Mastering ForestIvy & ForestPack 9: A Complete Guide to Growing Climbing Plants in 3ds Max

Have you ever wanted to drape your architectural visualizations with lush, realistic ivy? Or populate entire cityscapes with varied and believable vegetation? With ForestPack 9 and its exciting new addition, ForestIvy, these dreams are now within easy reach. This comprehensive guide will walk you through mastering these powerful tools, enabling you to create breathtaking environments in 3ds Max.

In this video, Paul Roberts with ITOOSOFT will start with an overview of ForestIvy, a new climbing plants generator included for free with the latest version of ForestPack, the environment creation toolset for 3ds Max.

After covering the basics, Paul will dive deeper with a detailed walkthrough on how to create your own growing plants from scratch. Along the way, he'll explain nearly every setting in the ForestIvy plugin so you can create unique ivy styles or simply modify the presets to suit your specific needs.

In addition to ForestIvy, Paul will discuss other key features introduced in ForestPack 9. These include the ability to scatter on stacked splines—useful for populating balconies, and converting objects in the geometry list to a ForestSet. Plus, explore how to combine ForestPack and ForestIvy to efficiently populate a scene with thousands of hanging plants.

What's New in ForestPack 9? A Landscape Artist's Dream Toolkit

ITOOSOFT is known for its industry-leading plugins, ForestPack and RailClone, which empower artists and architects to create complex and detailed environments with ease. ForestPack is the go-to solution for scattering vast amounts of objects, while RailClone excels at parametric modeling. This guide spotlights ForestPack 9, focusing on its new capabilities, especially the addition of ForestIvy.

ForestIvy: The Ivy Generator You've Been Waiting For

The highlight of ForestPack 9 is undoubtedly ForestIvy, a brand-new plugin designed to generate realistic and editable ivy growth directly within 3ds Max.

ForestPack 9: New Features for Efficient Scattering

ForestPack 9 introduces new features designed to streamline your workflow and make scattering objects even more efficient. Let's explore a couple of key improvements.

Populating Balconies: A Common Use Case

Architectural visualization often involves populating balconies with furniture, plants, and other details. This can be tedious and time-consuming. ForestPack 9 simplifies this process with new features designed specifically for scattering on stacked splines.

Scattering on Stacked Splines

The key is to define each balcony with a spline within a single spline object. Then, you can use ForestPack to scatter objects across all the balconies at once.

• Populate from Selection: Use this option to quickly add your balcony props to the geometry list.
• Generating the initial scatter is as easy as selecting the spline and adjusting the density and distribution settings.

Don't Miss The Bonus Tip: Adding Realism with ForestColor

Want to take your plant visualizations to the next level? Consider using ForestColor to add subtle variations to the textures of your leaves and flowers.

• Randomizing Textures: ForestColor allows you to randomize and tint the textures of your plants, creating a more natural and believable look.
• Color Variation: Use a few realistic color options for the plants, so they don't look exactly the same.
• By randomizing these, you can get a wider variety of colors for your plants, especially leaves.

Conclusion

ForestPack 9, with the addition of ForestIvy, provides architects and visualization artists with an unparalleled toolkit for creating stunning and realistic environments. Whether you're draping buildings in ivy, populating landscapes with vegetation, or adding the finishing touches to an architectural rendering, ForestPack 9 empowers you to bring your creative visions to life. Explore the features discussed here and watch your visualizations flourish.