Landscaping using FREE scripts

PART 1 – Please check our blog soon for the next part of our landscape series.

One of the major advantages of MAX is the plethora of free scripts out there. There are scripts for everything, from painting tools to scripts that create wierd shapes, and even some that allow for creating entire buildings parametrically.
One thing that I enjoy is doing the landscaping for projects. Painting on grass, trees, rocks, placing flower beds, growing ivy up walls and around tree trunks…call me crazy, but there is something satisfying about creating the ‘ordered chaos’ of gardens for architectural renderings.
Two scripts that I ALWAYS use in this regard are the MOVE TO SURFACE script , and RANDOM SELECT, both of which are tiny, simple, and free.
For an example of how these two simple scripts are used to create a small piece of landscaping, I have created a rolling grassy hill, which Im going to scatter some plants over, drop them down, and randomise them in a natural way.
We start off with the grassy hill. A simple box, soft selected to create something a little more natural than a flat area. I’ve added some grass onto the hill, and put in a shadow just to add in some variation in light.

Importing a flower, I cloned a few of them around. Once you have a large enough group, select them all, and run the RANDOM SELECT script. Set the selection to around 80%, and hit select. This will select 80% of the selected objects randomly. Rotate them to any direction, and then repeat the action. This next selection will select 80% of the selected flowers, this every time you run the selection set from the script, it selects a smaller amount of flowers. You can rotate them, as-well as resize them randomly, and even move them if need be. At the end of the exercise, you should have a little clump of flowers that are quite random in terms of size, position, and rotation.

Take that group of flowers, group it together, and clone those groups around the ground. Try to keep in mind your camera view, keeping the flowers in your cameras field of view. Anything off camera is using up memory, and isn’t contributing to the render (with the exception of objects that sit off-camera yet effect the image, such as ’shadow casting’ objects).

Now that we have the flowers positioned in the top view, its time to drop them down to the surface. Select the groups, and run the MOVE TO SURFACE script. Click the surface that the flowers are to drop to, and they will move down the Z AXIS. The flowers pivot points will drop down to the surface.Rendiring this, we can see a really nice field of flowers scattered over the landscape. But we can still give this even more of a random feel.

Selecting the flowers, and running the RANDOM SELECT script again, thin out some of the flowers, and resize then again a little. You can also set up a separate material, and randomly apply it to the flowers. Even if the texture that you create is only slightly different, its these subtle changes that ensure a more natrual feel to the illustration.

I created some stones in the same way as the flowers, and dropped them to the surface. Importantly, with the rocks, the pivot point was set to the center of the object. This drops the rock ‘into’ the surface, and ensures that there are no ‘floating’ rocks ontop of the surface.

Thats it! This method is usefull for not only smaller plants, but entire forrests.

Here are some examples of images where I have used this technique.

Happy landscaping.

By Chris B

Comments - No registration needed

NIR April 21st

There are 3 professional plugins that will aloow greater freedom
I use one of them and I am quite happy.
The prices are very justifiable.
Nic B April 21st

NIR – Can you mention them? I guess there are always commercial solutions, but you should use what works for your workflow.
Chris B April 21st

There are definitely some commercial plugins out there that are amazing at doing this exact thing-but when we first started I tried to figure out ways around needing commercial plugins-cheaper work arounds. I’m sure you know that supplying an entire studio with plugins gets to be a rather pricey exercise!

Also, using these two scripts is very versatile, not only for placement of foliage, but for everything from random placement of cars in a parking lot to the arrangement of furniture in restaurants.
Joe April 21st

We aren’t allowed to use (or write) scripts or plugins in this office but it looks pretty helpfull. I will have to try them out at home.
Nic B April 21st

Hey Joe, thats crazy! What is the reasoning behind that?
Joe April 21st

I’m not too familiar with how other studios work so I don’t know how common it is for scripts to be outlawed in a studio environment. Please let me now if this is unusual.

We’ve been told that we can’t use scripts because if we do we will forget how to do that operation manually and if we update Max, the script may not work with the update so then what are we going to do.
Nic B April 22nd

I suppose there is some logic to it. I’m a fan of using whatever tools you have at your disposal to get the job done – the Move to surface script can save you hours of time etc.
Chris B April 22nd

I’ve found that most scripts I’ve used are backwards and forwards compatible. In fact, I cant think off-hand of a script that has been written for a previous version of MAX that hasn’t worked on an update.
I can understand being hesitant to use plugins for fear of no updates (I use Chaos Groups SIM CLOTH for really basic cloth sims, and as far as I know, they don’t plan on recompiling it for new versions anymore. In fact, I think that 2009 was the last recompile, although I could be wrong), but scripts *should* always be able to run on updated versions of MAX.

I cant speak for other studios, but here, if there is a script that can make our lives easier, we use it. If it doesn’t work later on, we can cross that bridge when we get there!
gk April 23rd

Joe give me your supervisors phone number, jebus, thats the most ineficient and nonsese rule ive ever come across.
Occupational Therapy April 26th

Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article
Grant Karpakis May 25th

Using tools to help you build a building as opposed to using your hands to build it, definitely makes sense… Scripts are a 3d artists hammer, cement mixer and bulldozer… Thanx for the move to surface tip, testing it now
Nic B May 25th

Thanks Grant – I checked out your website, those eyes are awesome!