Software for creating billboards/sprites from 3D models?

Marvin Mann

I'm looking for something to automate the creation of billboards from 3D models (for foliage). Can be a script or a complete program. I've been looking for this for a while but couldn't find anything.

Basically, I want to input a model + textures and get a plane with the model on it as a texture (or 2+ intersecting planes). Like this:



Any ideas?

fade1

I use Maya.
Your lighting setup is up to your needs. i use a ibl with a gradient texture and one directional light for raytraced shadows. For the cam, i use a low field of view.
The texture setup can stay quite basic. Even a lambert model can produce nice results.
For rendering i use maya mental ray and turn off premultiply to avoid artifacts on the edges.

Marvin Mann

The same works in 3ds Max, of course. I was looking for a script or program to automate the process as I need to make them quite often at the moment.

Eric Chadwick

I would search Scriptspot for tools.

"Render sprite"
http://www.scriptspot.com/search/apachesolr_search/render%20sprite

If you want to batch render multiple Max files, try searching for "batch render"

Marvin Mann

Thank you Eric!

I couldn't find a decent script or software. Speedtree Compiler (which is part of the UE4/Unity subscription or Speedtree for Games) can do it with assets created in Speedtree. Speedtree also creates the model for you which is nice.

Rendering in any decent 3D package works, of course. But you can also do it in ZBrush:

1. Assign the flat shaded material
2. Turn off perspective and rotate your model into position
3. Turn off shadows in the Render properties
4. Do a PBR render (for Anti-aliasing)
5. Export the Render Passes you need - you can also make use of the normal map material