I took one of the leaf .car files back into Carrara and added the fruit--with, now ,two shader constituents.

However, when loading this new Leaf onto a plant I only get the one shading instead of the two.

Is there a solution?

Brian

bwtr

I think using a grouped object can work.

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As far as I can see, all the .car Leaf files are Vertex objects.
My new version is, still ,a vertex object, ----with shading domains
The separate shading domain, for the fruit, does not translate into the Leaf shading in the plant shader tree though?

Tis a puzzle!

Brian

bwtr

No, as a leaf Carrara only can read one shade domain... I tried to group objects and didnt work. I posted this as a feature in the bug track more then a year ago and they never did nothing about that. What will really work is to use one shade domain and a texture, this way you can have the leaf in one color and the fruit in another.
Other way is to use my tutorial to create fruits that you can find in Daz, but its pretty simple: duplicate your tree and in one you add the leaves and in another you add the fruits...

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Thanks!
Nice to know there is a workaround.

Brian

bwtr

 Additionally, you can use the Surface Replicator for putting the fruit on and  use a shader to control where it goes. Pretty tidy. 

But how to put the fruits in the right orientation??

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 It's a combination of things. The screen image shows how I set up the  replicator. I turn off "align to normals. 

For the correct placement under the branches, I create a Distribution Shader who's color channel uses Natural Function > Snow but I invert it with DCG's Shader Ops so the distribution white is on the bottom of the branch. 

Of course the fruits Hot Point needs to be at the "top" of the  fruit.

It's like  a magician's trick. Once you know how it's done, it's obvious - and less fun! ;-)

Mark

You are the Carrara Master!

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 I prefer this method to tree replication because it's super easy to adjust the size and variation of the fruit. 

BTW, it works pretty well for Christmas ornaments too... :D

Just TOOOO clever!

Love it!

Thanks
Brian

bwtr

Mark

I don't think I am getting the accuracy I expected. I think I have followed your tute to the letter?

However, I may be mis-interepreting what you mean (the workings of ) by the "Distribution Shader"?

Brian

bwtr

 Hi Brian,

Seriously large pears for such a little tree!

Like most things in 3D, there is always a little bit of finesse and seldom is a perfect solution attainable for something complex like this. But there usually is a best or pretty good solution! ;)  

I can't provide a bullet-proof fix-all for you but heres the things involved that I play with:

You might try increasing the accuracy of the placement to Best. Also, the tree itself is an elaborate algorithm and not actual geometry. The placement function of the Surface Replicator is math magic too. So, there probably is a margin of error that will be more evident on certain tree set ups than others as fixed geometry is expected to orient to bounding boxes and Render-time geometry.

Increasing tree fidelity, adjusting propagation and other little items can help. Slightly repositioning the hot point of the fruit can help. Also allowing the fruit to rotate randomly on the Z axis can provide better fits. Scaling the fruit differently helps significantly. 

It's all therapy man....  :D

Mark

In my youth --oh!--is age telling?---I remember HUGE hard as rocks pears on big old trees!

Thinks for the hints man--great learning!

Brian

bwtr

Mark Just to show that your suggestions really do provide "adequate" solutions to normal needs--one glaring error which proper leaves may have hidden.

Thanks again!

Brian

bwtr

 It's all in the camera angles and  lighting!