A few months ago I posted a tutorial on how to make realistic looking fall trees in Vue. Well I've been fine tuning the process and have now come up with a color function which basically does the same thing in the tutorial but this is much easier to use. It uses three main colors and a combiner or blender node to mix them. You can change the colors of the tree by changing the three colors around and you can vary the degree of mixing by using the threshold sliders. I've used it on the standard trees that came with V5I and with Oynx Tree Pro. Should work with others but I'm not sure. I uploaded it to the free stuff section but it's also on my home page as well.

A little belated Christmas gift to everyone :)

Jim

thanks, I'll give it a shot :o)

I just approved it for the freestuff section :)

Cool,Thanks a mil.Itll come in real handy.

Thanks, Thats great. Glad to see some are sharing as it use to be here at RO. I really appreciate the shared files. :)

It's my pleasure. Here's a quick render to show what it looks like on two different trees. One's from Vue the other is from Oynx Tree Pro.

Jim, Thanks so much for sharing this! BTW what's your website home page address? MG

Jim, this looks great!! Would it be possible for you to update your tutorial as I cannot figure out how to duplicate this. Thanks! :)

It's on my home page here at Renderosity and it's in the free stuff section as well. I'll be updating my tutorial as soon as I get some free time. I included some instructions on how to use it in the package. I'll post some more pics here in this thread showing how to apply the function. Check back soon :)

Instead of posting the instruction in this thread I updated my tutorial. It's pending approval but should be avaiable soon. Happy coloring!!! Jim

since you have colors selectable, you could probably easily create a "frosted" leaf type of look as well...

You can make the colors any thing you want. You can even make an alien looking tree by making the colors some thing like pink, blue, and purple. That would be a pretty crazy looking tree!!!

So for an idiot who just got vue a week or so ago, is this hard to do?

Terrific - Thanks very much Jim and I will be looking forward to it! :)

Your Welcome!! It's not hard to do at all. The tutorial gives you step by step instuctions with images to guide you. If you know how to use the material editor and can load in a function then it's a breeze.

Well, I'm still just tinkering with vue as it is. it looks like many things are basic, but then expand into pretty complex settings. I tried duplicating a tree, and then just making the duplicate base color white, and moving it up some, (for snow on a tree), but then you get no snow actually on top of the tree limbs, and you get a kinda of "double vision" look to the leaves.

To get the snow to cover the tree limbs you have to make your second material a cover and not a blend. Open the material editor and change the mapping from simple to cover. See attached image. You can also change how the environment effects the material by clicking the environment tab.

I'll try that instead! Thanks much! BTW, can you change the enclosed plants,. and then resave them to be used in ecosystems? I recall some issues about stuff like that. I'd imagine your same technique could be used for snow on the ground as well, right?

just playing with the snow idea... quickie render for ideas next question... can you make your fall tree function for mac too? please? LOL

Wow, that's pretty cool!!! As far as the function working for a Mac user you could try it. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two versions of Vue.

Hi creed2003, Did you update said tutorial in the mean time and where can I find & download the tutorial? Thanks for your response.

The tutorial has been updated and is pending approval. I included instructions in the package but if there is a specific problem your having you can PM me and I can try to help you.