you can fly!? Using Particle Brushes for 3D
Adding Shrubbery
to a 3D Scene

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Project Dogwaffle

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 no shrubbery:


with added shrubbery:

 Here's an example of what you can do with PD Particles and a 3D program.

You can paint images of grass, shrubbery and foliage, trees and bushes etc... in such a way that it automatically generates the alpha channel along the particle traces. (Style: Lines+Alpha or Shrinking Lines+Alpha)


Simply save the rendered image to a Default Targa (*.tga) file, and use the 32-bit depth so that the saved image includes the RGB and Alpha channel.



Try it for yourself:

Here's a sample file:
alpha1.zip
(zipped, contains a .tga file) - save the file and extract the Targa file, then use it in your own 3D program as a texture on a billboard rectangle in the 3D scene.


Most 3D programs allow you to load an image as texture or decal and map it on polygons, such as a rectangle. These are sometimes called billboards. They will carry the image and when rendered you will also see through the 'holes' if there is an alpha channel that modulates the opacity (or its counterpart, the transparency).

In the case of Carrara 5 we simply loaded the texture into the color channel. Since the image contains an alpha channel, the software automatically uses it to modulate the opacity. The branches and twiggs remain opaque and visible. The rest remains transparent so you can see the scene behind. Also, you can make it so that the opaque branches cast shadows.

Here's a snapshot of the interactive scene assembly view: We've added a few rectangular polygons at various orientations to carry the shrubbery image.

Doing a preview rendering right on the main view,you can immediately get the trees to appear in all their details.

This full screen render also has a lens fare post effect applied by the 3D program. It could also be done of course in post fx software such as PD Pro Digital Painter.

Here's anther example: before the addition of the billboard polygons, the original and bare scene.

And here the same scene, with added shrubbery that was placed near the front of the camera and rendered with the rest of the scene so as to cast proper shadows. If you had reflective object(s) on the ground, such as a soda can, you might also see the shrubbery reflected on it.




Carrara is a trademark of Eovia, a DAZ company - see www.eovia.com and www.daz3d.com