How To Import Xfrog Plants Into Vue A Tutorial by SoberDreamer

How To Import Xfrog Plants Into
Vue
A Tutorial by SoberDreamer
Requirements
In order to complete this tutorial you will need the following:
Vue
http://www.e-onsoftware.com
Xfrog
http://xfrog.com
In this tutorial I used Vue 10 xStream x64 and Xfrog 3.5.
Description
Xfrog plants can be used to add a greater level of realism to the foliage of your scenes. In
this tutorial I will be discussing how you can import Xfrog plants into Vue.
Steps
1. Launch Xfrog and load the plant you want to import into Vue.
2. For use in an ecosystem we probably want to get rid of the roots. Right-click on the
‘Master’ node and select ‘UnGroup Component’, delete the two ‘Roots’ nodes then
right-click on the ‘Master’ node again and select ‘Group Component’
3. Go to Export > LightWave 6.5 .lwo. Exporting as LWO is easier to work with in Vue in
this case than OBJ.
4. Leave the settings as is then click ‘Export’. Choose a location to save the file to. In my
example I saved to the same directory the XFR files were.
5. Close Xfrog and launch Vue. In Vue go to File > Import Object and select the LWO file
you saved in the previous step.
6. For each leaf material associated with the tree, you will need to set its backlight
value. In my example I set this to a value of 55 which seems like a good value for the
kinds of leaves the tree has. Backlight accounts for the semi-opaque nature of thin
leaves but not in a physically accurate way like subsurface scattering. Without
backlight, leaves may seem too solid or thick.
7. Go to File > Save Object. In my example I saved it to a new folder called Xfrog in the
Vue Objects folder: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\e-on software\Vue 10
xStream\Objects\Xfrog. Don’t forget to give it a title and a description!
8. You can now use this tree in ecosystems by clicking on the ‘Add Object’ button and
selecting the VOB file.
Just keep in mind that Xfrog trees, by default, are high poly objects. There are two
ways to reduce their poly count, either wth Xfrog Tune or by decimating the mesh in
Vue before saving the VOB file.
You may even want to create several different versions of the object, one for close up
renders and another lower poly copy for use in ecosystems.
A good source of free Xfrog plants can be found on the Autodesk website:
http://seek.autodesk.com/search/xfrog.
Feedback
If you have any feedback about this tutorial or have any topic suggestions for future
tutorials, you can leave me a message on my deviantART profile or on Facebook,
Twitter, or Google+.