UDK - Tree canopy normals/3D motive Foliage
polycounter lvl 10
[Solved]: Answer two posts down
Helloes! I have a question about a problem I seem to have bumped into, if someone else might have come across it.
I were working on some tree models since it's something I wanted to get better at. One thing I did not too long ago was to invest in the 3D motive UDK Foliage training set. Now the problem I encountered was that it was aimed at 3D max users and I'm a Maya user, thus I had to take alternate routes for some techniques.
Among the better things I learned was that you could transfer normal information with the Transfer Attributes tool in Maya, the one in the tutorial was a SpeedTree plugin for 3D max. However I still don't quite get the same result even after the vertex normals point the right way.
And this is how it looks in UDK
Notice the strong shadows that appear on the back of the tree. Worth to note is that this is with the material that was constructed according to the tutorial and had custom lighting :S
If someone have any ideas what might be causing this it would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: Forgot to add, this is what it looks without their custom lighting model.
Helloes! I have a question about a problem I seem to have bumped into, if someone else might have come across it.
I were working on some tree models since it's something I wanted to get better at. One thing I did not too long ago was to invest in the 3D motive UDK Foliage training set. Now the problem I encountered was that it was aimed at 3D max users and I'm a Maya user, thus I had to take alternate routes for some techniques.
Among the better things I learned was that you could transfer normal information with the Transfer Attributes tool in Maya, the one in the tutorial was a SpeedTree plugin for 3D max. However I still don't quite get the same result even after the vertex normals point the right way.
And this is how it looks in UDK
Notice the strong shadows that appear on the back of the tree. Worth to note is that this is with the material that was constructed according to the tutorial and had custom lighting :S
If someone have any ideas what might be causing this it would be greatly appreciated!
Edit: Forgot to add, this is what it looks without their custom lighting model.
Replies
Try adding a little emissive based off a fresnel -- it'll start to eliminate the dark shadow. The drawback to this method is the tree will always have a slight ambient glow, even in complete shadow ... so use it tastefully.
As far as transfer attributes goes -- you got it! This is how to change normal directions in Maya. Try placing a sphere in the center of your tree and transferring its normals to the tree. I've had some decent results with this method. It will light the tree as if it was a sphere instead of many separate leaf parts.
Hope this helps, and good luck!
But thanks for the help anyways! And I'm actually considering adding an emissive fresnel option to the master material (should I need it in the future).
I'll leave the thread here, incase someone else makes the hasty mistake I did xD