Here are a few pointers. I expect that at some stage this will turn into a full blown instruction manual. We'll see about that later, but in the mean time;
Creating Non-Existent Leaves
Use the leaf object '0' (Zero) to create a non-existent leaf in the tree. This thins out the leaves without changing the structure of the tree. I see this as a potential feature and a bit of a hack as there should be more options for leaf distribution. In the mean time...
If you don't have a '0' leaf object, follow the instructions under 'Adding More Leaves' to add a new one, only don't create any verts in the mesh.
Adding More Leaves
Sometimes more leaf types are required. There is a single requirement for adding leaves, and aside from that you are pretty free to do whatever you like.
Leaves have to be meshes. If they are not, the script will throw an error when you try to generate. This means you can't add lamps or cameras as leaves. A shame, I know.
The script works by copying leaves at a mesh level. If you create a new leaf, you have to give the mesh the name you want to use to refer to the leaf. You can call the object whatever you like. Generally I create the object with the same name, and tell Blender to display the object name. This makes it easier to quickly identify a leaf.
"Mesh datablock 'foo' not found" means the script doesn't know what mesh you are referring to. This is most likely because you don't have a mesh called 'foo'. If you have something called 'foo', then consider checking if it is actually a mesh.
You'll note that most of the leaves provided with the script use UV mapping. I don't recomment that you create a leaf using verts and textures. You can do it, but consider the number of verts you will be creating, then multiply that by the number of leaves on a tree. Just using UV mapping and leaves with four - eight verts in them can produce about half a million verts/faces when generated. It also takes longer. If you don't believe me, or you have access to a supercomputer, create a complicated tree, then add complicated leaves to it and see what happens.
The Screens
There are a number of screens in this script. Pushing ctrl-left or right will take you to another screen. The screens are as follows:
- LSYSTEM - the main one used for generating trees
- LEAVES - for editing leaves
- LAYOUT - general layout of the scene
- SCRIPTINGx - where x is a number. These are general scripting screens that I use. They tend to change a lot depending on what is being worked on.
Here are a few pointers. I expect that at some stage this will turn into a full blown instruction manual. We'll see about that later, but in the mean time;
Creating Non-Existent Leaves
Use the leaf object '0' (Zero) to create a non-existent leaf in the tree. This thins out the leaves without changing the structure of the tree. I see this as a potential feature and a bit of a hack as there should be more options for leaf distribution. In the mean time...
If you don't have a '0' leaf object, follow the instructions under 'Adding More Leaves' to add a new one, only don't create any verts in the mesh.
Adding More Leaves
Sometimes more leaf types are required. There is a single requirement for adding leaves, and aside from that you are pretty free to do whatever you like.
Leaves have to be meshes. If they are not, the script will throw an error when you try to generate. This means you can't add lamps or cameras as leaves. A shame, I know.
The script works by copying leaves at a mesh level. If you create a new leaf, you have to give the mesh the name you want to use to refer to the leaf. You can call the object whatever you like. Generally I create the object with the same name, and tell Blender to display the object name. This makes it easier to quickly identify a leaf.
"Mesh datablock 'foo' not found" means the script doesn't know what mesh you are referring to. This is most likely because you don't have a mesh called 'foo'. If you have something called 'foo', then consider checking if it is actually a mesh.
You'll note that most of the leaves provided with the script use UV mapping. I don't recomment that you create a leaf using verts and textures. You can do it, but consider the number of verts you will be creating, then multiply that by the number of leaves on a tree. Just using UV mapping and leaves with four - eight verts in them can produce about half a million verts/faces when generated. It also takes longer. If you don't believe me, or you have access to a supercomputer, create a complicated tree, then add complicated leaves to it and see what happens.
The Screens
There are a number of screens in this script. Pushing ctrl-left or right will take you to another screen. The screens are as follows:
- LSYSTEM - the main one used for generating trees
- LEAVES - for editing leaves
- LAYOUT - general layout of the scene
- SCRIPTINGx - where x is a number. These are general scripting screens that I use. They tend to change a lot depending on what is being worked on.