Hi All.
I have very recently got the free version of Bryce 5.0 from DAZ.
I have a reasonable knowledge of Bryce, but only up to Bryce 3D.

One of the main reasons I got B5 was for the tree-lab (B3 doesn't have one, and I found myself getting frustrated with the limitations of the pre-sets). Of course, the other reason was the B5.0 is free:-))

So, of course I jumped into the Tree Lab and immediately played around with it.
Having got some reasonable results (well 2 semi-reasonable results, to be precise), I decided to to for the 1 tree I've always wanted to create (not only in Bryce):

-- A Weeping Willow.

Imagine my joy when I found there were 2 pre-sets for Weeping Willows, under the "tree-shape" drop down and the "leaf" drop-down.
I soon found another "down" - the result looked nothing like a a Weeping Willow (I almost wept)..

Choking back tears, I fiddled a bit with some of the parameters. Nothing I found stopped the resulting tree looking like a very tired chimney-sweep's brush.

And, of course, since I have the D/L'd freebie, there's no manual to explain what the the parameters do, how they interact etc. (unless I've missed a D/L, or something...)

(Sorry for the long intro: just trying to show where I was coming from and cut out irrelevant answers..)

So, anyway..
Does anyone have some Tree Lab settings that will create a decent, mature, Weeping Willow (the type you see near rivers after they've got well established): tall, with graceful, long drooping branches that nearly reach down to the ground (and long, thin leaves)?

I'm not sure it can be done. But I live in hope:-))

Cheers,
Diolma

Attached Link: http://arbaro.sourceforge.net/

If the tree lab still leaves ya hangin' and nobody else has some good ranges to punch into it, there's always arbaro. It can make some poly-heavy meshes, but it does have a nice looking weeping willow and can export to .obj which is useful for rendering in Bryce.

Have you learned to access the pre-made presets by pressing the alt button while clicking on the tree icon? A dropdown menu will appear with quite a few presets. Here's a lovely willow recipe I copied from Aldaron. It goes as follows...    Pick the willow preset and alter it using these settings.

Branch/Trunk
Distribution 5                                                                                                                                           Branches per segment 1-10
Segments 10-13
Branch start angle 70
Branch end angle 0
Trunk thickness 2-40
Branch thickness 48-50

Tree Shape
Mountain Ash
gravity 100
Randomness 100

Foliage
Weeping Willow
Scale 2
Number of leaves 10                                                                                                                        Distribution Spiral

On second thought, scratch that! I just tried the recipe myself and it didn't come out looking anything like I remember!  I second Pauljs' recommendation for using Arbaro. I've made very nice looking willows with it. If you need recipes for some good conifers let me know. i'm pretty good with "softwood' trees. Sorry about the false lead. Do a search here for *willow tree* under Bryce and you will get a lot of posts with helpful threads.

If the willow in arbaro is too heavy for your tastes (or computer) you can always lower the number of branches. There's a submenu for each level of branching.

I think mine might be a little too thin, but my computer would hang on the default one included with arbaro.

Many thanks for all the replies.
I already have abarro, and yup it is very poly-heavy.

And the scene I have in mind requires not one but five or six willows. I 'spose I could always render them out singly (if I can get Bryce to swallow one) against a plain (contrasting colour) back-drop, use PSP to create an alpha-plane for transparencey (or a transmap, depending on what Bryce 5 can deal with - Bryce 3 can only handle .bmp's, I haven't exploered B5's import/export capabilities yet)...

Thx again,

Cheers,
Diolma

http://www.daz3d.com/support/tutorial/tutorial.php?id=1392

I dont know if this what ur wanting but this tells ya how to create 2d trees in Bryce.

 

Just make mask renders for each before compositing. Render each, and then go render as mask for each. That'll give a nice clean alpha channel right there.  ...Oh yeah, almost forgot - make sure that whatever you're rendering a mask of is selected.

But you can do it that way if compositing is the only good option. :)

I'd forgotten about mask-renders (they existed in Bryce 3 - I think..). That makes things a lot easier:-)

I looked at the tutorial spiritwolf2000 so kindly provided, but got a little confused.
After rendering the tree (as image and mask) and deleting it, the tutorial-writer suggests making a terrain, using the mask-render to define the terrain, flattening the terrain (with a bit of clipping), applying the colour version as a text-map, rotating the terrain so it's upright, exporting as .obj, and using that...

Is this really more efficient than just using a suitably-sized (2-dimensional) square and applying the mask in the trans channel and the image in the diffuse channel? I only ask, 'cos the latter is the way I'd intended to go about it. The tut-writer may have hit upon something that has other advantages than my simplistic approach (but I don't quite see what those advantages might be..)

(That's always assuming that my B5 doesn't choke on the Abarro Willow - which I haven't got around to trying yet...)

Cheers,
Diolma

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I use

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I use some

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I use some 2D

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I use some 2D trees

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I use some 2D trees in

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I use some 2D trees in every

I've used a method very similar to the one Spiritwolf describes to add snow to trees, but unless the tree is very close to the camera you should be able to get good results just using 2D trees like you intended. I use some 2D trees in every landscape I've done.

WTF!! Somethings up with this site! I didn't even press the button to post this message 'cause I had more to write and the next thing i know the screen goes white and my message has been posted. I tried to edit, then delete my post and my post went into multiplicity overdrive! I've tried to adjust to this damn PHP thing but I really miss the way the old forum was.

LOL! ! @ danamo!!

You need to uncheck the "Post Early Else - Post Often Option" (AKA the PEE-POO) checkbox..:-))
Just joking. I feel your anguish!  Strange things happening when all you're trying to do is post a reply is "one of those things" (you can spend a l-o-o-o-n-g time trying to work out why...) I no longer bother (unless it happens twice)

And I also appreciate your advice (when I eventually got to the final words) :-)

Cheers
(giggling)
Diolma