Can I use my own leaves?
Absolutely! Although ForestIvy comes with a library of presets, you can easily modify these with your own geometry, or even create new climbing plants from scratch using the easy-to-understand parameters.
Does ForestIvy interact with my scene objects?
Yes! You choose the surfaces on which you would like ForestIvy to grow, and then draw initial paths to art direct the first few branches. The best thing is that the system is fully procedural. So if you edit those surfaces, the plant will also update!.
It looks like ForestIvy will produce high polygon counts, how is that handled
ForestIvy efficiently instances the geometry scattered along the branches meaning there’s minimal load on your renderer. When it comes to the viewports, we offer the choice of viewport instancing or a points-cloud display mode. You can also elect to only show a percentage of the leaves in the viewports to keep things nice and responsive. On initial release, instancing is supported by V-Ray and Arnold but other renderers should add support soon.
Is this based on the algorithm by Thomas Luft that’s used by several other Ivy Generator plugins?
No, this is a brand new Ivy plugin using our own unique algorithm that prioritizes real-time feedback and a high level of control over the growth so that artists can easily get the results they want.