How to use Tree-Maker V3.2.22
Tree-Maker is the successor of Lsystem and Neo-Lstseed. It steel aiming to generate 3D mesh plants with the same process as its predecessors. As you see in the picture below, the whole graphic interface of the original script it is derived from has been modified.
The graphic user interface
Attention :
When running the script, if you encounter a problem a bit like this one : "l_advanced or another variable is not defined". You can try to solve it by placing a copy of the six python files .py which constitute the script in the directory of the python language, for me C:\Python25. To do so, in the Blender text editor save one after the other each of the files, use [Text > Save as] in the Header of the window.
When running the script, if you encounter a problem a bit like this one : "l_advanced or another variable is not defined". You can try to solve it by placing a copy of the six python files .py which constitute the script in the directory of the python language, for me C:\Python25. To do so, in the Blender text editor save one after the other each of the files, use [Text > Save as] in the Header of the window.
The significant changes
-
The load and save capabilities.
- They are now assumed by the Blender File browser through this new menu.
We do not need the .def files extension for the model files that we save or load. In fact, the definition files do not need any extensions anymore.
The leaves - Two sections are used to create them :
- Leaf branches wich gathers the controls that affect and transform the structure of the plant that carry leaves (trunk and branches). They are still affecting the structure of the plant, even when the [Seed] field wich does the at random choice for the structure is locked with the [Lock Seed] button in the Randomness section.
- Leaves wich gathers the controls that do not affect the structure of the plant (trunk and branches) but only the way the leaves are created.
- For this, we use the index button wich works the same way as materials indexes within Blender.
We add another model of object by clicking on the
button.
we remove a model from the index by clicking the
button.
We browse through the list of the indexed objects with the little arrows on the left and right of the values
.
- For each model we use, we can specify its size,
- its orientation relative to the trunk and branches axes (from 0 to 180 °),
- We can distinguish several parts into the Leaves section :
- The group made up of five controls for the leaves settings.
- The button [Add Endpoint]. It adds a leaf of Endpoint type to each branch tip. This additionnal leaf will be added to the basic pattern already chosen in the [Leaf Branches] section. It disregards the Slope parameter.
- The [Leaf Rot] button. It controls the starting angle [LeafOrient] (between - 90 et + 90 degrees) with which the first leaf of the pattern is drawn. This starting angle has an impact on the following leaves. It also controls the rotation of the supplementary leaf of [Endpoint] type that is added with the button [Add Endpoint]. For those tip leaves the result is the same as using [leaf orient]. We can keep on going changing this angle, even if the two [Lock Seed] buttons are activated.
- varying the leaves models combination :
The button named [Probability] allows to vary the mixing between leaf models. It determines how many leaves of each model have to be created to produce the final foliage. It chooses according a probability rule, among the objects contained in the index, the one that will be used for a given leaf. - Little tip to decrease the number of visible leaves.
We can create a model of leaf without any vertices, and use it together with other models. That will logically, due to the [Probalility] value reduce the number of visible leaves. - The [Lock Seed] button in the Leaves section.
When the value that controls the at random creation of the plant structure is locked in the Randomness section (see below), we can go on clicking on [GENERATE] to keep modifying the foliage according to the random value defined in the [Seed] field of the Leaves section. We will have to lock the two [Lock Seed] buttons into the concerned sections, if we want to lock the whole shape of the plant (structure and foliage).
- The resV control of the Branches section does not do anything.
Producing the leaves
- In the Leaves section (see the picture above), the
button must appear in hollow for the different control buttons to be visible. We begin by defining at least one model to use as leaf.
We do so by entering the name of an existing leaf object in the field [leafmesh:].
The first entered name takes the first value of the index. We can then, set the size of this first model with [LeafScale] and settle [LeafSlope] and [LeafOrient] wich are used to define the angular direction of the leaves relative to the branches. But the best is that we are not limited to one model, we can add up to 60 different objects to the basic structure. we just have to push the [plus] button on the right of the index field, this one is incremented, then we enter the name of another existing leaf model and do the settings for the three associated parameters as for the first indexed object. Each of the indexed objects has its own values for those three parameters. We just have to browse through the index content, the set of three values that are displayed are those of the active object which name appears in the leafmesh field. - In the Leaf Branches section (see the picture below), if we have chosen the Advanced type of scheme, there are two more options related to leaves organisation to settle, [Leaves Around] and [Leaves Repeat]. They are used to set a pattern of leaves and the arrangement of this pattern along the branches.
- [Leaves Around] gives the number of leaves on the perimeter of a branch (up to 10).
- [Leaves Repeat] repeat N time the pattern of leaves [Leaf Around] along each segment (up to 10).
It also does a rotation with a X degrees angle around the axes of those segments at each incrementation.
The following example on the left is set to [leaves Around] 1 and [Leaves Repeat] 3 and the type of organisation [LeafOrient] -90
allows to see the angle difference between each level, for the picture on the right the settings are Leaves Around 3 and Leaves Repeat 3.
The whole pattern itself can be repeated on each branch the number of time entered in the [Repeat] button.
The pattern of the preceding right picture has been repeated twice (the branches have been extended with lengthMul at 2 to improve the visibility of the effect). - The other pattern types of the Leaf Branches section are the same as those used in Lsystem and Neo-lstseed. We will see
the related tutorials.
