You know you have to export the trees as FBXs and check the "explicit normals" box when importing to import a model with explicit normals, right?
Also, a few tips on foliage:
1) Avoid leaves that touch each other. It starts to give you flat sheets of leaves and makes your leaf cards much more obvious. Leaving gaps will give you a better 3D appearance:
2) You can use a normal sphere and a colour picker to vary the lighting on the leaves to break up your the lighting on your leaf planes even more:
Just paint rough splotches of colour where your leaves are. Try not to paint adjacent leaves with the same normal values.
The leaves on trees are still too big imo.I suspect that you're using an alpha plane per leaf.I'd make them more chunky by adding a bunch of leaves on a single alpha.
snap diggity! Ok, looks like I will be complete re-doing my tree leaves tonight =D
@ Guy123 and feanix: Thanks guys! Super helpful, especially when I try and fix the trees.
and @igi, You are close, I have three leaves per plane, but I may re-do the leaf texture and add more leaves onto it as per the awesome suggestions I've gotten.
Again, thanks for the comments and crits everyone.
I don't intend to derail this thread. But I have to ask feanix to explain a bit further his sample colors on a normal sphere to manually paint the normal maps on each leaf Technique!
I don't intend to derail this thread. But I have to ask feanix to explain a bit further his sample colors on a normal sphere to manually paint the normal maps on each leaf Technique!
What does this achieve?
Please elaborate for this new artist.
Basically a normal map affects the direction of the lighting, because leaves all face different directions, a easy way to realistically break up the lighting is to change the normal of each leave by individually. Its a quick and dirty, but efficient, solution.
You know you have to export the trees as FBXs and check the "explicit normals" box when importing to import a model with explicit normals, right?
FFUUUUUUU. Dangit. Thanks! Re-imported the trees correctly and I think they light much nicer! Yet to do anything else to the tree model since they light a bit better now with normal thief working correctly on the mesh.
So I also Added a little more flowers, and a little well. haha
OH, and I swapped to the July BETA, and the new Post-Process Anti-aliasing is very nice. Here is an image I threw together of the trees in similar angles and you can see the difference in the lighting with the new vert normals, and the anti-aliasing in the foliage as well. YAY technology!
TTFN! :poly142:
***oh snap, I found out how to upload larger file sizes on Photobucket. Cool.
Great update. I think adding another 'style' of grass. Maybe a taller more yellowish, can help get rid of some of the repetition that is happenning at the moment. Regardless, good progress, will keep watching.
You mentioned you were going to redo the leaves, but your scale on everything else is not right. Make the house and well much bigger. Those flowers are bigger than a person's head.
You mentioned you were going to redo the leaves, but your scale on everything else is not right. Make the house and well much bigger. Those flowers are bigger than a person's head.
Replies
Also, a few tips on foliage:
1) Avoid leaves that touch each other. It starts to give you flat sheets of leaves and makes your leaf cards much more obvious. Leaving gaps will give you a better 3D appearance:
2) You can use a normal sphere and a colour picker to vary the lighting on the leaves to break up your the lighting on your leaf planes even more:
Just paint rough splotches of colour where your leaves are. Try not to paint adjacent leaves with the same normal values.
Looks very cool overally,keep it up.
@ Guy123 and feanix: Thanks guys! Super helpful, especially when I try and fix the trees.
and @igi, You are close, I have three leaves per plane, but I may re-do the leaf texture and add more leaves onto it as per the awesome suggestions I've gotten.
Again, thanks for the comments and crits everyone.
I don't intend to derail this thread. But I have to ask feanix to explain a bit further his sample colors on a normal sphere to manually paint the normal maps on each leaf Technique!
What does this achieve?
Please elaborate for this new artist.
Cheers
Great work btw.
and +1 for more bikini models
Basically a normal map affects the direction of the lighting, because leaves all face different directions, a easy way to realistically break up the lighting is to change the normal of each leave by individually. Its a quick and dirty, but efficient, solution.
FFUUUUUUU. Dangit. Thanks! Re-imported the trees correctly and I think they light much nicer! Yet to do anything else to the tree model since they light a bit better now with normal thief working correctly on the mesh.
So I also Added a little more flowers, and a little well. haha
OH, and I swapped to the July BETA, and the new Post-Process Anti-aliasing is very nice. Here is an image I threw together of the trees in similar angles and you can see the difference in the lighting with the new vert normals, and the anti-aliasing in the foliage as well. YAY technology!
TTFN! :poly142:
***oh snap, I found out how to upload larger file sizes on Photobucket. Cool.
Yeah the scale could use some work... but...