Does anyone have a decent resource for quality vegetation? I see xFrog and the like. But do they play well with sketchup?
How about PlantFactory… anyone tried that.
Specifically grass, where could I get a good set. I tried turbosquid, but their models really aren’t that nice.
Price-point really isn’t an issue. I just want something that works well, and I can start to build a solid library.
What is it that you need the most… Trees (What type), Low growth, Shrubs, Flowers, etc…
Tree’s really aren’t the problem. My grass just looks very rigid and not really natural. I’ve seen some really quality results from others on the forum. I was just hoping to find what they’re using. I bought access to the great library from Podium Browser, they just don’t have a grass model that is suitable for Skatter.
Is grass something I should draw myself in blender?
Do you just need a raw sketchup file? Unsure how Podium works, presumably it converts the grass sketchup file to a proxy of some sort?
David Brufau (DB renders) prepared a greta grass tutorial for sketchup users a while back, that included the sketchup file. You can still find it online, for free, if you search the right terms.
Ronen, that’s perfect. Makes the process more artistic too.
I didn’t even know you could place an image in that sort of order, learn something new every day!
Elliot I’ll look for such tutorial.
I appreciate the help from both of you.
That’s the ticket - not sure if the files are in there though are they? I have the link to the files but I don’t want to post it as I’m not sure what the rules are about that!
Jeez, looking at that makes me realise how great Skatter is… the fur plugin, while I appreciated it at the time, was so painful to use!
Also - regarding other vegetation/trees etc… I use xfrog stuff a lot. It’s pretty good generally, some models are better than others (particularly leaf deformation and trunk/branch modelling). Workflow wise, I download the .3ds file, import it into sketchup, then use Thomthom’s UV plugin to place materials from the front side to the back side (the faces come across all messed up - can’t fix that easily), then run a clean up. From there, follow this write up by Jack from Archilime… he’s brilliant and knows his stuff. Hope this was helpful.
If you are using Thea render I have made some grass and trees that are available in the Sketchucation store.
http://sketchucation.com/shop/models/landscape
Hello Ronen, currently we bought X-frog trees and converted them via obj to sketchup. However, large trees are still impossible to work with. Do you have another source of good trees that work within V-ray for sketchup? Budget is not an issue for us.
I use Podium Browser for my work. Has quite a few 3d trees and integrated with SketchUp. Worth a look. There’s also this super cheap app strictly for trees HTPWare Forester Pro.
Hello ‘fivebythree’. Thank you for the Podium suggestion. Do you have any experience with these trees in the v-ray render engine?
Hey Bas, the podium trees import much like 3d warehouse components, you could make a file for each tree. I use Octane Render, its proxy system must be similar. In Octane I export the scene with the 3d data as the ocx format or OBJ and can apply the proxy to simple geometry. Models of any type are procedurally loaded in with proxy. http://docs.chaosgroup.com/display/VRAY2SKETCHUP/Creating+and+Using+V-Ray+Proxies
Cheers,
Domenic 
This is a very late reply and you most likely found some good tree resources, but on the remote change you did not. Try Laubwerk trees. They have a free starter pack, and you can purchase other trees and vegetation in packages. The quality is very good.
The trees can be edited for leaf count and seasons, along with various shapes and ages. young, intermediate and mature.