Matt Jones Tech
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  • How to Make Realistic Trees in Blender

    This Christmas….

    This Christmas, I got a 3D graphics assignment. Sorry, I can’t say ‘This Christmas’ without singing it.

    Assignment received

    For this assignment, I was asked to create a look-and-feel animation that conveyed the spirit of Christmas in a general sense. The ending needed to focus on gift giving. First, I developed a concept that involved a gift box opening on it’s own with shafts of light bursting through it. Upon opening, the bow would untie itself and explode into a shower of fabric. The fabric would be so abundant we’d lose sight of everything else for a moment. Finally, the box would fall open to reveal the title inside.

    Obviously, this is a wildly ambitious sequence to create. It would require a ton of time to develop just the cloth sequence, let alone the rest of the animation. To date this project a little, this came at a time when Eevee was still in alpha. Cycles was my only realistic option coming from Blender. However, I ended up running a few test renders before moving in a different direction.

    https://twitter.com/actualmattjones/status/1052989719901028352

    Running out of time

    By the time I landed on the final Christmas tree concept, the deadline for this project was fast approaching. I needed a way to create a realistic Christmas tree and quick. Enter The Grove. This plugin fit a perfect gap in my production pipeline. The controls were very intuitive. After a few minutes of learning the basics of the parameters, I was able to generate branches, attach leaves, and animate a gentle breeze that rendered fast, even in Cycles.

    Here’s the final shot created specifically to be seamless 10 second loop:

    Of course, you can custom model a tree based on tons of references, but the ROI on the time and energy investment didn’t make sense in this instance. Plus, The Grove’s controls make it easy to create virtually any design for a tree that you like! The plugin The Grove version 6, and was purchased for Blender 2.79. Just a few days after the project was completed, Blender 2.80 went into beta and I was automatically upgraded to The Grove version 7. Naturally, the plugin is thoroughly worth it, and if that doesn’t convince you, The Grove was used to create trees in Next Gen.

    So not only did The Grove save the day and help me create a great final product, it also gave me the speed and flexibility that this particular project required. The beauty of this plugin is that it’s not something I feel like I’ll use just once and never touch again. Trees and nature are so commonly needed in production I’m sure I’ll need them again. And what’s more, The Grove creates branches using a particle system. That means you can create one custom branch (e.g. one with a Christmas ornament hanging from it) and populate an entire tree instantly.

    matt

    December 24, 2018
    3D Animation, 3D Modeling
    3d, 3d animation, 3d modeling, Blender, christmas, christmas tree, graphics, The Grove 3D
  • How to Create Seamless Patterns in Adobe Illustrator

    In this example, let’s say you want to create a seamless pattern in Adobe Illustrator using vertical stripes. First create a 1:1 artboard at any resolution you like. If you’re creating this for use in 3D, powers of two work best (1024, 2048, 4096, etc). Next, create your first stripe with a solid rectangle, and be sure to turn off the stroke.

    Single rectangle, no stroke.

    Next, ALT+Left Click and drag your rectangle so it snaps to the right edge of your original shape. This is a quick and easy way to copy/paste or duplicate an object, and move it around at the same time. Once you’ve done that, set the fill color for your next stripe. Continue this for as many colors as you want. I’ll do three.

    Three rectangles, snapped to each other, all different colors.

    Now, with all of your stripes selected, head up to the Object menu and click Object > Pattern >Make.

    I didn’t even know this existed!

    Once you click that, you’re brought into a special pattern editing view. From there, you can set specific parameters for your pattern. But by default, it’s seamless. By the way, this pattern (or swatch, as Illustrater calls it) is NOT square, and doesn’t have to be. We’ll get there. When you’re done, click done at the top.

    I just clicked ‘done’ at this point.

    After you click done, you’ll have a brand new swatch in your Swatches panel.

    Last step! Turn off your stripe template and grab the rectangle tool and drag it across your entire artboard. Make sure you’re snapping to both corners and holding SHIFT while you drag. Then, set your fill to that fancy new swatch you just made. Done!

    So stripey…

    Export it at whatever resolution you want, because vectors are cool like that. Hope this helped, hope you learned something new, and you’re rad. See you in the comments!

    matt

    November 12, 2018
    Graphic Design
    Adobe, graphic design, graphics, Illustrator, patterns, seamless, textures, vector art

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 1 Thess 5:21