Creating really simple trees without plug-ins.

Ok and i have another question......

I am wanting to create some really simple trees for a fly by of a house, the ones in Max make my render time way to long. I have searched the net but a lot of the tutorials are for plug-ins or just leaves. Anyone point me in the right direction?

Also can anyone give me some tips or any settings i can change (im thinking probably something to do with lighting/shadows) that will make my render times quicker?

Thanks

Lox

Simple trees? Take a look HERE.

Rendering is a very complex task, with many variables, and it cannot be easily pinned down to a simple "Adjust this" and "Tweak that". But a lot of it has to do with the power of your computer, so lets start there. What are your computer specs? If your computer is not up to the task, then all the tweaking in the world won't help speed up the render time.

Thanks again Cad64, some good tips in the tree tutorial.

I have a fairly new machin:

Intel Core 2.66Gz Processor

Asus 512MB Video Card

Asus Intel P45 Chipset

4GB of RAM

So that's a single core processor? Not good for rendering. Duo core would be much better or quad core would be even better still.

mmm interesting, thanks again Cad64, definitely something I'll have to look into.

Thanks you've been alot of help for all my questions.

Lox

Here are some things to keep in mind that will help reduce render times.

1. Optimize your scene. Get rid of any back-facing polys. Anything that the camera will never see is useless and will only add time to the rendering process.

2. Simplify your meshes. Overly sub-divided meshes will unnecessarily add to the poly count and will increase render times.

3. Use bump maps and/or displacement maps sparingly. Any surfaces that are far away from the camera do not need a bump map. Same goes for reflections/refractions. These things can really increase render times, so use them wisely.

4. Use Shadow Map shadows rather than Raytraced shadows. I have found that Shadow Map shadows render much faster than Raytraced shadows and actually look better, in my opinion.

5. Try to avoid using Final Gather and Global Illumination if you can. These things can really increase render times. I am able to get results that are just as good, using just a standard lighting set up. I only use Final Gather when rendering indoor scenes, when I need the light to bounce around the room. I never use it on outdoor scenes and I never use Global Illumination.

6. Plants and Trees are the real killer though, so try to use 3D trees only where necessary, like up close to the camera. Anything far away from the camera, or partially hidden behind other objects should not need to be 3D. You should be able to get away with using simple flat planes with a tree image slapped on it. Although, if you're doing an animated sequence, you may have no choice, so try to use very low poly plant material.

Hope some of that helps.

Thanks again,

Yes ive found the rendering process unnecessarily slow for my model type and obviously there are a lot of things that can effect it but its hard to know where to start.

Ive just printed those points off and theyve gone straight into my notebook!

Thanks

Lox

Thanks for the advice cad64. Just curious, how do you get realistic lighting without using any GI ?

It's just a matter of setting up a lighting rig to simulate GI. I use a "mr Area Spot" as my main light source. I generally give it a light yellow tint and set its intensity around 0.9. Then I add "mr Area Omni" lights as fill lights around the scene. I generally give them a light blue tint and set their intensity as a factor of 0.9. For instance, if I have 3 Omni's, they will each have an intensity of 0.3.

Take a look at my fountain render: http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/showthread.php?t=41108. I rendered it using my standard lighting rig. No GI.

Good points. Cheers.

PS. Nice fountain (Y)