IRender nXt Tutorial - Plants
This IRender nXt Tutorial on Plants will show you how to add nXtRender IRender nXt Plants to you SketchUp model.
This can greatly increase the quality of your renderings, without slowing down your SketchUp model with unnecessary geometry.
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IRender nXt
IRender nXt contains the a library of more than 500 nXtRender plants.
IRender nXt Plants
IRender nXt Plants are generated from an algorithm which describes the frequency, shape, color and connecting information of the trunk, branches, and leaves. This makes it easy to render the plant with different levels of detail.
Also, provisions are made as to how the plant changes with the changing seasons, and how the plant appears based in its size.
There are two ways to utilize IRender nXt Plants in IRender:
- You can create and place predefined plant components in the SketchUp model, which will automatically render as IRender nXt Plants.
- You can map existing plants (or any SketchUp component) to nXtRender plants and they will render as IRender nXt Plants.
Create Plant Components
- Select the Create Plant icon form the
IRender nXt
toolbar:
- Select a plant from the AccuRender libraries.
Make any changes to Plant
Generate Plant Image and Place Plant
Image resolution - quality of the image in SketchUp - this does not effect the quality of the rendering.
Shadow mask Resolution -the shadow mask will create shadows in SketchUp - this does not effect the quality of the rendering.
Start or Remake Click this button to remake the image with the new settings
Save Tree Image - save the tree and place it in SketchUp.
Settings on SetUp dialog
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- Random Rotation - randomly rotates plants.
- Random Height - randomly scales plants.
- See: Random Plant Settings
- Season - sets the default season for all plants. (Only applies to AR3 plants, not new nXt plants)
Advanced Settings
- Tree Rotation - lets you rotate the tree in the image.
- (Useful for angled, or non-symmetrical trees)
- Camera Height - lets you raise or lower the camera for different effects.
- Background mode - this does not effect the final image when saved to SketchUp.
- HDRi sky mode and be useful to see how the sky effects the lighting.
- Illumination factor - alter if tree is too light or too dark.
- HDRi sky rotation - will effect how the HDRi sky illuminates the tree.
- Use Defaults - reset to default settings
- Create alpha clipmask for VRay - an alpha mask is created for VRay users.
Selecting Plants
Click Create Plant from the IRender nXt Toolbar.
This will load the nXtRender plant selection wizard.
Choose the plant desired from more than 500 plants included in the nXtRender library.
Defining plant component
After you select a plant, a dialog will display the plant component parameters.
- Select the desired height for the plant component.
(You can also scale the component later to create plants pof different sizes.)
- Choose the placement parameters:
- Always Face Camera
- Criss-cross
Click Add and Place to create and place the plant.
Click Add and Make Another to create this plant, and return to the selection wizard.
Map Plants
- Click the Map Plant icon on the toolbar. ( File:Map plant24.png )
- This loads a wizard which lists all components used in your SketchUp model, and lets you map components to fractal plants.
- Select the component desired at the top of the Wizard.
- Click Select to select a plant from the library.
- Set the other settings. (Note: Detail and Season apply to the entire model.)
- Click Start Ray Trace if you want to see a preview of your plant in the model.
Tips and Tricks
- Plants do not stop their growth when they interfere with other surfaces - such as walls. Place the plants far enough away from the walls to they do not extend through the wall.
