Awesome Creeping Ivy Generator

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example_0.jpgEvery now and then you stumble upon something that really is special and helps you to do something that, otherwise, would simply be an amazing pain in the you-know-where. This is one of those times.

This is a great stand-alone tool that was first mentioned by “sonix” in a thread on blenderartists.org.

The tools developer, Thomas Luft, writes:

A few month ago I was looking for a new sample scene to test watercolor renderings. I was thinking of something complex, filled with vegetation – like trees overgrown with ivy. Fortunately I was able to implement a procedural system so that the ivy would grow by itself. The result is a small tool allowing a virtual ivy to grow in your 3d world.

The ivy grows from one single root following different forces: a primary growth direction (the weighted average of previous growth directions), a random influence, an adhesion force towards other objects, an up-vector imitating the phototropy of plants, and finally gravity. This simple scheme reveals that the goal was not to provide a biological simulation of growing ivy but rather a simple approach to producing complex and convincing vegetation that adapts to an existing scene. The ivy generator imports and exports obj+mtl files.

The application was originally written for the Windows platform but, with Mr. Luft being generous enough to also provide the source code, it has been ported to the MacOS platform and the Linux platform (thanks to Ruben), as well.

The software and its source code is released under the GNU General Public License. Also, the developer had originally restricted the usage of the application:

Please respect that it is NOT PERMITTED to use this software or parts of it in commercial projects!

However, after a few inquiries were made by several persons, Mr. Luft has been quite generous, yet again, and has now removed the commercial usage restrictions!

Awesome Tool! Thanks, Thomas Luft!

Note: Be sure to read the “readme.txt” file for the instructions. Some additional Blender-specific tips, provided by “sonix”, can be found at the blenderartists link. Thanks “sonix”!

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    • http://blender.blog.siol.net PiPi

      WOW, looking superb!

      .::PiPi::.

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      Looks amazing! Just tried it on OSX but couldn’t get the program to export my model once it finished growing. Hitting the ‘export obj+mtl’ file writes out a 0 byte file. Did anyone get this to work on OSX?

    • goodneck

      duuuuude that is sooo coool

    • http://blendermaniacos.blgospot.com Dalai Felinto

      It looks like a wonderfull SOC implementation (some Blender integration), don’t you think?

    • http://www.arabblend.com samran

      just WOW ……….

    • Peter

      =Quote (Bart):===
      Hitting the ‘export obj+mtl’ file writes out a 0 byte file. Did anyone get this to work on OSX?
      =============

      This should work for any system, the FAQ on the website says:

      =Quote:=======
      The exported files are empty. What can I do?
      Please press “birth” before exporting.
      =============

    • http://conic.se Markus

      So, when will it be included in blender? :P

    • Raoni

      So, when for Linux ?

    • Luis

      I exported it on OSX. The problem seems to be the buttons when you import in Blender. In my first time I clicked (or not, don’t remember) and I get also 0 Kb. Then I did the contrary and it works well. Be carefull with the size of the mesh…

      Luis

    • tom

      wow – amazing work thomas!!! thanks for sharing :-)

    • http://squash-stretch.blogspot.com/ Ruben

      I have just ended porting it to Linux. I have sent the modified sources to Thomas, and I wish that he include them in the web page soon.

      Regards.

    • http://blendernewbies.com Kernon

      A specialty tool like this is probably best left as an external application. We can’t cram everything into Blender. :))

      @Ruben
      Good job! I’m glad to see that the Linux platform will have access to such a great tool much sooner than later.

    • http://www.cuby.co.nr Cuby

      Wow! This thing looks absolutely incredible! Downloading.

    • micah fitch

      I think blender does need a “paint effects” sort of system, nice job!

    • carlinhos

      why should it not be allowed to use the results in commercial projects?
      on the ivy generator webpage is written that it IS allowed to use the software in a commercial context:
      there is written:
      “Frequently asked questions
      May I use the Ivy Generator in a commerical project? May I use my results (renderings and meshes) in a commerical project?
      Yes, you are allowed to do that.”

      best regards, carlinhos

    • MonkeysTail

      I wonder if there’s anything like this available that generates ropes and strings and such. Its kindof annoying having to do it in the particle generator. :P

    • http://blendernewbies.com Kernon

      @carlinhos
      Please reread the last part of the article. :P

    • amoose

      you didn’t read it all:
      “”Please respect that it is NOT PERMITTED to use this software or parts of it in commercial projects!”

      However, after a few inquiries were made by several persons, Mr. Luft has been quite generous, yet again, and has now removed the commercial usage restrictions!

      Awesome Tool! Thanks, Thomas Luft!”

      You can use it with commercial projects. But I doubt it will be put in blender because while it is a useful tool it isn’t going to be used by everyone. And for those that don’t use it, it will just take up more space on their computer. Blender is smal now but if we keep putting more and more stuff in it sooner or later it will be huge. And those that want to use it can download it. Though it would be nice to see it as a plugin. It would also be nice to see it import and export blends.

    • amoose

      Kernon beat me to it. ;)

    • Renato Perini

      Thomas Luft… Simply great….
      What about integrating this into Blender!!! It’s awesome!!!

    • Renato Perini

      @Kernon
      I don’t agree with you. This is a specialized tool like particles, fluid and fur are. Getting this into Blender could be beneficial not only for Blender but for the tool itself.

    • http://www.blenderversity.org BrianH

      combine this with Arbaro http://arbaro.sourceforge.net and you got yourself a really nice opensource tree and foilage combination.

    • steve

      amoose – it might not be worth integrating it directly into blender, but perhaps it could be rewritten as a portable standalone command-line driven program, and someone could write a python script to call it from blender and pipe the results back and import them to blender objects. I haven’t had a chance to look at the program itself to see how it works, as I’m waiting for someone to post a Linux version.

    • http://vgspectra.net Sephiroth the Bimbo Master

      This is amazing, I was looking for something like this, I think blender must have this tool integrated.

      Thanks Luft.

    • http://www.oguaco.com ibiham halul

      windows version worked on wine

    • http://obiron.blender.googlepages.com/obi_ronsblenderpage OBI_Ron

      This tool is awesome!

      I will be using this soon in a project!

      Thank you Thomas Luft for sharing this work…simply amazing!

    • Gat

      I tried it out on windows xp and it works so good I can’t belive it. Grows kind of slow, but if you think about it its fast for a non commercial product. great job!! really really really awsome software!!! genius, man!!

    • http://www.terar.com.ar Bataraza

      Amazing…. but I have Linux…. I’m looking forward for a Linux version ;)

      Congratulations!!!!

    • Josh

      Another Linux user anxiously awaiting a Linux release! Results look amazing!

    • aws357

      Already gasping in front of the potential…

      :p I would do a nice wood nymph, resting in the tree, just covered with plants…

      * pour ice cold water on his head *

    • Luigino

      I also hope for a Linux version! :D

    • Terence

      Thanks a bunch Thomas Luft. This is a great tool.

      I agree that integration into blender may not be the best idea. Fur and fluids are not quite as specific an element as ivy. They also can be used for other effects. Ivy alone can pretty much be used as just ivy.

      If there were a more general plant generator that could create all forms of plants, such as trees, flowers, as well as creeping plants, that might be worthwhile in blender since it would be a tool with broader use. I think the standalone program idea with a python script in blender is a much better solution.

    • http://www.laszer.com mzungu

      I’ve mentioned this on BA in a few places, but I’d also love to be able to use Thomas Luft’s work in 3D-to-watercolor NPR effects. Find the link on his ivy-gen page and watch the videos if you’re able! Someone tell the folks working on Freestyle about this stuff! Too sweet, IMO.

    • Herohtar

      This is an awesome program, it works great! However, when I import the ivy object into Blender, it’s backward (mirror image) and the leaves are upside down. Does anyone know how to fix this? I read a comment on the Blenderartists thread where someone said they had to rotate the textures 180′, but I can’t figure out how to do this. Thanks.

    • http://squash-stretch.blogspot.com/ Ruben

      Thomas still did not answered my mail and he did not uploaded my Linux port to his page. So I have just uploaded it to my own page to allow other Linux users to use it right now:

      http://pinguino.dyndns.org/hospedados/ivy-gen_1.3_linux_src.tgz

      Please, be patient, it is an slow cable connection. I will delete it after being uploaded to the Thomas page.

      Regards

    • ccherrett

      Ruben:

      Thanks :)

    • tommy

      wow, amazing work!

      this is so awesome i cant even begint o express when i feel!

      amazing

    • http://3d-synthesis.com ROUBAL

      Hi!
      I have just tested it, and I’m very impressed !
      The influence of the sliders factors are a bit unpredictable, but the result is very nice. It is an excellent tool.

      Thanks a lot for sharing Thomas !

    • http://www.LandsofAdventure.com Dread Knight

      Interesting, waiting for a linux version :)

    • http://squash-stretch.blogspot.com/ Ruben Lopez

      Thomas finally published the Linux version on his website. I will remove it from my server later today.

      Regards

    • http://blendernewbies.com Kernon

      @Ruben
      I’ve updated the article. Thanks!

    • danway

      The Linux version is out for all the Linux Losers.

    • tom

      how do i import the mtl file into blender??? besides that everything works and this is awesome!

    • rgdfhdfhdryerztetz

      quote under fair use:

      “up-vector imitating the phototropy of plants, and finally gravity. This simple scheme reveals that the goal was not to provide a biological simulation of growing ivy but rather a simple approach to producing complex and convincing vegetation that adapts to an existing scene.”

      If you make the phototropy of the plant static, the vegetation won’t adapt to scenes where light isn’t comming from that direction.
      It would be better to generate the average direction of the light and/or adjust the plant’s growth direction while growing, while exposed to the light. This will require some work but will produce better and more important dynamic results.

      Further it looks very good, great work!

    • http://www.blendervisual.blogspot.com str9led

      I needed this. Thanks