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JUNE 10, 2003 Digital Element Verdant 1.0
Once you've settled on the right form for your tree or shrub, you can then go about the business of modifying it to fit in with your composition. To this end, Verdant provides tools for adjusting lighting, including the ability to use multiple spotlights, which can be arranged in three dimensions with custom colors; ambient lighting with custom color; and shadows with custom quality and intensity.  [an error occurred while processing this directive]Verdant also provides a number of tools for positioning your generated elements, including X, Y and Z movement and rotation of the theoretical plain upon which your trees stand, so you can match a variety of camera angles and terrains. And you can adjust the field of view of the scene. And, if you need to generate a large number of the same type of tree, you can also create tree groups with anything up to 100 trees. You can set the spacing of the trees manually and use random positioning. And you can use preset patterns to define the layout of your forest.  Like individual trees, groups of trees can also be manipulated in 3D space to match your layout. (Groups of trees, however, have certain limitations in terms of rotation. See below for details.) So, in short, with the supplied presets, you can generate infinite variety in the plants you need for your composition. And, if you need a particular type of tree or shrub that's not included with the base plugin set, you can also purchase additional models from Digital Element. (See the company's Web site for details on additional model purchases; this review covers only the base plugin set.) Workflow and performance As with many things 3D, Verdant can be a drag on the system. Previews are fairly quick. And, in most cases, a single-tree render will complete within a minute or so. But some renders can be painfully sluggish and with results disproportionate to the quality of the output. The image below, showing a circle of trees, took 37 minutes to render on a dual 1 GHz G4 with 1.5 GB RAM. That's simply too long for what I got.  Prev 1 2 3 4 Next Related sites: • AV Video • Creative Mac • Digital Media Designer • Digital Producer • The WWUG Related forums: [an error occurred while processing this directive] 
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