I only use 2d programs (don't laugh) and I'm too lazy to learn a 3d program, they intimidate the heck out of me, but I love the look they give, hehehe. I have bought up so many backgrounds made by others, and anything I add to them looks suspiciously out of place. I would like my subjects to look like they have been integrated within their environment and not on top. 

So, I'm hunting down anything I can use to construct my own backgrounds. I have a major crush on trees and foliage, but brushes seem to satiate my hunger less and less. I love Designfera's trees and I have snatched up most of his brushes. He's made some 3d trees and ivy that I adore and would love to buy as PNG or PSD, such as 

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=53577&vendor=designfera

 http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=44803

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?ViewProduct=52121

 
I don't often see foliage sold in formats that Photoshop can use, and in a price I can afford. I would greatly appreciate if anybody can make high resolution PNG's or PSD's of grasses, ivys and trees for me to purchase. Thankyou very much for reading about my little tree fetish!  =)

Just wondering if you would be able to use high resolution JPGs of trees and bushes that you could then cut/paste as needed? I've been looking at what to put up next after my cave/cavern backgrounds, and would be happy to put up some foliage if you think it would work for you.

Thankyou for asking! Yes, I wouldn't be above using a bit of elbow grease to extract pieces of foliage from a background, as isolated objects I hope. However, I would prefer, just for the sake of ease, to have many different types of foliage placed on transparent layers. I would be glad to purrchase a package of them! 

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=greenworks

Ohhh, those trees are so lovely, and they are a pefect example of what I need!  Unfortunately, I don't have 3d programs!  Even though it doesn't say anywhere that they can be opened up with a graphics program, is it possible?

LadyVictoire - You can always DL the free DAZ Studio package and see if you can open them in that. Since it says they are Poser compatible, this should work for you. You could then render and export them as JPEG files.

As for myself, I'm working to see what I can do to pull some trees and other items out of my high-res shots as a possible package.

Hope this helps,
Ewan

Hmmm, maybe I'll give Daz a try, but I have seen screenshots of those 3d programs and they intimidate me, lol. Good luck on the tree package, and thankyou very much for your effort!

In 3D terms you could look for "billboards". This is term used when its just a picture on a flat polygon in your scene, to speed things up.

A billboard is going to have an image of a tree with an accompanying black & white cutout which in the 3D program is used to remove everything on the tree image except the tree, so it will look natural.

These can be used in 2D programs as well as you can use the black & white image to do the same basic operation.

Anyway, Here are a couple of links with some free examples of billboards. They are zipped and the images are .tga, which carry the black & white cutout image in a seperate layer.

http://www.marlinstudios.com/samples/sampvtf.htm

http://www.marlinstudios.com/samples/samptrop.htm

Perhaps you can convince Designfera to take their 3D trees and render them out for billboard use. Both 2D users and 3D users could take advantage of them. as far as 3D Trees go, creating the black & white mask would be ridiclulously easy for them.

(Most billboards of real trees are far more expensive because they need to be masked out by hand, which can be very tedious)

Just as an FYI, I was about halfway through putting together a package when I was reminded of the three product limit for vendors that haven't sold $300 of merchandise yet. So I guess it will be a while before I can post this even after I get finished. That said, you probably want to use one of Agent Smith's ideas above.

That is an excellent idea! Thankyou Agent! 

LadyVictoire 

p.s. thanks for the samples!

I know I have grabbed some more samples like that over the years, I'll keep poking around my saved links, and post them up when I find them.

That would be a great help, thankyou! I have been looking around myself for these kinds of things, and theyre soo expensive I about fell out of my chair, hehehe!

LadyVictoire

I've found that Vue is a pretty easy 3d program to use. Just a few clicks to get the tree loaded, hit render, and you're done. But if you really don't want to do it yourself perhaps you should try hitting deviantART. There's a lot of wonderful 3d stock artists there that allow there stock to be used in commercial and noncommercial works. I use a lot of that stuff myself. I could give you a few links if you like. Loading Image

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i have been looking into getting vue. i know that there are several different editions, is there a kind that is geared towards the inexperienced? 

heh, it's funny you mention deviantart because i am a member. my name there is LadyVictoire as well. =)

i find it extremely difficult to extract trees properly. i have been using premade backgrounds, but i want to make my own, and i was hoping someone could make some trees and foliage as psd's or billboard clipmaps.

I use Vue 5 Infinite and before that I had never used a 3d program. It was pretty easy to understand. Especially if all your really looking to do is render trees. Which is all I really do in Vue is just render objects to use in my backgrounds that I sell. I don't usually do whole scenes in Vue.

I must not have recognized your name before but I'm actually watching you at DA lol. Since you're a member at Da you've probably already seen these stockers but here are some links anyways http://jlstock.deviantart.com/ http://shoofly-stock.deviantart.com/ http://blackstock.deviantart.com/ they all have trees on transparent layers so you wouldn't have to cut anything out.

I wouldn't mind doing psd's for you but the problem is that the trees I have purchased are in obj. or vob. format and that would be copyright infringement. You may just want to look around Rosity and find some trees you like and ask the vendor if they would be willing to make some psd's to put in the marketplace. Loading Image

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Note that if you do some searching in the freebies section, there are some trees that are available for free that you could pull into any of the 3D progs and then export as an image to be edited in PSD as well.

i'm getting vue now as we speak. i'm reading about it and praying it won't be too much of a learning curve for me. i get frustrated fast if i don't learn something quick enough, lol

let me have your name over at DA and i'll return the watch. thankyou for the links, i only knew about one of them. they have some nice 3d stuff. the nice thing about using purchased goods, however, is avoiding the wait when trying to get print permission from stockers sometimes (which i'm guilty of, with my brushes, hehe) 

and i'll be sure to look over the free section! =)

That's great! I'm sure you'll love it! If you need any help I'll do my best.

My DA name is the same as it is here :) Well fortunately all 3 of those stockers allow prints at DA. You don't even have to ask, and JLStock allows you to use her stock anywhere as long as you link back to her somewhere. I just link back in the readme. I've also gotten the other two stockers to give me permission for my backgrounds. You shouldn't have a problem at all either.

Good luck with Vue! Loading Image

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awesome! thankyou!