I was just checking out the new term over at fxphd and noticed a little something some of you may be interested in; a new unannounced plant modelling software from e-on (makers of Vue) called “The Plant Factory”.
From the screen shot it appears to be a standalone tree/plant modeller that can create plants similar to that found in Vue however it has a lot more controls to create trees from scratch (in Vue you can only modify existing Vue plants). It appears to have the ability to create procedural geometry as well as use paths and splines for the shape of branches. You can also adjust the strength of limbs (presumably for wind effects), add random variables (to create different instances of a plant), an internal renderer with atmosphere settings, and uses a nodal interface to control the whole process. After a little googelling I discovered they have a website too; http://www.theplantfactory-tech.com/
UPDATE 12 March ’13
The plant factory website has had a couple new posts recently, one is about integration with other programs. They name Vue but also mention that it’ll work within other CG programs (unnamed). At a guess it would similar to other e-on products so I’d expect to see it in 3ds Max, Cinema4D, LightWave, Maya, and Softimage
Theres also a slightly older post showing some examples of plants made with the plant factory. Looks really really good! Check them out.
As soon as I get a copy (not sure when it’s being released) I’ll post something here. Stay tuned…
All this looks nice, except the fact that you can’t do much with models you create with The Plant Factory.
Your models arn’t really yours, but they belong to e-on. Read license details :
According to The Plan Factory license :
“You may not provide content created with the Product to other parties, for free or for a fee, including but not limited to content created by you, either in the native Product format or in any other computer graphics format under any circumstances. You may not create content files for distribution or sale. Please contact e-on software for arrangements at e-on software’s sole discretion regarding distributing or selling content created with the Product.”
Well, such restrictive policy simply means that e-on is in fact the owner of models you create with The Plan Factory. You can’t sent “your” model to a friend, you can’t sell it to someone, you can’t create any work for hire with TPF, as tpf files made on your copy of TPF won’t be readable on any other TPF on any other computer. (this is ensured by e-on file copy protection system)
e-on “sole discretion” arrangements for distribution of content means that they may allow you to sell your work on their Cornucopia 3D website, but also may not allow it, or may ask you to give them 90% from sales of “yours” models.
REMEMBER :
” for arrangements at e-on software’s sole discretion “