Arbaro - tree generation

[CiroC]

Hi everyone.

Does anyone have experience working with Arbaro to create trees and shrubs?

http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

I mean is it good enough to create realistic trees like GrowFX? The Arbaro has some examples of trees and even wheat and they seem quite good and detailed, but I would love to know the opinion from other users.

:D

[borisquezadaa]

Uh!. arbaro... that's really old!.

[CiroC]

Uh!. arbaro... that's really old!.

And is it good enough?

[borisquezadaa]

I honestly dont know now. I remembered to play with long ago and never achieve a great result. And those samples in gallery wich you can off course use as starting point are very criptic.
As far as i remember the UI was not "intuitive".

[CiroC]

I honestly dont know now. I remembered to play with long ago and never achieve a great result. And those samples in gallery wich you can off course use as starting point are very criptic.
As far as i remember the UI was not "intuitive".

My initial reaction was of disbelief. But after playing for a few minutes, I started to understand a little bit the workflow and it seems quite good actually. The control we have over every single aspect is enormous and to think that is free. I will do some tests with the default trees and see the quality. It's hard to tell using a gray material.

But, if anyone as a good experience just let me know. I am looking for free or open source software taking into account the kind of work I do mostly.

[romullus]

Are you aware of ATree3D script from AvizStudio? For its price it's marvelous: http://www.avizstudio.com/tools/atree3d/

[CiroC]

Are you aware of ATree3D script from AvizStudio? For its price it's marvelous: http://www.avizstudio.com/tools/atree3d/

Yes, and since you mentioned I will have good. I am also testing GrowFX and make some comparisons with the final quality. I still want to explore Arboro a little bit more. :)

[snakebox]

Are you aware of ATree3D script from AvizStudio? For its price it's marvelous: http://www.avizstudio.com/tools/atree3d/

Yes, and since you mentioned I will have good. I am also testing GrowFX and make some comparisons with the final quality. I still want to explore Arboro a little bit more. :)

Doesn't GrowFx just win strait up purely due to the easy animation possibilities, and the amount of existing content packages you can buy and feed into a growfx/forest pack pro combo and be done with it? 

[RolandB]

GrowFx is for me the best tree generator; its features are simpler than a few versions before, and there are a lot of tutorials to understand this very complete plugin.
see here : http://exlevel.com/features/

[nehale]

how good is plant factory? http://www.plantfactory-tech.com/

or speed tree http://www.speedtree.com/

When compared to growfx?

[romullus]

I've tested GrowFX demo, now playing with SpeedTree. I liked everything in GrowFX, except UI - when tree grows in complexity, it's really hard to keep track what effector controls specific areas. Other than that it's very solid plugin.

SpeedTree seems to be even more powerful and flexible and its UI is much better, although still not node based. Also it can produce geometry suitable for subdivision, which is great if you want to make hero trees. But it has very poor control over leaves compare to GrowFX. And there's stability issues from time to time.

Next, i'd like to try Plant Factory. From what i saw, it has proper node based UI. Should be much fun.

Edit: btw there's sale on GrowFX, 50% off of regular price.

[nehale]

Will you give us your thoughts one you are done testing

[RolandB]

I'm learning at the moment on GrowFx and here is a test I've done today.
I don't really agree with Romullus : "when tree grows in complexity, it's really hard to keep track what effector controls specific areas"... I you name every area (roots, trunk, big branches, secondary branches, leaves etc.) there is no problem to find and modify it. I'm learning and I find this plugin very powerful and easy.
And for the leaves you can choose every form there will be no problem ! Try it !

[CiroC]

I've tested GrowFX demo, now playing with SpeedTree. I liked everything in GrowFX, except UI - when tree grows in complexity, it's really hard to keep track what effector controls specific areas. Other than that it's very solid plugin.

SpeedTree seems to be even more powerful and flexible and its UI is much better, although still not node based. Also it can produce geometry suitable for subdivision, which is great if you want to make hero trees. But it has very poor control over leaves compare to GrowFX. And there's stability issues from time to time.

Next, i'd like to try Plant Factory. From what i saw, it has proper node based UI. Should be much fun.

Edit: btw there's sale on GrowFX, 50% off of regular price.

But when you compare the quality, what is your opinion? I know that SpeedTree is used in the movie industry, but for close ups is the quality realistic enough?

[romullus]

Both programs gives you enough tools to achieve whatever quality you need. Both are more than capable to produce "hero" trees. SpeedTree has some cool features like subD topology and control over leaf colliding (not very useful in offline rendering, IMHO), GrowFX OTOH has much superior control over leaves shape. At least such is my impressions - i haven't much time to study those tools as much as i'd like.

[CiroC]

Thanks Romullus for the overview. In that case I thing I will have a go with SpeedTree. If doesn't deliver the results I need, I will have a go with GrowFX. :D

And eventually I will share some models that are good enough.

[CiroC]

Both programs gives you enough tools to achieve whatever quality you need. Both are more than capable to produce "hero" trees. SpeedTree has some cool features like subD topology and control over leaf colliding (not very useful in offline rendering, IMHO), GrowFX OTOH has much superior control over leaves shape. At least such is my impressions - i haven't much time to study those tools as much as i'd like.

Do you use Leaf Collision in SpeedTree? I believe it gives a more believable look to the tree.