With spring being somewhere close to being just around the corner...I hope...has anyone made or would consider making a Dogwood tree? Thanks

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Well, God made the tree in your pic. I'm not sure Poser can match that but ... Hmmm??? Let's see ... we could do that in about ... (after wildly punching keys on calculator) ... about 3,453,275 polygons. I'll start werkin' on it rite away. But don't hold yer breath for it to render. cheers, dr geep ;=] P.S. Nice pics.

Remember ... "With Poser, all things are possible, and poseable!"

cheers,

dr geep ... :o]

edited 10/5/2019

That's a great idea...I want a dogwood tree too!

My idea of rebooting is kicking somebody in the butt twice!

Pretty tree! :)

MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
Intel Core i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 12.0GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 7770

PoserPro 2012 (SR1) - Units: Metres , Corel PSP X4 and PSE 9

You might want to contact Transpond at RuntimeDNA. They have done several very nice plant and tree packs, so they might be persuaded to make a dogwood tree. Cheers!

beautiful home as well :O)

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. Add a magnolia tree to :D

I'd like to buy separate models rather than drop 100.00 on a group where I might only use a couple out of a particular package :)...

Don't forget it comes in several decorator colors in the wylde, er, wild. White, pink, and hybrids. We fed the family and bought fire wood several fall seasons by collecting dogwood berries for the local nurseries. Lovely trees, not too big...good shade for a childs sandbox or a swing-seat.

geep, Now if you do one of these in poser, you know I'm going to be watching every step trying to duplicate what you do. dlk30341, Yeah, I wish they would sell those separately too. There are several plants I'd like to get but I don't want to have to buy the entire collection either. Crescent, I've asked Judith about it several months ago but they have so much going on, it's hard for them to do a special request. She has a to do list a mile long.

Oh, I see....you think ol' mamba would let it go off into WIP ville like all the rest of his stuff eh:) Actually, trees are a bit of a challenge in Poser. This crappy 20 minute wonder (xfrog) is 70,000 polys...no small feat for poser. The original hi res version (over 200 K polys) wouldn't even load into old poser...it got about half and never came back to life...sigh. Trees have been on the back of my mind for a while, and getting both realistic and practically sized ones is something I haven't come up with a solution for. Greenworks (the guys that make XFrog ) sell their CDs that now have Poser readable versions of their models (3ds or obj, I believe) but you would have a hard time using more than one or two in a scene, unless they have done some wonders on the file sizes. If there is enough interest, it might be worth thinking through some more, though. Now that I can actually create posable stuff, that could help with some aspects (just a couple different posable ones to allow the necessary variation....) eric

Oh, BTW, Thanks Geep for helping me through the posable business (I read a one of your tut's loooooong ago....I think it was a french fry guy or something:) and when I needed to use the info, it came in pretty handy! Glad to see you back;) eric

Couldn't leave well enough alone. Here is a little bit more work on it...still, I'm not too happy with it.

Has a nice toony effect without any textures, eh?

eric

I love the "toony" dogwood. Would it be possible to get a copy of that?

Maybe:) Actually, I've forgotten my password, so no FTP til tomorrow...Can you take megabyte emails? eric

Hey mamba-negra, (thanks) WOW! That looks really super! Did you do it using only Poser? <----- (just kidding) ;=] (No, I'm not, did you?) See cherokee, ask and ye shall ... Well, you know the rest. cheers, dr geep ;=]

Remember ... "With Poser, all things are possible, and poseable!"

cheers,

dr geep ... :o]

edited 10/5/2019

:>)

Dogwood blossoms seem to drift in waves rather than stuck onto the tips of the branches, that is part of why they are so lovely... and there are very few leaves at the time of blossom. My dogwood is currently red twigs waiting for spring, but at least it doesn't have snow covering it! It will be years before it gets to the size of the one in the image... but I'm patient. Carolly

Ah, so you are suggesting that the blossoms are possitioned wrong...re-examining the photo and I see what you mean.... I noticed in some of Cherokees pics there were few leaves, but it didn't occur to me it was due to the early blossoms....do the berries turn red after the flower goes away? Are they always red? My folks live on a lot that has dozens of them...and there were two in the front yard where I grew up....but I've not paid them any attention since I was a child, since they were so common to me those days....I think they are beautiful trees (wife hates them for some reason, though) eric

geep, Yep that's true. Eric, In the spring, the trees are actually white from all the blooms they have and there are few leaves. The berries turn red later in the year. The tree you did is looking good. You going to do more with it?

I'll continue to tinker with it. The absence of leaves during the blooming period is a good thing, though..should help the reduction in polygons dramatically. Maybe a blooming version and a summer time version for varied seasons (what sort of colors do they exhibit during the fall?) eric

here's a few more pics of limbs and flowers

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and the pink dogwood

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and the "Cherokee Cheif" red dogwood

Oh, those are beautiful! You have inspired me for sure.. I love the red "Cheif" colors. Frankly, I'll try it first in Wings to see if I can't get a more manageable mesh out of it...are all of the blossoms Cross Like (two long, two short) or do some have balanced petal lengths? Carolly's points are well taken, and tonight, I'll give it a second go:) Probably can't offer a fully matured one with the number of blossoms your picture shows, but we'll see how full we can get it! eric

That sounds great Eric. Yeah all the flowers have the 4 petals. Some are 2 long and 2 short while others are all the same length. I'm glad I inspired you to try one. Dogwoods are a beautiful tree when in bloom.

And then there is the Cherokee Sunrise and Cherokee Sunset...IMO, the prettiest of all the dogwood cultivars. The bracts are pink and white like normal ones but the leaves are varigated! They are hard to find, though.

I just went outside in the dark to see if I could find a label under the dogwood. :sigh: It has handsome red stems (gorgeous in the winter) and variegated leaves. Hasn't bloomed yet (barely a foot tall), but it ought to be a soft pink.

Carolly, Is this what you have? If it is, you probably have a Red Osier Dogwood. It's more of a bush than a tree I think.

Yup! That's it all right. Heather (my landlady) was very concerned with height... with just cause: some of my other plantings have grown excessively well. :) Carolly

Well, you know the most distinctive thing about a dogwood, don't you? Its bark. (Okay, it's an ancient joke, but I couldn't resist the temptation any longer :-). bonni

"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch." - Bette Davis

:lay head on desk:

HEY !!! No sleeping in class! . . . . . Oops, ............... sorry ... wrong thread. ;=[

Remember ... "With Poser, all things are possible, and poseable!"

cheers,

dr geep ... :o]

edited 10/5/2019

Hmmm, post disappeared.... Try again... Guess this isn't the best approach...3K polys for a single bloom. I wasn't kidding that it would be big:) eric

No, but it has nice curves.

Here is a slightly modified version where I widened those petals...still the huge bloom though:

eric

And This is a lower res version.....a little bit easier on the system....1500 polys:) I think some thought will have to go into the berries, and how to make them look good without eating up the machine:)

eric

Thanks carolly. I like the shape of the wider blossom, maybe a branch for close up shots of a bird or a bee? Here is the lower res from the top...forgive the lack of texturing...UV Mapper is getting harder to operate as the hour drags on, lol... I think it is a reasonable approximation...any suggestions? The petals by themselves represent 750 polys.....still kinda big.... If I only use 100 flowers, it will still be under 1 million polys:P eric

Those look REALLY nice!

Excellent progress with this, Eric. Very impressive to watch the development. Would it be possible to arrange for alpha flowers on the full tree and save the modeled blooms for that close-up branch idea?

From the top view, the petals need to be nocked a bit more deeply at the tips (that is a distinguishing feature for dogwoods). You are rearranging the "berries" to break up the symmetry a bit? I like Varian's suggestion of a higher poly model for closeups and lower poly models for full trees. You've made good progress on this! Carolly

Thanks guys, As far as transparencies go, there is no real alternative here..considering the number of blossoms that are required, a fully modelled bloom would be pretty silly, I guess. However, I hate the idea of absolutely flat planes unless it's going to be a literal shower of blossoms, or way off in the distance (which is still a consideration) So, here is try 1 of a lower res solution. The biggest change is the lack of any geometry for the berries. Considering the likelihood of anyone actually seeing them when you look at the whole tree, that is a fair trade off (pretend the texture doesn't suck so bad:) Also, the petals haven't been smoothed, which leads to a more efficient, though less natural shape. For the size in a tree sized render, do they seem reasonable? This new bloom is 323 polygons in wings....including the partial stem and seed portions. 100 blooms is 32K, plus the few leaves and branches and trunk.....might work. A pale comparison to the earlier ones, though:( Would that computers were up to our dreams, eh? (not that poser could handle it even if my computer could once it got really big, lol) eric

From the top view, the petals need to be nocked a bit more deeply at the tips Heh, that has been a fairly lengthy part of my efforts, and it hasn't been very successful. That has to be the weirdest shape...and you are right, my attempts have been a little conservative....note taken:) As for the current low res approach, that will have to come from the transparency map...but that should be relatively easy. eric

In Poser 5, a displacement map could be used on the berries to good effect. However, they are much less important than getting drifts of blossoms... since green berries on green stems do rather vanish. Carolly

OK, what it seemspeople are referring to as "berries" here are the actual flowers..

closer view..

That's true...the berries come later and start out green then turn red (so the birds can see them better...LOL) in autumn.

Yeah they do...

Looking good so far!

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the "story" about the dogwood tree/blossom yet.

Dug it up in case anyone was interested:

The Legend Of The Dogwood Tree

When Christ was on earth, the dogwood grew

To a towering size with a lovely hue.

Its branches were strong and interwoven

And for Christ's cross its timbers were chosen.

Being distressed at the use of this wood,

Christ made a promise which still holds good:

" Not ever again shall the dogwood grow

To be large enough for a cross, and so

Slender and twisted it shall always be

With cross-shaped blossoms for all to see.

The pedals shall have bloodstains marked in brown

And in the blossom's center a thorny crown.

All who see it will think of me,

Nailed to a cross from a dogwood tree.

Protected and cherished this tree shall be

A reflection to all of my agony."

WEll, I had an idea. Do a good limb with flowers for close up shots and a good tree (maybe a good one in XFrog) with just the planes to use a flower pic on. Most tree renders wouldn't be close up anyway. That make any sence to anyone? I think I actually confused myself.

Not confusing at all. Like you said...the whole tree wouldn't need a LOT of detail but some detailed branches...a different story.

Hm, time outs eat your posts! OK, Here is a cheesy example of why I shouldn't render stuff, lol. I'm just taking a break from XFrog and poser crashing (or adding crap to the model that shouldn't be there...arg!) This shows two slightly different versions of the dogwood in xfrog...not really happy with them still. I think it's the overall shape or distribution of the blossoms! Suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'll post one without all the extra junk. eric

OK, after reviewing the pictures above...I think the bracts (I actually learned that at work...) are still way too big. Back to xfrog.... eric

OK, here is the smaller blossoms (left) with the better of the other two (on right...of course!) Still not really happy, but it's certainly closer than those other, eh? If you have any suggestions as to what might be causing it to look bad (other than lousy textures...or lack there of), please don't hesitate to comment. eric

This is one really incredible looking tree! If I recall, doesn't x-frog have a polyon reducer that's sorta designed to help out? Couple suggestions, as well (and I do want this, no matter how big, lol): for trans flowers, two flat plane rectangles at right angles to each other and sligthly curved, maybe double sided , with a half sphere in the middle for the thingies. This would still be heavy en masse, but would definitely help for more distant renders. And could you release just the flowers alone, as well? Those are wonderful! Truly wonderful!

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

XFrog does use a slider to help reduce poly counts. This is at about 10%...and runs about 88K. At 100%, it's over 500K....ugh. As far as the flowers in renders this size, a flat alpha plane would probably suffice, since it's hardly got any depth to it as it is...However, considering the reduced state, it might have already been reduced to that by xfrog itself... XFrog also has a limited set of primatives, so some of those things might not be possible...I'll lookinto simplifying it a bit more, though. eric

Your bracts are too big at the base and small at the tips. Look at the image in post #3 for a better idea of overall shape. Wide tips with notch are what says "dogwood"! Carolly

Yeah, the shape is off...I'll fix that. As for the notch, I'll have to let the whole tree version rely on transparencies for that. Good point, as usual carolly:) eric

OK, still no notch (I'll get there carolly:) but I think it's getting better. Any comments? Bloom size, general tree shape. I believe this little guy rolls in at 72K polygons with all leaves and blossoms. How is that for file size....acceptible, way too big? eric

The only difference between these two, BTW, is the ambiant color for the bracts...I find that makes a huge difference with flower petals and colorful leaves. eric

Oh, I think this version is looking very nice. At least it's an improvement in my opinion. I don't know if 72k is big or not. In Vue, I use much more than that. BTW, how many polygons does V3 have (test question...LOL)?

I think it's looking quite good, but I've only seen dogwood "in person" a couple times in my life (knowingly, anyway). So I'm not a dogwood expert. :)