That is All !

This is how it looks:



Select the BOX object and make it unrederable (object properties)



Now render.

Here are two examples: one with a lower rate (around 300) and another with 1000 - obviously denser but more time consuming.





An awesome thing you can use this process for is to create irregular shapes and apply it to any object you create:

new architecture 3d works

couple of our recent exterior architectural visualizations showing the front and back of some custom houses in america done at www.renderviz.com

3dsmax 2009 review

3dsmax 2009 review

I personally found each release of 3dsmax pretty difficult to keep up and often follow people's review to help me to decide to buy or not ... This release i am sure is a nobuy ... please follow the review below

Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2009
Review by Chad Warner
www.bluelimestudio.com

With the release of Autodesk’s new 3ds Max Design 2009, the era of Autodesk Viz officially comes to a close. Positioned to take over the market that Viz filled, Max Design 2009 essentially replaces AutoDesk Viz for the Architectural Visualization market, while the original Max 2009 is still geared towards the traditional visual effects and entertainment industries.

Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2009
Review by Chad Warner
www.bluelimestudio.com

With the release of Autodesk’s new 3ds Max Design 2009, the era of Autodesk Viz officially comes to a close. Positioned to take over the market that Viz filled, Max Design 2009 essentially replaces AutoDesk Viz for the Architectural Visualization market, while the original Max 2009 is still geared towards the traditional visual effects and entertainment industries.

The primary benefit to getting rid of Autodesk Viz is that instead of two development teams and two sets of code to write, there is only one primary engine, so (hopefully) the benefit will be apparent—a more stable, more intuitive software with a bigger jump in feature sets and fixes between releases.

The primary differences between the two versions are simple. Max 2009 includes the SDK (software development kit) for those people who like/need to create their own plugins. Max Design 2009 includes a new lighting analysis tool for assisting in LEED 8.1 (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) accreditation. Additionally, the tutorials and samples that ship with each version are tailored to the software’s respective audiences.

If you’re like me, you’re wondering why not just have one version of the software with both the SDK and the light analysis tool. I’m really not sure of the answer, especially because both versions of the software are the same price, and if you are on subscription, you have the choice of choosing either version of the software upon install. At least with Autodesk Viz, the price point was much cheaper than the full version of Max, making it much more attractive for the budget conscience than its full blown counterpart.

read more here

http://www.cgarchitect.com/news/Reviews/Review065_1.asp